Government Social Research
22 February 2007 - Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publish research (Implementation and first year impacts of the UK Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration) - a report of research which provides findings from the implementation and early effects of the ERA demonstration.
Random assignment is one of the most powerful methods of evaluation available
to researchers to determine whether a social policy works. Despite this,
random assignment has not been widely used in the UK to develop social policy.
This is the first time such a large-scale test of a labour market initiative
has used random assignment in the UK. Social Policy is being tested in a
very robust way to determine whether ERA works. Therefore, the outcomes
observed in this report can be confidently attributed to the new policy.
ERA is aimed at three groups of customers that have difficulty obtaining
and sustaining full time work, or advancing to more secure and better paid
positions. These customers are; lone parents (LP group) who receive Income
Support and volunteer for NDLP, longer term unemployed people over the age
of 25 and are mandated to enter ND25+ and lone parents who are already working
part time and receiving Working Tax Credits (the 'WTC' group).
The evaluation is being carried out by a consortium led by US-based non-profit
social policy research MDRC, alongside the Policy Studies Institute, the
Office for National Statistics and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This
report highlights initial results of the outcomes for customers 12 months
after starting the ERA programme.
Implementation
and first year impacts of the UK Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA)
demonstration report (PDF) (DWP website)