Eleanor's research focuses on innovations in social policy and outcomes-based commissioning. She joined the Blavatnik School of Government in 2016 having previously studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield.
Eleanor’s doctoral research investigated the application of outcomes-based commissioning within the UK Government’s welfare-to-work programmes. The analysis explores how particular programme design innovations map onto concerns of variable and potentially neglectful service provision and assesses whether developments in payment structure and governance arrangements deliver value for money to commissioners.
Before moving to Oxford Eleanor gained experience from the policy-maker perspective working as an advisor for the Social Investment and Finance Team in the UK’s Cabinet Office and through collaborative research projects with the Department for Work and Pensions.
Eleanor’s work has been published in a range of journals including Social Policy and Administration and Journal of Social Policy. Key research outputs have also been translated into policy submissions and Eleanor frequently advises on policy design and evaluation strategies for government departments and voluntary sector organisations.
Academic papers
M. Shiva, C. FitzGerald, E. Carter, and M. Airoldi. (2024) Beyond “make” or “buy”: Evaluating value‐for‐money inpublic service delivery, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics.
Z. Fang, M. Arana-Catania, F.-A. Van Lier, J. O. Velarde, H. Bregazzi, M. Airoldi, E. Carter, and R. Procter. (2024) SyROCCo: enhancing systematic reviews using machine learning, Data & Policy, 6.
E. Carter, J. Outes Velarde, O. Paul, J. R. Macdonald, and M. Airoldi. (2024) The Impact Bond Dataset: A Tool toInvestigate Socially Motivated Cross-Sector Partnerships, Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
E. Carter, F. Rosenbach, F. Domingos, and F. Van Lier. (2024) Contracting ‘person-centred’ working by results: street-level managers and frontline experiences in an outcomes-based contract, Public Management Review.
E. Carter, F. Domingos, F. Rosenbach, and F. Van Lier. (2023) Contracting ‘Person-centred’ Working by Results: Street-level Managers and Frontline Experiences, Academy of Management Proceedings.
C. FitzGerald, S. Tan, E. Carter, and M. Airoldi. (2023) Contractual acrobatics: a configurational analysis of outcomespecifications and payment in outcome-based contracts, Public Management Review.
M. Gibson, F. Van Lier, and E. Carter. (2023) Tracing 25 years of ‘initiativitis’ in central government attempts to join uplocal public services in England, Policy and Politics, 51(4).
C. Economy, E. Carter, and M. Airoldi. (2022) Have we ‘stretched’ social impact bonds too far? An empirical analysis ofSIB design in practice, International Public Management Journal.
E. Carter (2019) More than marketised? Exploring the governance and accountability mechanisms at Play in Social Impact Bonds, Journal of Economic Policy Reform
C. FitzGerald, E. Carter, R. Dixon and M. Airoldi. (2019) Walking the contractual tightrope: a transaction cost economics perspective on social impact bonds, Public Money & Management, 39, 458–467.
E. Carter. (2018) ‘Making markets in employment support: does the variety of quasi-market matter for people with disabilities and health conditions?’, in: Needham, C., Heins, E., Rees, J. (Eds.), Social Policy Review 30: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2018. Policy Press, Bristol.
A. Whitworth, E. Carter. (2017) Rescaling employment support accountability: From negative national neoliberalism to positively integrated city-region ecosystems, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
E. Carter, A. Whitworth. (2016) Work Activation Regimes and Well-being of Unemployed People: Rhetoric, Risk and Reality of Quasi-Marketization in the UK Work Programme, Social Policy and Administration
A. Whitworth, E. Carter, D. Ballas, C. Moon. (2016) Estimating uncertainty in spatial microsimulation approaches to small area estimation: A new approach to solving an old problem, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems
E. Carter, A. Whitworth. (2015) Creaming and parking in quasi-marketized welfare-to-work schemes: designed out of or designed in to the UK Work Programme, Journal of Social Policy
J. Rees. A. Whitworth, E. Carter. (2014) Support for All in the UK Work Programme? Differential Payments, Same Old Problem. Social Policy & Administration, 48(2), 221-239
A. Whitworth, E. Carter. (2014) Welfare-to-work reform, power and inequality: from governance to governmentalities Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 22, 2, pp104-117
Book chapters
E. Carter and N. Ball. (2023) 'Social outcomes contracting: Seeding a more relational approach to contracts between government and the social economy?' in Social Economy Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available online.
E. Carter and A. Anastasiu. (2023) 'Impact Bonds: Beyond the Hype?' in Encyclopedia of Social Innovation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Available online.
A. Whitworth, E. Carter. (2016) 'Employment' in Alcock, P, Haux, T, May, M and Wright, S (eds) The student's companion to social policy. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell
J. Rees, A. Whitworth, E. Carter, E. (2015) 'Support for all in the UK Work Programme? Differential payments, same old problem' in Considine, M. and O'Sullivan, S. (eds.) Contracting out welfare services: Comparing international policy designs for unemployment assistance, Chicester: Wiley Blackwell.
Reports
A. Anastasiu, E. Carter, and M. Airoldi (eds.). (2024) The Evolution of Social Outcomes Partnerships in the UK: Distilling fifteen years of experience from Peterborough to Kirklees, Government Outcomes Lab, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Available online.
L. Savell, E. Carter, M. Airoldi, C. FitzGerald, S. Tan, J. Outes Velarde and J. R. Macdonald, (2022) Understanding outcomes funds: A guide for practitioners, governments and donors, Government Outcomes Lab, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
E. Carter, C. FitzGerald, R. Dixon, C. Economy, T. Hameed, and M. Airoldi. (2018) Building the tools for public services to secure better outcomes: Collaboration, Prevention, Innovation, Government Outcomes Lab, University of Oxford.
E. Carter, A. Whitworth. (2015) Activating the (un)employed: embedded trajectories, embedded problems? in L. Foster, A. Brunton, C. Deeming, T. Haux. (eds) In defence of welfare 2. UK Social Policy Association
A. Whitworth, E. Carter. (2015) Understanding Wales at the neighbourhood level: Maximising the performance of small area estimation. Welsh Government, Cardiff
Articles
N. Ball, E. Carter. (2021) Spotlighting Shared Outcomes for Social Impact Programs That Work Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)