1. Social Citizenship after
Devolution
Daniel Wincott
Blackwell Law and Society Professor
Cardiff Law School
WincottD@Cardiff.ac.uk
Redesigning Devolution
Institute for Government, September 2012

2. Devolution and the balance of
social citizenship
• Core areas of
distributive social
services devolved
• Taxes and
(redistributive) welfare
benefits reserved to the
centre
• Largely followed earlier
administrative
‘devolution’

3. Is this a balanced settlement?
• Popular services
devolved
• No constraints on their
governance or form of
service delivery
• Some lack of clarity
over their (territorial)
identity

4. Social protection and the block grant
• Social protection –
Treating all British
citizens equally?
• Block grant (‘Barnett
Formula’) for funding
devolved systems
– Could allow for equal
social service ‘bundles’
– Mired in historic
patterns, with no
principled rationale

5. Social protection and the block grant
• Social protection –
Treating all British
citizens equally?
• Block grant (‘Barnett
Formula’) for funding
devolved systems
– Could allow for equal
social service ‘bundles’
– Mired in historic
patterns, with no
principled rationale

6. Austerity and the
independence debate
• The territorial politics of
the NHS
• Fiscal devolution
• Devolving social
protection

7. Austerity and the
independence debate
• The territorial politics of
the NHS
• Fiscal devolution
• Devolving social
protection
• Changing social
attitudes to welfare
(NatCen British Social Attitudes
28, Chap 2 ‘Devolution’)

8. How did we get here?
• Democratising prior
administrative
practice
• Hard questions
(England, Barnett)
• Unionist muddle