Publications

Migrant students in the UK pandemic - Impacts, school reponses and community approaches

Publication date: 13 Jul 2021 | Publication type: Report | NIESR Author(s): Manzoni, C, DAngeloA

Lockdowns and school closures in response to Covid-19 have impacted on all students in the UK, but have also acted as multipliers of educational inequalities. Among the most vulnerable are newly arrived migrant children, as they tend to be less familiar with the educational system and life in the...

Research Report: Outcomes of Talking Together - Evaluation and Results (oTTer): A randomised controlled feasibility trial

Publication date: 21 Apr 2021 | Publication type: Report | NIESR Author(s): Bowyer-Crane, C | External Author(s): Nielsen, D, d’Apice, K, Dickerson, J, Bryant, M, Heald, R, Storr, C, Tracey, L

Introduction Concerns have been raised in recent years about the oral language development of young children, particularly in areas of disadvantage. Estimates suggest that up to 50% of young children from deprived backgrounds have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). These concerns have...

The impact of COVID19 on school starters: Interim briefing 1 - Parent and school concerns about children starting school

Publication date: 1 Apr 2021 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour, Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Bowyer-Crane, C | External Author(s): Bonetti, S, Compton, S, Nielsen, D, D'Apice, K, Tracey, L | Project: The impact of COVID19 on school starters

Children who started school in the Autumn Term 2020 did so during a period of instability brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Early years settings closed in March 2020 to all but vulnerable children and the children of key workers. When restrictions were lifted in June 2020, nursery attendance...

Research report: public understanding of the economic impacts of Covid-19

Publication date: 1 Mar 2021 | Publication type: Report | NIESR Author(s): Runge, J | Project: Public understanding of the economic impacts of Covid-19 [completed]

Overview Building on our recent NIESR report on Public Understanding of Economics and Economic Statistics, we conducted an additional 20 semi-structured interviews with members of the UK public. We explored public perceptions of the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and assessed what...

Good Recruitment of Older Workers

This report examines older workers’ experiences of the recruitment process, through conducting 55 semi-structured interviews with older workers (aged 50-73) and a nationally representative survey with a sample of 1,539 UK adults aged 18 and over. The research shows that experiences of age...

Early Years Toolbox Pilot Report

Publication date: 29 May 2020 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour, Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Stokes, L, Manzoni, C, Runge, J, Hudson-Sharp, N | External Author(s): Dawson, A., Huxley, C., Takala, H., Williams, C. | Project: Pilot evaluation of the Early Years Toolbox [completed]

The Early Years Toolbox (EYT) is a set of iPad-based assessment tools suitable for use with young children by early years staff. It includes eight brief, engaging, and game-like assessment apps that aim to capture abilities that research has shown to be the most predictive of later academic, social...

The dynamics of public and private sector wages, pay settlements and employment

Publication date: 2 Mar 2020 | Publication type: Report | NIESR Author(s): Dolton, P, , Kara, A | Report to: Office of Manpower Economics

This report addresses the important question of how wage growth in the United Kingdom is determined in the long run and whether wage decisions in the public sector can have spillover effects into the private sector. To analyse these questions, we construct a unique new dataset that is made up of...

URLEY (Using Research Tools to Improve Language in the Early Years) Evaluation Report

Publication date: 26 Feb 2020 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Stokes, L, Runge, J, Dorsett, R | External Author(s): Wright, H, Carr, D, Wiese, J, Heal, J, Anders, K | Project: Evaluation of URLEY (Using Research Tools to Improve Language in the Early Years) [completed] | Report to: Education Endowment Foundation

The URLEY (Using Research Tools to Improve Language in the Early Years) programme trains early years teachers to improve children’s language and social-behavioural outcomes in Nursery and Reception Year (ages 3 to 5). Teachers take part in 5 day-long professional development workshops in which they...

