Publications

The Partners Outreach for Ethnic Minorities (POEM) programme began in February 2007 and ran for two years. It supported people of working age who were not in contact with Jobcentre Plus services, who were neither working nor claiming benefits. The evaluation of POEM was conducted over two years and included three rounds of case study work with providers, 101 face-to-face interviews with clients and analysis of POEM Management Information (MI). This report presents the findings of the evaluation, including the ways in which providers engaged with clients and recruited them onto POEM, how providers worked with clients on the programme, and how clients were helped to move towards or into work.

As we contemplate a new industrial strategy for Britain in the wake of the worst recession in over 70 years, it is clear that this must be informed by the experiences of previous policy initiatives. In looking at the effectiveness of government-backed venture capital schemes over the past ten years, this report does exactly that and therefore comes at an opportune time for those interested in fashioning a more innovative, forward-looking Britain.

This publication was authored by Wendy Hirsh independently of IES.

This report presents the baseline findings for the evaluation of the work-focused services in Children’s Centres pilot. The main research reported here is taken from a baseline survey of Children’s Centre users, which took place in January 2009, and from familiarisation visits to the Children’s Centres which took place in December 2008 and January 2009.

The research sought to understand: the impact of the economic downturn on skills needs and training practices within different sectors in the South East, focusing on a mixture of sectors which were seriously affected by recession and those which might lead the recovery, and the impact of economic downturn on LSC priority programmes, with a focus on Train to Gain, apprenticeships and priority groups.

This report examines the responses, initiatives and activities undertaken by national governments and the social partners in the EU Member States, plus Norway, in working towards a greener economy and maximising the job creation potential of this new area. The report looks specifically at various measures undertaken by governments with a view to stimulating the economy in the current context of the global economic crisis. It also charts the growing awareness of the importance of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and developing alternative energy sources, showing that both governments and social partners in most countries in this study are active in trying to promote the ‘green agenda’.

The aim of this project was to develop a common, longitudinal, employer-based survey tool on high performance working (HPW) capable of providing results comparable by: nation, sector, size of firm and organisational strategy. This is needed because the UK evidence base has suffered deficiencies in the past around the issue of more effective skills utilisation and organisational performance.

In April 2008 Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands, acting on behalf of the West Midlands Regional Coaching Pool, commissioned a comprehensive external evaluation of the Coaching Pool Partnership coaching activities. The work consisted of two main elements: in-depth telephone interviews with a sample of ‘matched trios’ of client, coach and line manager/sponsor; and web-based impact surveys of all accredited coaches, all clients and selected line managers/sponsors. This paper summarises the research findings.

This report presents findings from analyses of national longitudinal datasets of young people’s education and career choices in order to better understand potential applicants’ perceptions of and intentions towards entering higher education (HE).

A series of information and guidance resources produced to help NHS organisations and staff understand the benefits of conducting and participating in the NHS staff survey, and to improve services for patients.