Agenda item

This paper aims to provide an overview of the data and work undertaken to date to address the employment rates of individuals with severe and enduring mental health who are under the care of secondary mental health services. The report seeks to evaluate the impact of Kent & Medway Individual Placement Support (IPS) Service on the local community. It will analyse key metrics such as service access, client outcomes, and overall performance to assess the programme’s effectiveness in helping individuals with mental health needs secure and sustain paid employment. The findings will offer valuable insights into the service's contributions to enhancing paid employment opportunities in the region. The report will also look at the recent impact report published by Shaw Trust which considers the wider impact of IPS across all of Shaw Trust services.

Discussion:

The Boad received the report which provided an overview of the data and work undertaken to date to address the employment rates of individuals with severe and enduring mental health who were under the care of secondary mental health services.

The service was focused on individual support. The Integrated Care Partnership Work and Health Strategy was added as an addendum to the report, which highlighted that employment was a positive factor in physical and mental wellbeing. It was vital that when people were supported into work, there was help available to sustain their employment. People must be supported to start, stay and succeed in work. There were strong partnerships across the Integrated Care Strategy to work with people to shape their future.

There had been significant national announcements such as Connect to Work and Get Britain Working which have been aligned to the Strategy. Through the Get Kent and Medway Working Plans, Get Britain Working White Paper, Skills and Education System, there had been extensive work undertaken to find out where to target support, bring together partners and develop a suite of actions to help people into work. There was also the imminent launch of the Connect to Work programme to support people with disabilities and health conditions or from specified disadvantaged groups.

It was asked what could be done to increase sector involvement and what the response from employers was to date to the programme. The Board was informed that one of the key principles was on employment engagement  and developing strong quality relationships. The Trust worked by exploring preferences and skills set of the people they worked with before approaching prospective employers. There was also a strong focus on raising awareness and destigmatising mental health as 1 in 4 people experienced mental health issues at any time.

In response to a question on support for people with basic skills, the officer said that they ensured that they referred people to organisations that could support them with basic skills training.

It was asked how it was ensured that when a person was matched with an employer, the support continued and was followed through, the officer said that an employment specialist continued on that journey with the young person by going into the workplace to support the person as needed.

It was asked what happened beyond the 13 week support, and the officer said that individual placements and support was time unlimited, some people stayed with the programme for a few months, some for longer. The programme was not recovery focused, nor did it create dependency but provided reassurance that support could be accessed if needed.

It was asked if the business plan model factored in costs associated with long term support. The officer said that whilst individual placement support was time unlimited, some people left the programme after 6 months in employment, whilst some did not want in-work support. Officers working with individuals were also able to say to an individual that they had provided all the support they could.

It was further asked what the risks were for small businesses signed up to the programme, in particular in terms of sickness rates. The officer said that there were risks and rewards in working with this cohort and they asked businesses to be open minded to employing people with mental health. Education on employment law and diversity policies can be provided to small businesses, and it was key to note that there was only a 3% difference in absence rate data of people with mental health in employment.

In terms of the Strategy, it was aimed at raising awareness and through engagement and consultation with businesses, it was learnt that whilst they agreed with the principles, there were challenges in practicalities, as they were fearful in doing the wrong thing both for the individual as well as for their business. The aspiration of the Strategy was to build confidence.

It was suggested that further engagement with the small business federation may be beneficial in raising awareness.

Decision:

The Board noted the report.