Dan Finn is Professor of Social Inclusion at the University of Portsmouth and was previously co-Director of the university’s independent Unemployment Unit. Dan has written extensively on labour market programmes, reform of public employment services and the implementation of welfare to work strategies.

Throughout his career, Dan has carried out, supervised, and managed a broad range of research projects. He has been a special adviser for parliamentary inquires and other UK bodies, such as the National Employment Panel and UK Commission on Employment and Skills. He has extensive research and policy contacts in Europe, the USA and Australia and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne.

Dan’s research interests include policy responses to unemployment, the reform of public employment services, activation, the implementation of welfare to work strategies and integration of employment and skills provision. Dan has a particular interest in contracting out and has completed recent studies of ‘welfare markets’ in the UK, USA, the Netherlands and Australia, and was Special Advisor to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry into the ‘DWP’s Commissioning Strategy and the Flexible New Deal’, published in March 2009.

Dan is an Associate Director at the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, an independent, not-for-profit organisation (see www.cesi.org.uk ).  The centre plays a significant role in the UK in undertaking applied research, disseminating best practice, providing policy advice to government and NGOs, and in working with peer European and international networks. This work involves also direct policy development, including briefings and formal presentations for Ministers, civil servants and other policy makers on emerging research findings and international best practice.