Laura Jarvis King

School of Fine Art, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

Joseph Rowntree Foundation: exploring the labour market in post-industrial areas

PGR Placement

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is an independent social change organisation working to solve UK poverty. Through research, policy, collaboration and practical solutions, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation aims to inspire action and change to create a prosperous UK without poverty.

This project involves working with the Policy and Partnerships (P&P) team who are responsible for developing solutions to UK poverty and working with others to put them into practice. The team draw on a wide range of evidence and sources of ideas, including JRF’s own analysis, academic research and insights from people with direct experience of the issues.

The P&P team has three main areas of focus which underpins the entirety of their work in this endeavour: housing, social security and work. The placement is based in the area of ‘Work’ and the work carried out is intended to support a larger-scale, extended project which aims to support policy positions around the labour market in post-industrial locations. Through this work and wider project, JRF hope influence national and local governments and other actors to take actions which improve employment prospects of the communities and contribute to solving poverty. The primary placement activity is to conduct a literature and evidence review exploring and analysing where public policy has successfully strengthened labour markets in post-industrial locations or boost labour market opportunities for citizens living in those communities.