Projects

IES is leading the analysis of administrative data for the Housing First evaluation. Pilot projects running in Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands seek to place rough sleepers in long-term accommodation, while providing them with expert support to rebuild their lives. This includes support aimed at labour market participation. IES will analyse linked data from benefits, health and offending datasets to assess outcomes for programme participants. This will supplement wider evaluation activities includinga bespoke survey of HF participants and a cost-benefit analysis.

This project will focus on analysis of claimant and labour market data for central London to inform Central London Forward about the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the central London economy and labour market. This will provide an overview of the initial impact on Central London’s labour markets and economy, and draw out any early signs of mediium/longer term trends.

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.

On behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, IES is designing an impact evaluation of three Housing First pilots, running in Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. The intervention is a response to the 2017 Homelessness Reduction Act which has increased the obligations on local authorities to house all individuals who are currently homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless. Housing First is an approach to supporting rough sleepers into long-term accommodation, putting an emphasis on finding individuals a secure and affordable home to live in, as opposed to hostel-based accommodation, while providing them with expert support to rebuild their lives, including support aimed at labour market participation. Housing First was developed in the US in the 1990s and has been shown to be effective there and in a number of European countries. The pilots will test the effectiveness of Housing First in the English context. Our evaluation will be co-designed with the pilot sites. IES’ role will be to lead the design of an impact evaluation using linked administrative datasets. Find out more about the three Housing First pilot projects on the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government website.

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.

The Public Policy Institute for Wales commissioned IES to lead an expert review which made recommendations to the Welsh Government about how employers, health services and employment services in Wales can work together more effectively to produce better health and work outcomes.

IES is evaluating the Construction Industry Training Board’s On-Site Training Hubs programme. There are around 20 training hubs in England, located on home-building and infrastructure sites. The hubs are training new entrants to the construction industry, ideally more quickly than other training routes, in order to help tackle skills shortages. Our evaluation has a detailed scoping phase, during which we’ll visit each of the hubs to find out about their approach. We’ll then design an evaluation framework, which will likely include case-study research, an online survey of trainees and analysis of management information data. It’s a two-year project and is one of the National Retraining Schemes included in the government’s Industrial Strategy.

This project, on behalf of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, is focused on identifying labour market interventions aimed at combating labour market segmentation (including those addressing differences in employment protection) in a selection of European countries (France, Germany, Spain and the UK). IES has been contracted by the Public Policy Management Institute to provide expert input on the situation in the UK. Key findings will feed into a comparative overview report providing evidence and policy pointers on labour market interventions that are effective in overcoming labour market segmentation.

IES is working with ICON-INSTITUT in Germany on a project for the European Commission which aims to: provide an overview of Youth Guarantee delivery models across the EU; present a synthesis of current and upcoming challenges faced by young people in their school-to-work transition and their implications in terms of policy levers; and propose options for future development to ensure that the Youth Guarantee remains a sustainable measure in dealing with youth unemployment.