Tell us a little bit about what you make of this scheme that’s launched in the Sheffield City Region?
I am absolutely delighted to be in Sheffield today. This is a really exciting project that’s all about enabling people with disabilities or health conditions who want to work, supporting them into work, and for those people who are already in employment, but maybe they’ve just had an injury or had some poor mental health – we need to do everything we can to support them to be able to stay at work.
We know most people want to work, it gives you a sense of purpose, it gives you new friends as well as the financial benefits, so it’s really important to enable people to do this. The government is really ambitious about enabling this to happen, they’re spending over a billion pounds on a health and work programme and this is part of our big goal to enable more than a million people with disabilities to get into work.
We know we don’t have all the answers at Westminster, so we’re very keen to work with regions, to give them money. Here it’s £7.9 million to integrate services for local partnerships that has the person at the centre with the service wrapped round them. Here it’s local authorities, the local NHS, charities all helping that person to be the best that they can be and have an opportunity to be in employment.
How unique is this scheme that’s happening, and can it help to lead the rest of the country?
I think Sheffield is very much leading the way. There are some characteristics of this pilot that are similar to other parts of the country, the simple idea of having a work coach – somebody who works with you, that wraps the services around you, that helps to implement advice, that is quite a common theme throughout our pilot.
But what’s really special about Sheffield is that in most parts of the country, well in fact every other part of the country, there are programmes for people who are out of work and want to get back into work. What you’re doing here in Sheffield is very exciting because it’s for people who are currently in work but maybe they’ve had some poor mental health, they’re finding it all too difficult, all too stressful or maybe the particular employment they’re doing at the moment is not the right thing for them.
But with support they might be able to change their job with their current employer or they might be able to get retrained, or reskilled, or find a different job, or they might be given flexibility or help to manage their health conditions so that they can stay in work. It’s very person centred and I very much hope that the learning we have here is successful and then we’ll be able to replicate that across the nation, so Sheffield is really leading for the nation here.
What are the main challenges for people with disabilities in terms of finding work and staying in work?
I think sometimes it’s actually about the attitude of employers. I know employers want to do the right thing, most employers are very good employers and they want to do the right thing by their staff. But if somebody says to them that maybe they’re experiencing some poor mental health or some physical disability, sometimes they can be really nervous about what the right thing is to do and quite worried about are they going to be able to support that person.
So we really need to be able to enable employers to become much more confident about having conversations with their workforce, saying to them “it’s ok if you’re experiencing some ill health or some poor mental health, let us know” and then we have to really make sure that employers have the tools to know how to support that person in the best possible way. I think it’s quite a big culture change, there are some extremely good employers, but there are many others who would like to do this but really need our help in order to do it so it’s really about confidence.
Wouldn’t it be better if mental health services were funded properly?
I think you’re absolutely right to say it’s essential that we have well-funded mental health services within the NHS and that’s what the government is committed to putting record amounts of money into, our mental health services and the NHS.
We’re training up a lot of new doctors and nurses, it’s the first time any government has brought in waiting time targets for access to mental health services, so I think we’re doing a lot right from early ages. If you think about recent announcements that every school will have a properly trained member of staff in mental health first aid so really looking in childhood to enable awareness and early diagnosis, because we know with early diagnosis and intervention people can make a really good recovery and manage mental health.
So we are doing a lot of things, we have a lot of ambition to really improve mental health services. Is everything perfect at the moment? No, we know that’s not the case and if there are people having to wait too long of course that’s not acceptable but as I say we are putting record levels of money into the NHS in every region which of course will include Sheffield.
But we want to make sure we’re always learning, always innovating and we know from the work of the individualised personal support services that the NHS has been providing for people with very serious mental health conditions, they really work, they provide a sense of hope, a sense of purpose, of being able to go back to work and socialise, let alone the financial benefits, really is good for people’s mental health.
We heard the doctor todays saying ‘good work really is good for people’s mental health’ and we want to extend that learning that we know is true in the NHS to a broader range, so people perhaps with more mild symptoms of mental health and also physical ill health, benefit from the same approach and that’s what this trial is all about.
