On March 13 th , 2024 a joint OECD, EU Commission and Department of Social Protection evaluation of Community Employment and Tús was published the report is called “Impact evaluation of Ireland’s Active Labour Market Policies” .
On their website the OECD noted that this report “ analyses the sequence of labour market support that individuals receive and evaluates two large public works programmes. It uses rich administrative data and finds positive labour market impacts of the Community Employment and Tús employment programmes. Building on the results of the analyses, the report makes recommendations on how Ireland can further adapt its active labour market policies (ALMPs) to better support its current and future jobseekers. This report on Ireland is the thirteenth country study published in a series of reports on policies to connect people with jobs, and is part of a joint project with the European Commission to strengthen countries’ capacity to evaluate ALMPs. The report is written jointly by the OECD, the Department of Social Protection of Ireland and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.”
Description of these programmes
The DSP’s website notes that the “ Community Employment programme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed (or otherwise disadvantaged) to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities….The work is community-based.” And that the “ Tús initiative is a community work placement scheme providing short-term working opportunities for unemployed people. The work opportunities are to benefit the community and are provided by community and voluntary organisations in both urban and rural areas.” Further information on these programmes is available at https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/ff767-social-welfare-schemes-and-services/#jobseekers
In March 2014 the INOU made a submission to the re-configuration of Community Employment and in that submission we noted that “ It is welcome that the dual role of CE is being acknowledged. However, it is important that in creating “a clear boundary between activity focused on improving employability and activity dedicated to combating social exclusion for groups and individuals” that a strong focus on supporting people distant from the labour market into sustainable employment is also developed.” This submission is available at https://www.inou.ie/assets/files/pdf/inou_submission_on_ce_reconfiguration.pdf
One of the challenges noted in the EU OECD DSP report was the difficulty in assessing the social inclusion outcomes, which is noted in Finding 1.8 below. The INOU believes that a different research methodology is required to fully assess the role programmes like Community Employment and Tús play, in particular to capture the impact of the community based work they support, often in communities with fewer resources.
Report Findings and Recommendations
Amongst the key findings:
- Ireland’s labour market has performed well in recent years, but ALMPs remain crucial to help address long term unemployment and reduce labour market disparities
- Ireland has modernised its public employment service to streamline services and increased activation requirements for jobseekers
- Ireland’s ALMP spending is still heavily focused on public sector direct job creation
- Considerable scope exists to better leverage administrative data for analysis
- Long-term unemployed people can receive a range of support, including Tús and CE, and experience different labour market journeys
- CE and Tús provide a strategy for the long term unemployed through direct job creation, with less volatility than in the open labour market
- CE improves labour market outcomes in the long-term, after an initial lock-in period
- CE also offers some positive outcomes that can be linked to “social inclusion”, but available data do not allow a comprehensive assessment
- Tús improves participants’ earnings (p14-26)
The key policy recommendations emerging from this report for Ireland include:
- Combine CE with other types of support, especially counselling towards the end of the placement, to facilitate quicker transitions into the primary labour market after CE.
- Consider introducing more flexibility in CE working hours, placement types and training.
- While Tús and CE should be maintained, potential future increases in ALMP spending should be channelled towards training programmes that have shown to be effective and other types of ALMPs that perform well to ensure a balanced ALMP suite of provision in Ireland.
- Consider introducing random selection into CE to encourage participation among a broad group of job seekers who are long-term unemployed, including those who have no local knowledge about specific programmes, and maintain random selection for Tús. (p12)
It is unclear what exactly the last bullet point would achieve, referrals and the challenges of filling Community Employment places are issues that are raised at INOU events, though it has also been noted that these issues also reflect the recruitment challenges evident in the wider labour market. On page 29 there is another recommendation to “Ensure alignment of CE placements with labour market needs” . This recommendation would need to be handled with great care, in many cases the work undertaken through Community Employment and Tús is integral to the provision of public and community supports and services, integral to addressing socio-economic exclusion.
The full report is available at https://www.oecd.org/employment/impact-evaluation-of-ireland-s-active-labour-market-policies-ec67dff2-en.htm