Understanding employers’ use of the National Minimum Wage youth rates

Right from their inception the minimum wage rates have included age-related bands intended to give young people protection in the labour market. Initially there were only two age bands, 18-21 and 22+. With the introduction of the National Living Wage in 2016 there are now four age bands and an...

Total Reward and Pensions in the UK by Occupation in the Public and Private Sectors

Over the last 10 years the relative value of public and private sector remuneration packages, including pensions, has changed markedly. This report reviews a comprehensive measure of Total Reward (TR) which includes not just pay, but pensions and other ‘benefits in kind’, evaluates it as the...

The Employment Gap in the West Midlands

Publication date: 26 Jul 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Speckesser, S

The Youth Jobs Gap research series uses previously unseen Longitudinal Education Outcomes data to present new insights into disadvantaged young people’s transition from compulsory education into employment. The first three national reports looked at NEET rates, higher education, and apprenticeships...

Changing Mindsets: Effectiveness trial

Publication date: 11 Jul 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour, Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Foliano, F, Rolfe, H, Buzzeo, J, Runge, J, Wilkinson, D. | Report to: Education Endowment Foundation

The Changing Mindsets project aimed to improve attainment outcomes at the end of primary school by teaching Year 6 pupils that their brain potential was not a fixed entity but could grow and change through effort exerted. The programme, delivered by Portsmouth University, taught pupils about the...

Embedding contextualisation in English and mathematics GCSE teaching

Publication date: 11 Jul 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Runge, J | External Author(s): Buzzeo, J , Munro-Lott, N | Project: Evaluation of Embedding contextualisation in English and Maths GCSE post-16 teaching [completed] | Report to: Education Endowment Foundation

The pilot intervention ‘Embedding contextualisation in English and mathematics GCSE teaching’ trains English and maths teachers to use examples from real life and vocational contexts in their teaching to emphasise the relevance of studies to the future careers of students. The aim is to improve...

Structural reforms in Spain

Publication date: 8 Jul 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Trade, Investment & Productivity | NIESR Author(s): Rincon-Aznar, A, Forth, J | External Author(s): Fernández de Guevara, J, Maudos, J, Molla, S, Perez-Garcia, F, Llano, C | Publisher: European Commission | Report to: European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

The Spanish economy has been growing at over 3% since 2015, above the average for the EU and the euro area. Unemployment, although still 10 percentage points above the EU average, has fallen from a high of 26.1% in 2013 to 17.2% in 2017. Interest rates are at historical lows thanks to the expansive...

The Employment Gap in the North West

Publication date: 21 Jun 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Speckesser, S, Espinoza, H | External Author(s): Bursnall, M

This report is part of the Youth Jobs Gap research series, which uses new Longitudinal Education Outcomes data to present new insights into disadvantaged young people’s transition from compulsory education into employment. The first three national reports have looked at NEET rates, higher education...

Estimating the impact of Traineeships

Traineeships are an education and training programme that provide young people aged 16-24 with an intensive period of work experience and work preparation training, as well as offering them support in improving their English and maths, to give them the best opportunity of entering an apprenticeship...

Better Schools for All

Publication date: 11 Jun 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Stokes, L | External Author(s): Bryson, A, Wilkinson, D

There is plenty of evidence to indicate that teacher quality matters for pupil attainment. But teachers do not work in a vacuum. They are employed to work in schools, usually under the direction of supervisors and a Head Teacher who, together with a governing board and officials in local and...

Promoting Ethnic and Religious Integration In Schools: A Review of Evidence

Publication date: 31 May 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Manzoni, C, Rolfe, H | Report to: Department for Education

Religious and ethnic segregation in schools is an issue of concern for educationalists and policy makers because it has implications for equality and for inclusion and social cohesion. This report was commissioned by the Department for Education to provide evidence on how segregation might be...

Improving Working Memory

This Education Endowment Foundation project was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with 127 schools participating. It tested two interventions: the Improving Working Memory intervention (WM) and an adapted version, named the Working Memory Plus intervention (WM+). Both aimed to improve the...

