Individual Placement and Support - Alcohol and Drugs Trial (IPS-AD)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for people with drug and alcohol use disorder (IPS-AD Trial). A pragmatic, multi-centre, parallel group, randomised controlled trial of specialist versus standard employment seeking support.
IRAS ID
233276
Contact name
John Marsden
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Public Health England
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
There is a high prevalence of unemployment among people with illicit drug and alcohol dependence. Many people in this population can and want to work, but struggle to access the open job market and achieve stable employment. n her recent report, Dame Carol Black recommended a research trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach in drug and alcohol treatment settings. IPS is a well evidenced approach to support people into employment. It has been successfully trialled with several populations, including those with severe mental illness and other health conditions. IPS is delivered by trained employment specialists alongside clinical treatment as part of a multi-disciplinary treatment team, rather than separately provided by the generic Jobcentre Plus or Work and Health Programme. There have been encouraging non-experimental pilot studies showing that IPS is feasible for the drug and alcohol population, but no randomised controlled trials done in the NHS. The proposed study is a pragmatic (NHS outpatient), 5-7 centre, parallel group, 2-arm, randomised controlled trial (RCT; individual allocation 1:1) over 45 months for adults (18 years +) who are enrolled in drug and alcohol community treatment and voluntarily seeking employment, to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of standard employment support (treatment-as-usual [TAU]) versus TAU plus IPS. The sample size will be 2,400 people (1,200 participants will be allocated to the intervention arm and 1,200 participants will be allocated to the control arm. The primary outcome measure will be the international standard for IPS trials: at least 1 day of employment in the open market during an 18-months follow-up. Secondary outcomes will capture the pattern of work, and various measures of personal and social functioning. IPS provision will be subject to an integrated fidelity assessment and there will be an integrated realist (qualitative) evaluation.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0454
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion