News & Press

Details of the new UK government’s policy priorities in areas of interest to IES (including welfare reform, skill development, further and higher education, workforce health and well-being, older workers and pensions, and many others) are only just emerging. However, its approach to the generation and analysis of the evidence base to underpin these priorities remains wholly unclear.

Chief executives, amongst other UK leaders, have recently come under sharp criticism for being self-centred and not abashed about awarding themselves bumper bonuses during the economic downturn. However, IES research for NHS Yorkshire and Humber (NHS Y&H) revealed that chief executives in their organisations were clearly driven by wanting to make a difference to others: a welcome antidote to the popular negative press.

The Access to Work programme (AtW) has been operating in the UK since 1994 and is designed for people with long-term health conditions and impairments who require additional support to take up work or to do their job. It aims to reduce inequalities between disabled people and non-disabled people in the workplace by removing practical barriers to work.

The current difficult economic climate has made an impact all around the EU – as we are seeing in this issue of employment studies – causing businesses to close and resulting in workers losing their jobs. The way in which governments, public agencies, social partners and other involved parties are managing this differs throughout the EU.

With a general election on the horizon, a period of public spending cuts ahead and the effects of the recession putting the UK’s welfare system under increased strain, the fourth IES policy conference provided a timely opportunity to draw together labour market experts to discuss ‘whither goes welfare-to-work?’