Designing and delivering employment support

The government has said it wants to deliver an 80% employment rate, with employment support central to achieving this. This report explores how it could design and deliver more effective support for people out of work due to ill health and disability in England, including the opportunities and risks of devolving employment support to sub-national government. 

It forms part of a wider Institute for Government project on how government could make better policy for people out of work due to ill health or disability. A second report on the design of incapacity benefits, and how policy making is shaped by the structure and culture of the Department for Work and Pensions, is due to be published in summer 2026. 

This project is kindly supported by Aberdeen Group Charitable Trust.

A briefing summarising the report's main findings is found below (PDF).