Summer Jobs Programme impact evaluation protocol

Overview

We have co-comissioned an evaluation of The Summer Jobs Programme with Youth Endowment Fund. Programme delivery is managed by UK Youth, and the evaluation is being conducted by IFF Research.

The document details the evaluation protocol for the efficacy and effectiveness study.

Trial design: Two-armed, muti-site randomised control trial, with randomisation at the individual young person level

Trial type: Internal Pilot and Efficacy Study

Evaluation setting: Community (England and Wales)

Target group: 16- to 20-year-olds at risk of violence

Planned target number of participants:

• 3,000 young people in total – 1,200 in the Year 2 Internal Pilot (2025);
  1,800 in the Year 3 Efficacy Study (2026);
• 18 Local Delivery Partners during Year 2 Internal Pilot (2025); 30 Local Delivery Partners during Year 3 Efficacy Study (2026)

Actual recruitment following the Year 2 Internal Pilot:

• 787 participants randomised in Year 2 (vs the target of 1,200) across 18 LDPs
• Revised target of 1,650 participants in Year 3 (projection based on Year 2 delivery) across 23 LDPs, reflecting a more realistic recruitment goal rather than a formal power calculation. Importantly, the study remains wellpowered to detect small, policy-relevant effects.

Primary outcomes and sources:

1. Employment, Education and Training (The Longitudinal Education Outcome (LEO) dataset, which combines employment and education records)
2. Offending (DfE–PNC Datashare, defined as any offence)