Projects

IES will deliver an evidence-based assessment of ‘what works’ in tackling youth worklessness amongst those young people most distant from the labour market who face multiple disadvantages. This will include an assessment of the strength of evidence to supply a practical resource and a starting point for identifying future priorities for YFF, and evidence gaps. The method comprises a ‘review of reviews’, combined with an REA and call for evidence/grey literature.

IES with Locus will conduct an evaluation of the Department for Communities’ disability employment programmes. The study consists of: a desk review of business cases and previous evaluations, developing theories of change for six programmes, interim report (IES); depth programme evaluations of six disability programmes and rapid review of 17 ESF funded projects (Locus); impact and value for money analysis (IES associate) andn synthesis reporting.

There has been growing concern about the rise in non-standard or atypical employment practices in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Recent estimates suggest that roughly 4 million workers are in forms of employment characterised by low levels of pay, unpredictable or irregular working hours, short-term contracts, a lack of job security and access to basic entitlements, and limited scope for career development and formal training. This includes: zero-hours contracts or on-call work; involuntary or ‘bogus’ self-employment (eg delivery drivers in the ‘gig’ economy); and informal or undeclared work. Centrepoint is concerned about how these employment practices may be affecting homeless young people, and the financial and other risks it may expose them to. They would like to find out more about the reasons why young people undertake these forms of work, and the effect it has on their personal finances, benefit entitlements and housing situation. Centrepoint has commissioned IES to conduct research with young people and their support workers in several hostel settings across the country to explore these issues in further detail. The research findings will help Centrepoint put forward policy recommendations for how the government can safeguard homeless young people currently engaging in precarious forms of employment.

There has been growing concern about the rise in non-standard or atypical employment practices in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Recent estimates suggest that roughly 4 million workers are in forms of employment characterised by low levels of pay, unpredictable or irregular working hours, short-term contracts, a lack of job security and access to basic entitlements, and limited scope for career development and formal training. This includes: zero-hours contracts or on-call work; involuntary or ‘bogus’ self-employment (eg delivery drivers in the ‘gig’ economy); and informal or undeclared work. Centrepoint is concerned about how these employment practices may be affecting homeless young people, and the financial and other risks it may expose them to. They would like to find out more about the reasons why young people undertake these forms of work, and the effect it has on their personal finances, benefit entitlements and housing situation. Centrepoint has commissioned IES to conduct research with young people and their support workers in several hostel settings across the country to explore these issues in further detail. The research findings will help Centrepoint put forward policy recommendations for how the government can safeguard homeless young people currently engaging in precarious forms of employment.

IES Senior Research Fellow Sally Wilson was an expert adviser to a study modelling the impact of worklessness. She provided expertise on welfare to work interventions and policy background. The model developed will allow local decision makers to understand the health and financial impacts of getting people back to work. It can be customised in terms of local population, return to work metrics, mental health condition prevalence, and other variables.

IES has been commissioned to lead the consortium which is designing and delivering the health-led employment trial evaluation. This will contribute to the achievement of a strategic objective for the newly formed Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health joint Work and Health Unit, building a strong evidence base of interventions that work best to help people with health conditions and disabilities get in, or stay in, work. The randomised controlled trial will deliver Individual Placement Support to people in the Sheffield City Region (SCR) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to understand whether and how this leads them to a position where they can be in sustained employment. The evaluation will assess the impact of the trial and its cost effectiveness, as well as assess interim outcomes and the causal pathway to eventual impacts amongst participants, through process evaluation, based on theories of change. Taking part in the health-led trial? Visit the dedicated page

IES was contracted by the Istituto per la ricerca sociale (Italy) to conduct the UK case study on the multiple discrimination faced by women with disabilities in the labour market. This research, for the European Parliament, included identifying all relevant national data and indicators, relevant legal framework and policies to address such discrimination, and concrete examples of gender mainstreaming in the UK’s disability policy.

Communities for Work is a new labour market intervention to support long-term unemployed and inactive people into employment. Funded by the ESF, and operating in areas of Wales, it was launched in May 2015 and will operate until at least March 2018. It aims to tackle poverty by increasing the uptake of sustainable employment through the provision of mentoring and support to overcome barriers, to boost motivation and increase resilience, ensuring participants have the requisite skills and attributes for work. The evaluation is being led by Old Bell 3 who, with the People and Work Unit in Wales, will conduct all fieldwork. IES researchers will assist in the development of a theory of change for the intervention and contribute to final reporting.

In Europe and Canada, policymakers are facing particular challenges related to rising life expectancy, a shift in the age profile of the population, and the consequent increase in the prevalence of chronic illness and disability. But these increases in life expectancy are not experienced equally – there are inequalities that are frequently overlooked in policymaking. Less-skilled workers, for example, have a shorter life expectancy, earlier onset of chronic illness and disability, are more likely to suffer multi-morbidities as they get older. Policymakers in Europe and Canada urgently need to develop strategies that fairly extend working life taking these health inequalities into account. Our aim is to conduct transnational research that advances understanding of the differential impacts of health inequalities on the opportunity to work later in life and of strategies and policies for extending working life that take these health inequalities into consideration. Our consortium The THRIVE project will bring together partners from the UK, Canada, Sweden and Denmark – countries which are all struggling with similar policy problems, but have been experimenting with a variety of strategies to tackle these problems. The THRIVE members are all leaders in health inequalities and employment research and have successfully collaborated with one another over a number of years. Our research approach We will use comparative quantitative analysis of population datasets in each country to determine how the pattern of morbidity and co-morbidity with different physical and mental health conditions and caring responsibilities varies over working life by socioeconomic status and gender in different countries and how this is changing over time. We will estimate how the employment consequences of different longstanding illnesses at older ages vary between countries, the reasons for this and the implications for policies that extend working lives. International comparative policy analysis will elucidate the different policy approaches taken in the study countries and identify effective strategies. A series of systematic reviews of the quantitative and qualitative evidence will identify which policy approaches are likely to be most effective for extending the working lives of people with longstanding illness, particularly those from more disadvantaged groups. Synthesis of evidence from the reviews and analysis of national datasets will indicate how health inequalities are having an impact on the opportunity to work later in life in each country, how this is likely to develop in the future, and the strategies and policies that are most likely to extend healthy working lives fairly.

IES will complete a short country profile for the UK and a very short briefing for Greece as part of a study led by the Istituto per la ricerca sociale (IRS) examining the effect of employment and social indicators in the 2014 and 2015 European Semester exercise, in terms of improving social monitoring. The study will evaluate whether: these indicators are suitable to adequately capture and reflect social impacts the introduction of these indicators has led to restoring the balance between social and economic governance the interplay between fiscal/structural reforms and the recommendations regarding the employment and social situation advocated in the CSRs is balanced.