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Work & Employment
Evidence & Policy
Published in the October 2006 edition of US publication Psychiatric Services, this study determined whether the clubhouse model of community support and psychiatric rehabilitation can produce competitive employment outcomes that are comparable or superior to those of the Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) model.
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Report of Initial Consultation
Skills for Health is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the UK health sector.
Skills for Health (SfH) has been working closely with a number of third sector employers to identify the workforce needs of the sector. This research was commissioned as part of a developing approach to explore the feasibility of introducing a skills passport and its value as a means of supporting and facilitating workforce development.
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The economic and financial case for supported employment
The NHS can make better use of millions of pounds by commissioning the best form of employment support for people with severe or enduring mental health problems, according to a report published by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
Commissioning what works: the economic and financial case for supported employment shows that Individual Placement and Support (IPS), which helps people into paid competitive work, is effective, is good value for money and is affordable to the NHS.
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Vocational rehabilitation is a term used by many people to describe an approach whereby those who have a health condition, injury or disability are helped to access, maintain or return to employment.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is looking to produce a Framework for Vocational Rehabilitation that will:
- Demonstrate the Government's commitment to provide leadership on vocational rehabilitation;
- Be the first step towards a better understanding, and improving practice, of vocational rehabilitation;
- Provide longer-term help to establish a new approach to rehabilitation in the UK.
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Vocational services for people with severe mental health problems
This guidance enables commissioners of mental health services to commission vocational services for people with severe mental health conditions. A key to this guidance is not only to help people to gain employment but, importantly, to retain employment.
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A new approach to increase the number of people entering and staying in work has been announced in DWP's Commissioning Strategy.
Private and voluntary sector organisations will now be paid to help support customers who have been long-term unemployed into sustainable jobs.
The strategy describes how DWP will sign larger, longer-term contracts with providers, enabling a more responsive service to customers and raising the quality of provision. These top-tier providers will manage a chain of suppliers down to local level, to help the most disadvantaged customers into work and achieve the outcome that is best for them.
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This paper summarises findings of a review of research evidence and expert opinion about occupational interventions for people with mental health problems (Schneider, Heyman and Turton, 2002).
The research was commissioned by the Department of Health's Policy Research Programme.
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For Specialist Incapacity Benefit Personal Advisor (SIBPA) service in North East London for customers with mental health problems
This project sought to evaluate the impact of additional mental health training to Specialist Incapacity Benefit Personal Advisors working for Jobcentre Plus. The methodology proposed to collect data including qualitative, quantitative and behavioural measures (including interviews, focus groups, statistical data and questionnaires) from customers and service delivery stakeholders.
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Issues, activities and support for people with mental health needs.
The aim of this paper is to identify and explore the most effective way of delivering work-related support for people who may be trying to manage a mental health condition whilst seeking employment, or trying to maintain an existing job.
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"In this paper there are some ideas for making work support services better. We have listened to many people, including disabled people.
We want to make the system easier to use and make sure that it meets the needs of disabled people and their employers. We want to make it easier for Jobcentre Plus
workers to meet people's needs."
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Doing what works
Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health: Briefing 37
There is strong evidence that Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is the most effective method of helping people with severe mental health problems to achieve sustainable competitive employment.
It consists of intensive, individual support, rapid job search followed by placement in paid employment, and time-unlimited in-work support for both the employee and the employer.
This briefing paper describes the key principles of IPS, presents an overview of the research evidence and provides information on further reading.
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Minutes and a presentation from the South East Network meeting held on the 10th June 2008 in Brighton.
Details of the next meeting can be found here.
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Briefing 33 from The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health
This briefing paper looks at the barriers to employment for people with common and severe mental health problems and at the positive initiatives that are being undertaken by the public, voluntary and commercial sectors to help them find and sustain work. It highlights the importance of employment as part of the recovery
from and prevention of mental health problems.
Resources:
This guidance, Mental Health and Employment in the NHS, updates and revises the Department of Health guidance produced in 2002. It encourages NHS employers to tackle discrimination and stigma, promote equality in their staff and provide the opportunities that people with mental health problems are now entitled to expect.
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Developing the Business Case
Every organisation in Britain is affected by mental distress and ill health in the workforce. At any one time one worker in six will be experiencing depression, anxiety or problems relating to stress.
The total cost to employers is estimated at nearly £26 billion each year. That is equivalent to £1,035 for every employee in the UK workforce.
Simple steps to improve the management of mental health in the workplace should enable employers to save 30 per cent or more of these costs - at least £8 billion a year.
