Evaluating special measures for the unemployed: Some reflections on recent UK experience

The growing significance of long term unemployment across Europe in the last decade has underlined the need for policy makers to understand and improve responses to unemployment, However, there is a growing debate about the relationship between research and policy development with concerns being expressed both by researchers and policy makers. While working for the Employment Service the author evaluated measures to reintegrate the long term unemployed into the labour market. This article draws upon that experience to examine critically the relationship between research and policy development.