Professor Del Fletcher BSc (Hons) MSoc, Sc

His research interests include worklessness and labour market disadvantage, the impact of welfare reforms on disadvantaged groups, and evaluations of interventions that seek to improve the lives of people with multiple and complex needs (offending, homelessness, problematic substance/alcohol misuse and mental ill health). He was recently a co-investigator on a major ESRC study of the ethnicality and ethicacy of welfare conditionality.

Del has directed several national evaluations of labour market pilot programmes including the Jobseekers Mandatory Activity, Working Neighbourhoods Pilot, and the New Deal Innovation Fund. He is currently directing the evaluation of the West Yorkshire Finding Independance Project which seeks to improve the way services are coordinated and delivered so that people experiencing multiple and complex needs are better able to manage their lives. Del was a commissioner of the Sheffield Fairness Commission and has authored over 30 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals.

Research interests

• worklessness and labour market disadvantage
• labour market policy and strategy
• welfare reform and it's impact on disadvantaged groups
• severe and multiple disadvantage
• offender employment interventions
• peer led support.

• Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research

2014-2020 West Yorkshire Finding Independence Evaluation, Big Lottery Fund. Role: Director.

2013-2020 Evaluation of Talent Match, Big Lottery Fund. Role: Member of research team.

2013-2018 Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change. ESRC. Role: Co-Investigator.

Key Publications

Fletcher, D., & Wright, S. (2018). A hand up or a slap down? Criminalising benefit claimants in Britain via strategies of surveillance, sanctions and deterrence. Critical Social Policy, 38 (2), 323-344. http://doi.org/10.1177/0261018317726622

Fletcher, D., & Flint, J. (2018). Welfare conditionality and social marginality: the folly of the tutelary state? Critical Social Policy, 38 (4), 771-791. http://doi.org/10.1177/0261018317753088

Fletcher, D., Batty, E., Flint, J.F., & McNeill, J. (2016). Gamers or victims of the system? Welfare reform, cynical manipulation and vulnerability. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 24 (2), 171-185. http://doi.org/10.1332/175982716X14650295704731

Fletcher, D. (2015). Workfare - a blast from the past? Contemporary work conditionality for the unemployed in historical perspective. Social Policy and Society, 14 (3), 329-339. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746414000232

Fletcher, D. (2011). Welfare reform, Jobcentre Plus and the street-level bureaucracy : towards inconsistent and discriminatory welfare for severely disadvantaged groups? Social Policy and Society, 10 (04), 445-458. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746411000200

Fletcher, D. (2010). The workless class? : economic transformation, informal work and male working-class identity. Social Policy and Society, 9 (03), 325-336. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746410000059

Fletcher, D. (2008). Offenders in the post-industrial labour market : from the underclass to the undercaste? Policy and Politics, 36 (2), 283-297. http://doi.org/10.1332/030557308783995053

Fletcher, D.R. (2008). Employment and disconnection: Cultures of worklessness in neighbourhoods. In Community Cohesion in Crisis?: New Dimensions of Diversity and Difference. (pp. 99-117).

Fletcher, D.R. (2007). A culture of worklessness? Historical insights from the Manor and Park area of Sheffield. Policy and politics, 35 (1), 65-85. http://doi.org/10.1332/030557307779657748

Fletcher, D.R. (2005). Providing enterprise support for offenders: realising new opportunities or reinforcing old inequalities? Environment and planning C: government and policy, 23 (5), 715-731. http://doi.org/10.1068/C0529

Fletcher, D.R. (2002). Employers, recruitment and offenders: underlining the limits of work-focused welfare? Policy and politics, 31 (4), 497-510. http://doi.org/10.1332/030557303322439371

Fletcher, D.R. (1997). Evaluating special measures for the unemployed: Some reflections on recent UK experience. Policy and Politics, 25 (2), 173-184. http://doi.org/10.1332/030557397782453318

Journal articles

Fletcher, D.R. (2020). Introduction to the Special Edition. Social Policy and Administration, 54 (2), 185-190. http://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12569

