Government Social Research

Employment Retention and Advancement Demonstration Project

This area provides information about the design phase of the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) Project. Policy Studies Directorate (now Government Chief Social Researcher's Office, part of the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit) in conjunction with other partners designed a demonstration project to test the effectiveness of interventions to improve job retention and advancement prospects for low wage workers.

About the Project

Introduction

In collaboration with several stakeholder departments, the Government Chief Social Researcher's Office, located within the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office, undertook the Design Phase of the ERA Demonstration project. This innovative and unique Project forms part of the GCSRO's strategy for improving the evidence base for policy making and is intended inform how best practice in policy making and evaluation should develop, as well as understanding of the specific policy area. The Design Phase of the project leads on from a series of consultation meetings convened by the HM Treasury Welfare-to-Work team.

The objectives of the Design Phase?

The main objective was to design a demonstration project that can test a number of interventions. These interventions will each be designed to help those in low paid, low status employment retain work and advance in the labour market. The design phase:

• Developed policies or interventions for the demonstration to test, which are designed on the basis of the available research evidence, are amenable to rigorous scientific evaluation and can be delivered on the ground. This included looking at the source and mechanisms for funding the interventions and exploring the legislative requirements.
• Designed an implementation strategy for the policy interventions which is practical, meets the policy objectives and harmonises with the evaluation strategy. Work in this area involved looking at who might be best placed to deliver the interventions and how.
• Designing an evaluation of these interventions based on a random assignment methodology that is sensitive enough to detect their net impact.
• Designing a data collection strategy that will provide the data required to evaluate the demonstration; and
• Specifying the required content of a cost-benefit assessment of the demonstration, formative elements of the evaluation as well as contextual analysis.

What type of Interventions will the Demonstration test?

The demonstration will test a package of measures comprising caseworker support and financial incentives.

How will these Interventions be evaluated?

The demonstration will be designed to answer the following questions:

• Process/implementation - What services have been provided, how are they delivered, who receives them and why? What problems are encountered when implementing programmes and how are these addressed?
• Impact analysis - To what extent do ERA interventions improve employment retention, advancement, and other outcomes for participants?
• Cost-benefit analysis - What are the costs of the programmes, and to what extent do their benefits outweigh their costs from the perspectives of programme participants, taxpayers, and society at large?

Timing

The design phase of the ERA Demonstration project ended in November 2002. Programme intake is envisaged to begin in October 2003 and continue through to September 2004. All ERA services will cease by the end of June 2007 (33 months after the end of intake in September 2004).

Partners

The Government Chief Social Researcher's Office worked with partners based in the UK and US toward designing the ERA Demonstration Project. These partner organisations included::

From the UK:

• Policy Studies Institute
• Social Survey Division of the Office for National Statistics

From the USA:

• Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC)

Output

A number of papers will be published examining in more detail the methodology of the project and assessing lessons learned from the project. These will form part of the GCSRO Occasional Paper Series

Published Papers

Publication Date	title
2004 - 2nd edition	Designing a Demonstration Project: An Employment, Retention and Advancement Demonstration for Great Britain
Summary Full Downloadable Version (631kb)
15 July 2003	Employer Perspectives on the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Low-Pay, Low-Status Employees
Summary Full Downloadable Version (186kb)
Nov 2003	Large Scale Social Experimentation in Britain: What Can and Cannot Be Learnt From the Employment, Retention and Advancement Demonstration
Summary (browseable) Full Downloadable Version (186kb)