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Work & Employment
Welcome to the work pages. These pages are run by WorkNET, a partnership of organisations that all have an interest in employment and mental health, enabling people with mental illness to have access to choice in employment and training, and also in promoting good mental health within business. We also work to develop supports to enable people to retain their jobs through difficult times.
We should all be involved in promoting social inclusion because:
- Common mental health problems affect up to one in six of the general population at any one time. Almost everyone will know someone who has had mental health problems at some point in their lives.
- Only 24% of adults with long-term mental health problems are in work. Although work is not the right solution for everyone, with the right support many more would be able to and would like to work.
- Research involving 1596 employees in a range of companies found that only 20% were confident they could manage someone with mental health problems effectively, yet 70% of managers had had to manage someone with a diagnosed mental health problem.
What's in this for you?
In this section you will be able to find:
- Services that support welcoming access to work and employment support services for people with mental ill-health.
- Events about employment.
- Evidence and policy - What works best for people returning to work and how to improve the services you work in to be more welcoming and supportive to people with mental ill-health.
- Guidance and tools that can help people with mental health problems plan their return to work and for employers to support people with mental health problems in work.
- News - stories about people's positive experiences of employment and employment services in the borough.
If you would like more information about work, social inclusion and mental health, Develop can also offer you:
- Discussion Forum - A place to ask questions, find support and obtain advice about mental health matters, getting work and dealing with issues in the workplace. (Available to registered site users).
- Training and support available on enabling people to return to work and mental ill-health in the workplace (from handling stress and promoting mental well-being through to awareness training about mental illness).
If you would like more information about WorkNET please contact: workNET@developbromley.com
View the national database of work bridge-building projects
Young Persons Guarantee launched by PM
16th Feb 2010
The Prime Minister recently officially launched the Young Persons Guarantee. This guarantees 18 to 24 year olds who have been unemployed over six months an offer of a job, training or work experience.
This is a major part of the Government’s Backing Young Britain initiative to support young people during the recession. The Guarantee will be supported by over 400,000 Government funded training places, internships, work experience places and job opportunities.
All young people will get support from a named personal adviser who will advise them on the options available to help them into work.
From January Jobcentre Plus will introduce dedicated teams providing ‘named Adviser’ support to 18 - 24 year olds including:
• additional flexible Adviser support in the first 13 weeks;
• weekly signing and additional Adviser support between 13 and 26 weeks;
• intensifying the level of Adviser support for 18 - 24 year olds between 6 and 10 months (effectively applying the existing Adviser resource over 4 months instead of 6);
• providing over 100,000 additional opportunities including: Future Jobs Fund (FJF) jobs; work-focused training, internships and routes into work;
From April young people will be required to take up one of the offers by the 10 month point of their claim.
Offers include:
• Jobs options, supported by a £1,000 subsidy for the employer. We have also created thousands of extra jobs in the community through the FJF;
• Training – from short courses to prepare for jobs in particular sectors up to full time courses lasting 3 - 6 months;
• Work experience in the form of internships and places on the Community Task Force.
Government paper "Realising Ambitions" available for download
26th Jan 2010
On 7 December 2009 Rachel Perkins, Paul Farmer and Paul Litchfield delivered their independent report on mental health and employment “Realising ambitions: Better employment support for people with a mental health condition” to the Department for Work and Pensions.
You can download the report from our Work and Employment/Evidence and Policy pages here.
Reforming the "sick note"
25th Oct 2009
The current medical certificate (or 'sick note') makes fitness for work a black and white issue - either an individual is fit to work or they are not. In doing so it masks the reality that with simple adjustments many people could be supported to undertake work while specific conditions are being treated. For the individual this can lead to a detachment from the workplace and a drift towards inactivity (and probable poverty and social exclusion). For employers it means bearing higher costs associated with sickness absence.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is consulting on reforms to the current medical certificate to ensure that it better informs individuals and their employers about when and how it is appropriate to support someone back to work.
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