Connect to Work

Description

As the Lead Accountable body acting on behalf of the Devon & Torbay CCA, Devon is working with partners in Plymouth and Torbay to deliver the Connect to Work Programme (CtW). As a key plank in the Government’s Get Britain Working Strategy, Connect to Work will primarily help disabled people, people with health conditions, and those with more complex barriers to work who are outside the labour market in ‘Hidden Unemployment’ who wish to be in employment, to find a suitable job and sustain work. It will also help those in work but at risk of falling out of the labour market (and who will struggle to get back into work if they lose their job) to retain their employment. Connect to Work is a voluntary programme to help tackle economic inactivity by providing a specific form of support targeted at the right people at the right time, based on their individual circumstances. Participants must be both eligible and suitable for the provision. Connect to Work will deliver the evidence-based Supported Employment model, ‘place, train, and maintain’, building on the existing DWP funded Supported Employment programmes; Local Supported Employment (LSE) and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC), to deliver support to around 1200 Participants across Devon and Torbay starting per year once fully rolled out. It will complement other provisions including NHS England’s Individual Placement and Support for people with severe mental illness (IPS SMI) and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ (OHID) Individual Placement and Support for Alcohol and Drug Dependence (IPS-AD), and other locally led programme The procurement is to deliver: Supported employment either in each or across both Torbay and Devon LA that address the local priorities and are integrated within the local employment and health services across two Fidelity models. - IPS integrates employment support alongside primary and secondary health services, and other support services. This integration ideally occurs at a physical level, through co-location and other policies, where applicable. IPS has been successfully utilised within the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) programme to support individuals with mild to moderate mental health and/or physical health conditions. CtW will utilise and expand on the approach taken with IPSPC. Whilst CtW will complement IPS Severe Mental Illness and IPS Alcohol and Drugs, these will remain separate IPS services. - SEQF is (as required) a more in-depth intervention than the form of IPS used for CtW. SEQF is oriented most usually around supporting learning disabled and/or autistic adults as well as others with complex support needs where clinical integration is not needed or appropriate.