Homelessness and unemployment are deeply interconnected, often creating a cycle that’s hard to break. We know that many people experiencing homelessness who are not in employment want to work. 

Breaking this cycle requires more than just offering jobs – it requires an approach that understands the unique challenges people face, from trauma to a lack of appropriate support. 

This is why we’re pleased to introduce this pioneering new project which could transform employment outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. 

Through Individual Placement and Support (IPS), barriers to starting work are removed by helping people to access employment immediately with ongoing individualised in-work support. It’s an approach that has already changed lives in other sectors such as severe mental illness. This project aims to understand its effectiveness for people experiencing homelessness.  

How IPS works

Light-touch employment support has been shown not to be as effective for people who experience homelessness. So, a more intensive, specialist service has the potential to more effectively  support people into employment and ultimately to transition to stable housing.

IPS offers this more intensive support. The employment programme works by removing barriers to accessing employment by flipping usual ‘train and place’ models on their head. Traditionally, people receive training for jobs and then move into work, whereas IPS focuses on immediate employment, alongside ongoing in-work support. 

People are matched with Employment Specialists who identify tailored employment opportunities and place the individual into jobs they actually want to do. Crucially, once in a job, support is offered to both employer and employee to keep the job for as long as possible, or if it’s not right, the individual will be helped to find a different job. 

IPS works quickly. Those who take part in the project will be matched with Employment Specialists and start their job search within four weeks, alongside ongoing, individualised support for the person and their employer.

A milestone moment

Today marks an exciting phase as we begin delivery of IPS as part of this project. Working alongside our brilliant delivery partners -  Beam, South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) and Enable - we’ll start to recruit people into the project. With IPS Grow from Social Finance providing excellent technical support and assisting with the delivery and quality assurance to the IPS approach.

Working across Barnsley, Rotherham, Sheffield, Barnet, Fareham, Wakefield, Shropshire, and Telford & Wrekin, delivery partners will refer around 460 people to the service. 

Evaluation of the outcomes

The programme will be evaluated through a randomised controlled trial, which is regarded as the most robust research method, to understand whether something works or not. This means half the people recruited for this project will be chosen at random to access IPS support and half will continue to be supported by Business as Usual services in their local area. We expect to have early findings from IFF, the evaluator for this project, by early 2027, with the final report due for publication in 2027. You can register to receive updates from us.

This IPS project is part of our Test and Learn programme in England which is testing ways we can reduce homelessness and end rough sleeping, funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. 

The results could have far-reaching implications for policy and practice in both homelessness and employment services. By adapting IPS for individuals experiencing homelessness, this project offers the potential to provide a life-changing solution at a critical time in their lives. 

This research could lay the foundation for a future where homelessness and unemployment no longer go hand-in-hand. 

• Ella Whelan is Programme Lead at the Centre for Homelessness Impact