Graeme Cooke and Professor Paul Gregg (author of the Gregg Report on welfare reform) are editing a collection of essays about the future of welfare.

The theme of the collection is to bring together leading thinkers to explore practical ways that the welfare state can be restructured to create the conditions for people to become independent and powerful.  All politicians now favour a narrative of the ‘enabling state’ that discourages dependency. But this narrative lacks policy options - we do not know what it really means to create public services that are genuinely designed to maximise individuals’ independence and self-reliance, while giving them maximum control over what they receive.  The essays will explore radical suggestions in areas including the future of welfare to work, housing policy, offender management, drugs and alcohol misuse, and tax reform.

The collection is sponsored by A4E and Reed in Partnership, and will be launched in Autumn 2009. 

The essay competition for this project has now closed. Demos would like to thank all who submitted their entries to us. We are now in the process of considering the entries. Two essays will be selected for publishing; the winning authors will be contacted individually.