Julie Leonard
Chief Impact Officer, Shaw TrustJulie Leonard leads impact strategy and measurement across an annual portfolio of c.£200 million public services and oversees the Shaw Trust Foundation, investing in innovative trials and providing and grants and investments to increase local impact. Julie spent 18 years as a Strategy Director at PwC and a Partner at Newton, advising central government departments on the design and delivery of large reform programmes and the development of investment cases. She started her career in international development, working on multi-year aid programmes funded by the United Nations, bilateral and multilateral agencies in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia.
Chief Impact Officer at Shaw Trust, Julie Leonard, outlines how the Government’s £1 billion investment in employment support can deliver stronger returns for taxpayers by backing evidence-based, health-linked approaches like Individual Placement and Support (IPS).
The Government recently announced a record £1 billion employment support measure to help disabled and long-term sick people back into work. The problem is pressing – with more than a fifth of the UK’s working age population classed as ‘economically inactive, 2.8 million of them due to long term sickness (particularly mental ill health). Office for National Statistics (ONS) data highlights it’s a growing issue among the young, with numbers off work due to their health doubling over the last decade. This costs billions each year and has huge negative social and wellbeing impacts in communities where there is long-term dependence on benefits.
Given these numbers and an increasingly squeezed public purse, the £1 billion investment needs to go far. As the largest employment charity in the UK, Shaw Trust is on the frontline of this crisis. Supporting over 350,000 people annually into good work, we see what type of interventions deliver high impact at the right cost to taxpayers.
Six months since joining Shaw Trust as Chief Impact Officer from the private sector, I am using our data to demonstrate what works and at what cost. And I am committing charitable funds from our foundation arm to see where we can take results further. This is what I’ve learned so far…
In our recent report, Individual Placement and Support: Insights from the frontline of Employment Services we looked at the impact and ROI of supporting over 19,000 people through our Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment programmes – a service which links work and health to help people with health challenges and barriers to find (and keep) work that they want to do.
Powerful Results
As the UK’s largest provider of IPS, second only to the NHS, we have a wide dataset to draw from, and the results are powerful.
We found that:
- IPS saves taxpayer money: using the IPS Cost-Benefit and Outcomes Model we estimate a benefit of £2.43 (in year 1) for every £1 spent on an IPS Primary Care participant, accruing over three years to £9.22 for every £1 spent.[1] We expect this goes even further for someone referred in from secondary care, particularly mental health clinics.
- Early intervention while someone is still employed leads to better outcomes: 62% of people who are referred to Shaw Trust IPS services while still employed can stay in work. In comparison, those starting IPS when already unemployed take an average of 90 days to get back in – costing more to taxpayers. Working with employers for quick referrals is therefore key.
- Work is good for health and wellbeing: 73% of those who found employment showed an improvement in their wellbeing score. And 63% of those did not start work still improved their wellbeing and felt more positive about their job prospects.
- IPS boosts the economy: with an average salary of £32,000 for those gaining employment through Shaw Trust IPS programmes – just below the national average.
- IPS helps people gain – and stay in – work: 73% of the people Shaw Trust supported into work kept their job for 13 weeks, and 68% of those kept it for 26 weeks.
- IPS benefits communities: by boosting employment, contributing to better social and family relationships, and maximising use of locally available services.
Our data also shows particular success in reaching women and young people and helping those with the greatest need in local communities.
Employment Support Impact Evaluation
Impact evaluation reports for historical employment support programmes were recently published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This includes the JETS (Job Entry Targeted Support) scheme which reported a benefit of £1.28 – £1.41 (after two years) for every £1 spent.
IPS uses a different model to other programmes. It’s personalised and focused on vocational skills, informed by a belief that work can improve wellbeing. It’s an evidence-based approach which is currently revolutionising traditional models of employment support across 20 counties, including here in the UK. But it’s not a silver bullet. To succeed, it must be adapted to meet local needs and work with complementary services in the community. Deep collaboration with health providers and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations is therefore vital.
We welcome the £1 billion investment, but it needs to follow the evidence of what works. The bottom line is that when delivered well, programmes supporting people back into work offer life-changing support to people, and crucially: bring more benefits than they cost the taxpayer.
[1] Clarke, H., Morris, D., Brennan, A., James, M., & Whitworth, A. (2024). Individual Placement and Support Cost-Benefit and Outcomes Model (IPS-MOD) version 1.0. [online] Available at: https://osf.io/7p8ut/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2025].