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Welfare and Social Inclusion

Overview

IER has undertaken a broad range of work on the relationship between employment, social inclusion and social mobility encompassing workforce diversity, gender issues, studies on the labour market integration of younger people, research on paid and unpaid work in later life, the projection of employment by ethnic group and the deployment of migrants in the workforce, in particular sectors and more widely. Research on social inclusion has become more significant with the introduction of the Equality Act 2010.

A key focus at IER has also been research on poverty, including in-work poverty, unemployment and worklessness and the development and evaluation of welfare policies to address these issues - most recently via the Commission for Social Security, funded by the Trust for London, and the evaluation of Talent Match, a five-year programme supporting young people into work. Support for those out of work and welfare issues more generally have been key issues during the pandemic and may continue to do so during the post-Covid recovery.

Research areas

  • Ageing and employment
  • Equal opportunities and workforce diversity
  • Evaluation and development of welfare policies
  • Gender and social equality
  • Migration and social mobility
  • Unemployment and worklessness
  • Work and poverty
  • Youth labour market

Evaluation and development of welfare policies

Commission on Social Security; Trust for London (2018–2022).

Centre of Excellence for evaluation of Re-Start; SERCO (2021 - 2023)

Talent match evaluation and learning contract, Big Lottery Fund (2014-2019).

Stocktake of Worklessness Policy Analysis; DWP (2012)

Migration and social mobility

Literature review: employer decision-making around skill/employee shortages and migration; Home Office (2020).

Impact of changes to international migration; Tech UK (2019-2020). 

Migration and Construction 2018: The role of EU & non-Eu nationals in the UK Construction & Built Environment Sector; CITB (2018).

Determinants of the composition of the labour force in low skilled sectors of the UK economy; Migration Advisory Committee (2012 - 2013)

Unemployment and worklessness

Transactional, Transitional and Transformational approaches to employability support; SERCO (2021 - 2022)

Transnational Employment Platform - Long Term Unemployment; European Commission (2018 - 2019).

Theory and Practice of Change for a World without Poverty; Webb Memorial Trust (2016- 2017).

Youth labour market

Innovation for the digital economy: On-demand contract work as a means to address youth unemployment in South Africa; British Council Innovation for African Universities Programme (2021 - 2022)

Identification of factors affecting successful outcomes in the DDU-GKY Indian skills programme for unemployed young people; ESRC (2018 - 2020)

The impact of the Youth Obligation on disadvantaged young people; Centrepoint and TfL (2017 - 2018)

Precarious pathways to employment for young people? Unpaid, temporary and involuntary part-time work in transitions from education to employment; ESRC (2014 - 2017).