Wright, S., Fletcher, D., & Stewart, A. (2020). Punitive benefit sanctions, welfare conditionality and the social abuse of unemployed people in Britain: transforming claimants into offenders? Social Policy and Administration: an international journal of policy and research. http://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12577

Fletcher, D. (2019). British public employment service reform: activating and civilising the precariat? Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 27 (3), 407-421. http://doi.org/10.1332/175982719X15622552304853

Fletcher, D. (2019). Welfare conditionality and people with severe and multiple disadvantages: time to rebalance the social security system? People, Place and Policy. http://doi.org/10.3351/ppp.2019.7435339758

Fletcher, D.R. (2019). Welfare conditionality and people with severe and multiple disadvantages: time to rebalance the social security system? People, Place and Policy Online, 13 (1), 42-47. http://doi.org/10.3351/ppp.2019.7435339758

Fletcher, D.R. (2013). The governance of social marginality in the UK: Towards the centaur state? British Journal of Community Justice, 11 (1), 19-34.

Fletcher, D. (2011). The development of working prisons: transforming inmates from the Lumpenproletariat to the contingent workforce? British journal of community justice, 9 (1/2), 111-124.

Fletcher, D.R. (2011). The development of working prisons: Transforming inmates from the lumpenproletariat to the contingent workforce? British Journal of Community Justice, 9 (1-2), 111-124.

Fletcher, D. (2009). Social tenants, attachment to place and work in the post-industrial labour market : underlining the limits of housing-based explanations of labour immobility? Housing Studies, 24 (6), 775-791. http://doi.org/10.1080/02673030903205895

Fletcher, D. (2008). Tackling concentrations of worklessness : highlighting the limits of work-focused organisational cultures in the UK. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 26 (3), 563-582. http://doi.org/10.1068/c0631

Fletcher, D.R. (2008). Employability and local labour market policy. URBAN STUDIES, 45 (1), 241-243. http://doi.org/10.1177/00420980080450011106

Fletcher, D.R. (2004). Demand-led programmes: challenging labour market inequalities or reinforcing them? Environment and planning C: government and policy, 22 (1), 115-128. http://doi.org/10.1068/c0329

Fletcher, D.R. (2002). The police act and the recruitment of offenders: Towards the limits of social exclusion? Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 20 (5), 757-773. http://doi.org/10.1068/c0126

Fletcher, D.R. (2001). Ex-offenders, the labour market and the new public administration. Public Administration, 79 (4), 871-891. http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00284

Fletcher, D.R. (2000). The National Development Programme: Policy implementation in an era of welfare reform. Policy and Politics, 28 (2), 163-178. http://doi.org/10.1332/0305573002500893

Fletcher, D.R. (1999). Ex-offenders and the labour market: A review of the discourse of social exclusion and consequences for crime and the New Deal. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 17 (4), 431-444. http://doi.org/10.1068/c170431

Fletcher, D.R. (1998). The effectiveness of active labour-market policies: latest evidence from the National Development Programme. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 16 (5), 573-589. http://doi.org/10.1068/c160573

Fletcher, D. (n.d.). Introduction to the Special Edition on welfare conditionality. Social Policy and Administration: an international journal of policy and research.

Book chapters

Fletcher, D. (2020). The 'fearsome frowning face of the state' and ex-prisoners: promoting employment or alienation, anger and perpetual punishment? In Albertson, K., Corcoran, M., & Phillips, J. (Eds.) Marketisation and Privatisation in Criminal Justice. Bristol University Press

Del is currently director of studies for two PhDs. The topics currently supervised are

• The experiences of vulnerable women at the intersection of the welfare and criminal justice system (student: Larissa Povery)
• The use of emotional labour by the claimant unemployed to eschew undesirable activation and retain benefits (student: Jamie Redman)
• Women's experiences of street working and/or problem drug use and the relevance and appropriateness of treatment models (student: Rebecca Hamer)