However successful an employment support pilot is, sometimes there is no option to continue this good work once funding ends. Between 2017 and 2019 Northumberland County Council delivered, on behalf of seven local councils, the ‘North East mental health trailblazer’ . It delivered integrated employment support and talking therapies to unemployed people with anxiety and/or depression, to improve their mental wellbeing and help them find work.
More than 1,450 people were supported, with over 270 moving into employment. This pilot, jointly funded with £2.2 million by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and ESF, showed that employment and mental health services could work effectively together. Unfortunately there has not been a way to continue this work, although the local NHS foundation trust is investing in individual placement and support (IPS) for people in secondary care.
More opportunity to influence national initiatives, such as DWP’s ‘Restart’, would be welcomed, Kevin Higgins said.
“National commissioning models mean that we haven’t had a say in how Restart is designed or commissioned. In terms of co-commissioning we remain interested in better integration of services and are keen to do more on linking employment with health and wellbeing, for example.”
Northumberland would like to be able to deliver more place-based approaches, he added.
"In our large county, provision needs to respond to the demands of very different areas, such as urban or coastal deprived areas, market towns and deep rural areas. This can be a challenge with prime provider contracts designed for huge areas. Specific local approaches don’t necessarily fit into their models, and in reality there can be limited autonomy in how contracts meet specific local needs.
“I would like councils and their partners to be able to take a more localised approach to programmes such as Restart. We have the local knowledge and connections. I would like to see us get to a point where we have the ability to have more traction over how national programmes land in our area.”
Data is another issue Kevin highlighted.
“For example, we don’t have much information on how many ‘Kickstart’ places are being delivered in our area in terms of volumes, sectors and occupations. Having this would allow us to use local intelligence to target key areas of need. Better local data sharing should be fundamental to localism and devolution agreements.”