ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the search, within the civil service, for evidence of workable and seemingly effective active labour market projects and programmes that would finally inform the design of the New Deal. It focuses on the role, contribution and methods of policy makers and policy analysts and discusses the influence of United States (US) American evidence on the New Deal is often mentioned as specifically important. Much of the international information was obtained from the US, yet only selected elements of US welfare-to-work programmes directly informed the design and implementation of the New Deal. The process by which this detail was collated led some civil servants, including those involved in the design of the New Deal, to the view that the programme was very much 'home-grown', set within the context of coherent programming and joined-up initiatives. As the information gathering process gained pace, the evidence that began to emerge appeared increasingly to point in just one direction.
