Health, care and voluntary organisations in Gloucestershire are teaming up to help people facing barriers to employment secure meaningful work.
Long-term unemployment and economic inactivity puts people at risk of leading shorter and less healthy lives, but a unique approach is being adopted in Gloucestershire which ensures people can access the right opportunities to thrive.
Gloucestershire Employment Alliance is a network that was created to bring health, care and voluntary organisations together to support people who are at risk of unfair or avoidable differences in health (health inequalities) due to long-term unemployment or economic inactivity.
A new information sharing hub has been set up by the Alliance. It is a useful and rich resource containing information and evidence about the links between health and employment, setting out what help is available locally for Gloucestershire residents. The hub includes access to advice and support as well as specialist employment advisers.
Councillor David Gray, Cabinet Member for Environment, Economy and Pkanning at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “The goal is to work together to provide joined up support and provide a collective and more powerful voice. We want people to be healthier, more independent and have better relationships, so we need to help them understand the impact that employment has on their ability to do this and how it can be used to improve people’s health.
“Through the Alliance we want to form relationships across organisations where we work together to address issues and make Gloucestershire a much healthier place to live. With so much good provision in the county, we want to raise awareness of the support available.”
The Alliance has taken an initial step of setting up a digital workspace on FutureNHS, an easy to use online hub that helps colleagues working in health and care connect, share resources, develop new skills and work together on projects.
More recently, thanks to a grant from the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC), NHS Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire County Council’s Employment and Skills Hub have joined forces to deliver the Linking Employment and Health – ‘LEAH’ Project.
Michelle Allen, Business Manager, at NHS Gloucestershire said: “The project aims to strengthen links between employment and health by supporting people into work or helping people with health conditions or disabilities to stay employed.
“It is also supports the reduction of the risk of health inequalities associated with long term unemployment and economic inactivity.”
GPs and other healthcare professionals who are interacting with people with a medical need are guided about suggesting ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make employment more accessible.
Work can be part of a person’s recovery journey and making reasonable adjustments means that writing a sick note can sometimes be avoided.
Dame Gill Morgan, Chair of NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said: “We want Gloucestershire to be a great place to live and to work.
Employment brings income, and income can have a major impact on health and wellbeing.
However it’s not solely about income, employment gives structure to people’s lives and people define themselves because of their job so any strategy that focuses on health needs to have employment at its heart.”
Notes:
If you would like more information about the Employment Alliance or the LEAH project you can contact Michelle Allen on leahproject@gloucestershire.gov.uk