The economic impact on the United Kingdom of a customs union deal with the European Union

Publication date: 8 May 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Macroeconomics, Exiting the EU & Britain after Brexit | NIESR Author(s): , Young, G

In the wake of Parliament’s rejection of the proposed Brexit deal, there have been discussions between the Government and the Labour Party on a customs union as the basis for the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. This option also gained substantial support in...

Establishing the Employment Gap

Publication date: 24 Apr 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Espinoza, H, Moore, J, Speckesser, S | External Author(s): Bursnall, M, Gadsby, B

This report establishes for the first time an employment gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better-off peers: disadvantaged young people are twice as likely to not be in employment, education or training (NEET). Looking at the regional breakdowns, we see that in the...

How schools are integrating new migrant pupils and their families

Executive Summary Free movement and the extension of EU membership to Eastern and Central European countries have led to a substantial increase in migration to the UK. One result is an increase in the number of pupils who are either migrants themselves or born to recent migrants. In June 2016 the...

The Impact of the Introduction of the National Living Wage on Employment, Hours and Wages

Publication date: 1 Feb 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Aitken, A, Dolton, P, Riley, R

In 2015 the UK government announced the introduction of a new `National Living Wage' (NLW) that would apply to those aged 25 and above from April 2016. At a rate of £7.20, this represented a significant increase of 7.5% over the existing National Minimum Wage (NMW) rate. Previous research has...

Euroframe Economic Assessment of the Euro Area Winter 2018/2019

Publication date: 30 Jan 2019 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Macroeconomics

This Euroframe Report presents an assessment of the economic outlook for 2019 and 2020 focused on the euro area based on a synopsis of the forecasts of Euroframe institutes, including NIESR. Perspectives for UK and CEEs countries are described in Boxes A and B respectively. In the Focus section, we...

Mathematical reasoning

Publication date: 13 Dec 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Stokes, L, Hudson-Sharp, N, Rolfe, H, Dorsett, R | External Author(s): Anders, J, George, A, Buzzeo, J, Munro-Lott, N | Project: Evaluation of Mathematical Reasoning | Report to: Education Endowment Fund

The Mathematical Reasoning programme aims to improve mathematical attainment by developing pupils’ understanding of the logical principles underlying mathematics. The Literacy and Morphemes programme aims to improve pupils’ spelling and reading comprehension. Both programmes are delivered to year 2...

The Economic Effects of the Government’s proposed Brexit Deal

Publication date: 26 Nov 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Macroeconomics, Exiting the EU & Britain after Brexit | NIESR Author(s): Young, G, , Kara, A

Read Garry Young's note on the methodology behind this report here. This report estimates the economic effects of the government’s proposed Brexit deal that was first published on 14 November 2018, and subsequently expanded. The impact of any Brexit deal can be broken down into two key components...

Global Teacher Status Index 2018

Publication date: 8 Nov 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Dolton, P, She, P | External Author(s): Mercenaro, O, De Vries. R

The growth of internationally comparative student assessment measures such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the annual publication of the OECDs annual Education at a Glance, provides a global perspective of how children perform on comparable educational tests across...

Brexit and the Health & Social Care Workforce in the UK

Publication date: 6 Nov 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Exiting the EU & Britain after Brexit | NIESR Author(s): Dolton, P, Nguyen, D, Rolfe, H | External Author(s): Castellanos, M

Prepared for the Cavendish Coalition for the project: “Incentivising the domestic workforce and securing clear, reasonable routes for immigration both during and after the UK’s exit from the EU” Executive summary The UK’s H&SC workforce is under considerable strain to provide services for an...

