Reform in welfare and employment administrations in Norway Anne Lise Fimreite Potsdam

Context : Norway has one of Europes strongest economies: Unemployment rate: around 3% (average last 7 years) –High partizipation of women in labour market (also elderly women) –EEA – More european citizens in labour market –High share on disability benefits – also among young people (The Big Worry) –Pension age: 67 –Need for workforce enlargement Low inflation rate: 2.8% Petroleum-sector: employ 1% of workforce Petroleum-fund invested abroad, kept as reserve – couces an artificially strong currency in Norway, affect the mainland production – stagnation in export- industries Tight balance to keep high employment rate, low inflation rate and not using oil-money at home

Context - continues: Social policy-regime: Since 1992 : –”Work shall be the first option” –The so-called work-line as guideline. –Introduced by a Labour government –Soft and hard measures tried, but not yet cuts in benifits

Context - continues Traditional division of labour in this area: National Social Insurance Directorate National Employment Directorate (both with regional and local branches) Local government responisible for social assistance services (431 municipalities) This division created ”not-my-table-problems” and grey-zones.

A law/reform passed the Parliament in 2005: Amalgamated the two national directorates into one huge Welfare and employment directorate (called NAV) Made it compulsary for the local branches of the welfare and employment administration/services to coordinate their activities with the local goverment social services – mandatory one-stop- shop in every municipalities 431 municipalities make contracts with the NAV- directorate – local organizational model is however free of choice.

Goals behind the reform: More people in activity/in job Stop the ”not-my-table-mentallity” by enabling for better coordination horizontally as well as vertically More service-orientation – one-stop-shop More effectiveness via more welfare for less money? (not declared as a goal but...)

The reform: A new public management reform –Effectivness –Service-orientation Whole-of-government reform –Holistic approach – regarded as a measure against fragmentation in this field of public administartion

But also; the most extensive welfare reform in Norway – ever: Implemented gradually from Includes 1/3 of the budget of the state employees involved Everyday: Norwegian are using the services of NAV (and that excludes retirement pensions, maternity leave- pensions, child support etc aka pensions that come automatically)

The reform: Effects both content of the welfare politic and governance of the welfare area Was desided without any political controversies and public debate The present design is against the advices from the appointed expert commission – total amalgamation or none.

Why? Using a transformative perspective to understand the process: Instrumental aspects: –Local self goverment important in Norway – political impossible to take social assistance/services away from municipalities –Consistence in political argumentation over time – work-line –Total amalgamation not that neccesary; only 15% use more than one service at a time, most focus on the large group which uses one service at a time

Why - continues Cultural aspects: –Expert commissions in Norway have open mandates, but government decides –Awarness around the fact that different actors have different rational in the process

Why - continues Environmental aspects: –Interest groups involved –Post-NPM: holistic perspective/idea – the reform a symbol regarding this

Challenges: Horisontal coordination – both at central and local level Vertical coordination – at central level and in the relationship between central and local government Political control vs professional autonomy Integrating three cultures to one Norwegian welfare-model: based on the principle that central government decides while local goverments implement is under pressure in the NAV-model, applied also to other sectors? Unintended concequences everywhere – positive/negative – hereunder for example ICT and production of statistics Other huge public sector reforms at the same time – totally uncoordinated Political attention crucial!

Evaluation program Organized under the National Research Council but financed by the Ministry of Employment and Integration More than 5 million Euro over 6 years Coordinated by UoB/The Rokkan centre, but several other institutions are also involved

Evaluation program - continues Premiss: –Welfare reform –Public administration reform/governance reform: The content of politics are effected by the way the apparatues in a policy area is organised, effects: –Relations –Attention –Measures –Criteria –Concequences Process – the creation of NAV Effects of NAV

Seven projects – kick off June 2007: 1.Welfare model, governance system and NAV 2.The local NAV-office 3.Local implementation 4.A new profession? 5.The work-line – more people in activity? 6.The clients experiences 7.Productivity – more welfare for money? 1-4:process-focus; 5-7:effect-focus