This policy paper looks at how mental ill health in the workforce affects employers and details the costs of ignoring mental distress at work.
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The National Social Inclusion Programme (NSIP) has now transformed the SEU's 27-point action plan into a programme requiring delivery which is organised into 8 themes.
To visit their workstream on employment and mental health please follow the link below:
Findings from the final cohort in a qualitative longitudinal panel of incapacity benefits recipients
The aim of the overall evaluation is to establish whether, and by how much, the package of measures in Pathways to Work helps people claiming incapacity benefits move towards work and into paid jobs.
As part of this aim, the evaluation includes description and exploration of processes and factors that influence people's experiences of the Pilots and different outcomes achieved.
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The impact of benefit receipt to the under 25s
This report describes the impact of Pathways to Work (Pathways) on those aged between 18 and 24 at the start of their claim for Incapacity Benefit (IB) within the original seven pilot areas and the first two groups of expansion areas (those areas where Pathways was introduced in October 2005 and April 2006).
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The following useful report was posted by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
Main extract below and links follow:
Pathways to Work and customers with mental health conditions
Evidence on the effectiveness of Pathways for those customers who have a mental health condition is mainly positive. 4 out of the 5 the impact measures estimated to date (covered by three reports) for this group are positive.
Independent researchers found a significant off-flow impact for this sub-group in Pilot areas (new claimants) - similar to that of customers without mental health conditions. But, the study did not find a statistically significant impact on employment rates for this sub-group in Pilot areas.
However, significant off-flow and employment impacts were found for existing claimants. And the employment impact for customers with mental health conditions was higher than those without. In Expansion areas the off- flow impacts were also significant for this sub-group and substantially better than those without mhc. Measures of employment impacts in Expansion areas are due Jan 09.
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Mental Health, Learning & Skills and Housing
The very latest policy on mental health and housing is encapsulated in a Public Service Agreement (PSA). The papers attached here are a commentary on PSA 16.
The Home and Neighbourhood Network of Develop will be discussing PSA 16, developing a local understanding and lobbying for mental health as a local priority during 2008.
Resources and links:
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.
This report sets out the reviewers’ vision for change to ensure the Government can better help more people with mental health conditions who are workless into sustained employment.
It sets out a number of recommendations for Government. These fall in to three broad groups:
- increasing capacity and dispelling myths within existing structures so they are better able to meet the needs of people with a mental health condition
- “model of more support”: implementing Individual Placement and Support (IPS) in a Great Britain context
- establishing effective systems for monitoring outcomes and driving change.
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The recovery approach in community-based vocational and training adult mental health day services
This systematic map focuses on the particular area of vocation, meaningful occupation and training in the reshaping of mental health day services. The opportunity to have meaningful occupation (including paid and voluntary employment) and access to suitable training and support to achieve this is part of the mental health recovery model.
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Prisoners with mental health problems are not getting the support they need to gain employment when they are released, according to a policy paper published today by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
Securing employment for offenders with mental health problems finds that many prison-based work preparation schemes exclude prisoners with mental health problems because they are not thought to be ready for work.
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Published in the October 2006 edition of US publication Psychiatric Services, this reports on how in a randomised controlled trial, a vocationally integrated programme of assertive community treatment (ACT) was compared with a certified clubhouse in the delivery of supported employment services.
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Work, Recovery and Inclusion is a new government delivery strategy that sets out a series of actions that will help meet the aspirations of people in contact with secondary mental health services who want to work. It is deliberately challenging and aspirational and aims to bring about significant changes in outcomes.
The strategy looks to a future where people who are in contact with secondary mental health services are helped to get jobs, where they are equally valued for their contributions to the workplace, and where having a mental health condition is not seen as a barrier to work.
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Improving the health of the working age population is critically important for everyone, in order to secure both higher economic growth and increased social justice.
This Review has sought to establish the foundations for a broad consensus
around a new vision for health and work in Britain.
Also available for download is the presentation given to Oxleas by the author about the report.
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On 7 December, 2009 the Government launched Working our way to better mental health: a framework for action, the first ever national mental health and employment strategy.
The framework for action is designed to:
- Improve well-being at work for everyone, and
- Deliver significantly better employment results for people with mental health conditions, supporting them into work, helping them to stay in work and assisting them to return to work more quickly after sickness absences.
Dame Carol Black's review of the health of Britain's working age population estimated that the economy loses over £100 billion a year through ill-health and associated sickness absence and unemployment. Mental ill-health accounts for between £30 and £40 billion of this.
The strategy establishes a cross-government approach to tackling this cost and waste of talent.
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