Post-Brexit Immigration Policy: Reconciling Public Perceptions with Economic Evidence

Publication date: 11 Oct 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy, Exiting the EU & Britain after Brexit | NIESR Author(s): Rolfe, H, Runge, J, Hudson-Sharp, N, Ahlstrom-Vij, K | Project: Evidence and perceptions in the post-Brexit immigration debate [completed]

Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, researchers from NIESR and Birkbeck explored public attitudes to EU immigration and how people use and respond to evidence on the economic impacts of immigration. Based on 12 focus groups with 105 participants in a Leave voting area of the UK, the report tests out...

Brexit and the UK's Services Trade

Publication date: 11 Oct 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Exiting the EU & Britain after Brexit | External Author(s): Tarrant, A, Tilford, S

New research by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), commissioned by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Read the report here

Embedding Formative Assessment

The project Embedding Formative Assessment (EFA) is a whole-school professional development programme aiming to embed the use of effective formative assessment strategies. Dylan Wiliam and Siobhan Leahy, who are experts in formative assessment, designed the intervention and associated materials....

Employers’ Pension Provision Survey 2017

Publication date: 20 Jun 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Britain & Finance | NIESR Author(s): Stokes, L, Samek, L | Report to: Department for Work and Pensions

Background The workplace pension reforms, introduced following the 2008 Pensions Act (and updated as part of the 2011 and 2014 Pensions Acts), require all employers to automatically enrol all eligible employees into a qualifying workplace pension scheme, although employees can choose to opt out....

Light at the end of the fiscal tunnel? Scotland's public spending pressures

Publication date: 19 Jun 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Macroeconomics | NIESR Author(s): Young, G | Report to: Sopra Steria

In our accompanying report, Light at the end of the fiscal tunnel?, we highlighted the challenges the Westminster government is facing in providing good quality public services for the people of the United Kingdom at a time of spending reductions. Despite over eight years of austerity, these...

Transgender awareness in child and family social work education

In January 2016 the Women and Equalities Committee published a report on Transgender Equality. In this report evidence was identified that suggested transgender people experience significant levels of inequality across a wide range of policy areas. This included inequality in the provision of...

Light at the end of the Fiscal Tunnel?

Publication date: 24 Apr 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Macroeconomics | NIESR Author(s): Young, G | Report to: Sopra Steria

In his recent Spring Statement, the chancellor said that he saw light at the end of the fiscal tunnel. We are afraid that this will turn out to have been an illusion. While public borrowing has been reduced to sustainable levels, our analysis of the prospects for the public finances points to...

Productivity in the UK’s low-wage industries

Publication date: 6 Apr 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Trade, Investment & Productivity | NIESR Author(s): Forth, J, Rincon-Aznar, A | Report to: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Concern about the UK’s productivity problem has become widespread. Fixing the UK’s productivity problem requires action for the lagging parts of the economy – low pay sectors such as retail and hospitality, the long tail of low-productivity firms, and the five million individuals in the UK lacking...

The impact of welfare reform and welfare- to-work programmes: an evidence review

Publication date: 14 Mar 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Hudson-Sharp, N, Munro-Lott, N, Rolfe, H, Runge, J | Project: The impact of welfare reforms and welfare to work programmes: a literature review [completed] | Report to: Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

This report examines the impact of the welfare reform and welfare-to-work programmes introduced by the 2010–15 Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government and the Conservative Government elected in May 2015. A particular aim of the review was to examine the evidence about the ways in which...

The relative effectiveness of blended versus face-to-face adult English and maths learning

This report describes a randomised control trial (RCT) into the relative effectiveness of face-to-face compared to blended learning for adult English and maths learning. The report: describes the RCT design decisions describes implementation details provides an assessment of how the trial worked

Quantitative programme of research for adult English and maths: Longitudinal survey of adult learners waves 1 and 2

Publication date: 27 Feb 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour | NIESR Author(s): Dorsett, R, Stokes, L, Weale, M | External Author(s): Panayiotou, S, Hingley, S, Boulden, K, Kyriakopoulos, G, Romanou, E, Anders, J, Smith, J, Boyle, A | Report number: DFE RR791 | Report to: Department for Education

Quantitative programme of research for adult English and maths: Longitudinal survey of adult learners final research report

National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage Impact Assessment - Counterfactual research

Publication date: 5 Feb 2018 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Education & Labour, Trade, Investment & Productivity | NIESR Author(s): Ebell, M, Speckesser, S, Rolfe, H, Bursnall, M, Naddeo, A | Report to: BEIS

Executive summary Aims and objectives of counterfactual wage research Over the summer, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) conducted an independent review of the methodology used by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for estimating the cost...

