WELLNESS DEBATE IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
PRESENT: Richard Slater, Lancashire Business View (chair) Emma Christian, AfterAthena Vanda DeFreitas, Blackpool Council
Dan Dixon, Connect to Work Anthony Duerden, Calico David Dunwell, Lancashire Mind Lydia Ferguson, Lancashire County Council Jeremy Hartley, Eric Wright Louisa Mayor, Pendleside Hospice Prof Abdul Razaq, Blackburn with Darwen Council Ian Treasure, Workwell Lancashire Adrian Wright, University of Lancashire
WORKING ON WELLNESS
We brought our panel, including business owners, health and wellbeing experts and health officials, to the offices of Eric Wright Group, to talk about the challenges and initiatives to help people to get back into and stay in the workplace, while supporting businesses keen to engage staff and skills
Dan Dixon, strategic programme manager, Connect to Work
Connect to Work is a new programme, supported by the government.
We’re fortunate to be the first one in North that’s been approved by the DWP. That’s something to be proud of, getting that money, starting to get people on board.
It’s largely supporting people who are out of work to get back to work – people with disabilities, health conditions or who are predominantly economically inactive.
The programme is very person-centred and it’s a supportive employment approach. We are really looking at that individual and supporting them over 12 months.
Our employment specialists have very small caseloads of 20 or 25 people and they’re
working with the participant and the employer in a three-way equal partnership.
They can understand what their needs are and work with the employer. They can overcome those challenges and understand what adjustments need to be put in place to support the individual to work there.
Ian Treasure, programme lead, WorkWell Lancashire
WorkWell is a free, confidential service. It’s for low level physical and
mental health conditions and what we’re finding is that people are coming to us struggling with confidence. And quite often it’s issues outside of the workplace that affect their ability to perform in work.
The service is for people that are very close
to the labour market, people who are actually in work as well, and we have some brilliant staff and health coaches across Lancashire and south Cumbria.
It’s around people’s confidence and people believing in themselves, so that they can change and overcome hurdles in their life to keep working.
A needs assessment by The Skills Hub and The Lancashire Economic Partnership has shown there are 71,000 people who are suffering from low level physical and mental health problems, and we also know that a lot of those people are facing those problems because they are overwhelmed with life.
We’ve got an aim to help 3,500 this year, that’s a lot of people. It’s a big, big target and what we’d like to do to with employers is encourage them to allow their staff to contact WorkWell and to promote the service within the workplace. Also, if people need an hour off one day, let them go and see a work and health coach.
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