Most people agree that the cycle of homelessness and unemployment presents significant challenges. Lacking a stable home creates barriers to finding and keeping employment. Conversely, being without an income from work makes it difficult to secure and maintain housing, perpetuating a cycle of instability. To break the cycle requires more than just offering jobs; we need an approach that understands the unique challenges that people who have experienced homelessness face.

The first of its kind in the world, the Test & Learn programme was commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and delivered by the Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI) to trial innovative approaches and test what works to reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.

One of these Test & Learn projects involves employment support for people experiencing homelessness. 

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is a specialist employment service which provides personalised, one-to-one support. It focuses on helping people to access paid employment immediately, followed by ongoing in-work support. IPS has been used to support other groups including: “IPS for those experiencing Severe Mental Illness” (IPS-SMI) and “IPS for those experiencing Alcohol and Drug use disorders” (IPS-AD), but this is the first time it has been trialled in the UK with people experiencing homelessness and rough sleeping.

IFF’s Role: The IPS Trial and Evaluation

IPS is being trialled through three delivery partners across nine local authorities. The trial went live in November 2024, and IFF Research is evaluating its impact.

The trial is designed as a multi-site, two-armed Randomised Controlled Trial. 460 participants in total will be recruited across sites, with half allocated to IPS support (intervention group) and half to business-as-usual support (control group) after the initial baseline survey.  To be eligible, participants must be 18 or over, currently experiencing some form of homelessness, and unemployed or economically inactive at the time of being recruited. The impact evaluation will compare employment, welfare, wellbeing and housing outcomes for each group, to explore how well IPS is working. To do this, we will follow up with participants after 6 and 12 months, as well as linking to HMRC data at 12 and 18 months post randomisation. 

In parallel, we are also conducting an implementation and process evaluation, to explore how IPS services were set up and delivered across trial sites, challenges and how these were overcome, and how IPS contributed towards participant outcomes, and an economic evaluation to explore the overall value for money delivered by the intervention.

Key learnings from the trial so far

Through this work, a few interesting learnings have emerged so far:

1. Ensuring we took a human and collective approach across the many organisations involved in the trial to show participants that we’re all part of the same service was crucial to make the trial as accessible and comfortable as possible for participants.

Involving people with lived experience of homelessness through CHI’s Lived Experience Associate Network in the design of the data collection process helped us to understand that people with experience of homelessness often feel like they are being contacted by many faceless organisations and frequently experience negative interactions. We ensured a collaborative approach through briefing referral partners to get them on board, copying delivery partners into emails to participants, and co-branding invitations to the survey with all organisations’ logos. To ensure a human approach, we also make sure to inform participants before we call them, leave a voicemail for any missed calls, and embed an empathetic approach through all communication. 

2. Some people experiencing homelessness have high support needs, meaning employment sometimes takes a back seat while other issues are addressed.

This means that as a consortium, we’ve needed to think creatively about how to promote this new service. There has been great work from delivery partners building relationships with housing teams, through weekly meetings and co-location of employment and housing officers, to showcase how rapid employment support – working alongside other services – is vital to overcoming homelessness. 

Though it is early days, there have been some success stories of participants getting into work already, also helping to build interest in these services. 

3. Our own perceptions as researchers have also been challenged through participants’ engagement in the trial.

Initially, we expected that it would be challenging for people experiencing homelessness to complete a survey online, and they would be more likely to need to fill it in over the phone. However, 90% of participants so far have completed the survey online, with very few issues. 

This could be considered by evaluators looking to engage people experiencing homelessness as a way of streamlining the data collection process, though local delivery partners have also been providing vital support to enable people to take part in this way. 

4. Applying even simple eligibility criteria can be complex in practice.

Though the eligibility criteria were simple, we received many queries from delivery partners. Complex scenarios that we’ve had to navigate include how to handle those at risk of homelessness, people on zero hours contracts, or imminently moving into accommodation. This made us more aware of where any neatly defined eligibility criteria and the messiness of real life are likely to be misaligned. We also needed to listen to feedback from delivery partners about the local need, and widen our eligibility criteria from just those who had been unemployed for six months, to anyone unemployed at the time of referral.

At IFF, we’re very excited to be involved in this groundbreaking Test & Learn programme, and intrigued to continue exploring the results of the IPS trial.

If you have any questions about this, please do get in touch IPSResearch@iffresearch.com 

• Laura Dunbar is the Senior Research Executive at IFF Research.

‍