Is An 'Englishman's Home' His Pension?

This research project considers whether buying houses may reduce long-term savings in the UK economy. This may explain the UK’s relatively low investment rate and weaker productivity performance over the long term. The study has two parts. First, we present new evidence on the saving behaviour of...

Work/life balance and trade unions - Evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2011

Publication date: 11 Oct 2017 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Bryson, A, Forth, J | Report to: Trades Union Congress

To inform debate following the passage of the 2016 Trade Union Act the TUC commissioned UCL/NIESR to undertake a three-pronged investigation into the nature of unions and their effects on employers and employees: a review of existing literature on union effects new analyses of the Workplace...

The added value of trade unions - New analyses for the TUC of the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys 2004 and 2011

Publication date: 11 Oct 2017 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Bryson, A, Forth, J | Report to: Trades Union Congress

Background to the analysis To inform debate over the 2016 Trade Union Act the TUC commissioned UCL/NIESR to undertake a three-pronged investigation on the nature of unions and their effects on employers and employees. This comprised: a review of existing literature on union effects new analyses of...

The added value of trade unions - A review for the TUC of existing research

Publication date: 11 Oct 2017 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Bryson, A, Forth, J | Report to: Trades Union Congress

The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the current research evidence on the economic impact of workplace union representation. Our review focuses on quantitative studies that have been conducted on good quality, nationally-representative samples of British workplaces or employees, and...

Wage growth in Pay Review Body Occupations

Publication date: 4 Jul 2017 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Bryson, A, Forth, J | Report to: Office of Manpower Economics

This research report by UCL and NIESR describes earnings growth among Pay Review Body (PRB) occupations; compares that growth to earnings growth in comparable non-PRB occupations; and accounts for differences in earnings trajectories between PRB occupations and comparable non-PRB occupations that...

NIESR chart pack of the UK’s economic performance across elections since 1992

Publication date: 18 May 2017 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Macroeconomics | NIESR Author(s): Ramina, M, Kirby, S

NIESR chart pack of the UK’s economic performance across elections since 1992 (These figures have been produced with funding from the Nuffield Foundation as part of its work to ensure public debate in the run-up to the General Election and is informed by independent and rigorous evidence...

International Trends in Insecure Work: A Report for the Trades Union Congress

Publication date: 3 May 2017 | Publication type: Report | NIESR Author(s): Hudson-Sharp, N, Runge, J | Project: International Trends in Insecure Work [completed] | Report to: Trades Union Congress

An increase in insecure forms of work has been identified in most European countries. Arrangements such as fixed-term contracts, temporary working and employment via agencies have proliferated, arguably undermining ‘standard’ employment relationships and the securities they offer. However, while...

The Changing World of Work

This report was commissioned by Unions21 to better understand the changing landscape of the future UK labour market. Its purpose is to a) identify industries with high projected employment growth and b) analyse worker characteristics in these industries, in order to inform subsequent market...

Use of Agency Workers in the Public Sector

Publication date: 20 Feb 2017 | Publication type: Report | Theme: Employment & Social policy | NIESR Author(s): Hudson-Sharp, N, Runge, J, Rolfe, H | Report to: Office of Manpower Economics

Commissioned by the Office of Manpower Economics, the purpose of this report was to better understand the use of agency staff in the UK public sector, particularly in health and education. The research aimed to outline and improve the evidence base, in order to understand the labour market for...