What is Working Well East Midlands?
Working Well East Midlands aims to help people with physical and mental health needs to find the right job, return to work after long-term sickness or keep their current job. Standguide do this through Individual Placement and Support (IPS), working with employers and Primary Care NHS teams to create a pathway into employment that supports both health and work.
Standguide deliver Working Well East Midlands in Bassetlaw, Derby City and Mid Nottinghamshire.
Our Employment Specialists provide advice to help participants overcome a wide range of work-related barriers, as well as offering in-work support for both the employee and the employer. This ensures that employment is realistic, sustainable and promotes good physical and mental health.
Watch the video below or click any button to see how our IPS delivery can support you:
Benefits for Individuals
If you have a physical or mental health condition and want to find a job, or are struggling to keep your job, then Working Well East Midlands could be for you. Our Employment Specialists will work with you and any NHS teams involved in your care to help you to:
How can Working Well East Midlands help me?
- Decide what types of jobs would best suit you, your circumstances and your health needs
- Work out what benefits and support you are entitled to while working
- Understand what jobs are out there and help you get into new lines of work
- Manage your health and wellbeing so that you feel able to work
- Tackle any other problems that prevent you from working
- Find and apply for jobs including writing CVs, letters and application forms
- Get ready for job interviews and feel confident talking to employers.
Our support doesn’t just end there. We also work with local employers to:
- Find the right job opportunities matching what you want
- Negotiate with employers to make reasonable adjustments to suit your needs
- Provide support for your physical and mental health once you start work
- Help resolve any concerns, disputes or issues you might have once you’re in the job.
Struggling to keep your job?
If you’re finding it difficult to keep your job because of a physical or mental health condition, or you’re returning to work after a long time off sick, then Working Well East Midlands could help you. We work with people and their employers to:
- Discuss possible changes to hours, conditions and duties to make it easier to balance your work and your health needs
- Put support and training in place in your workplace to help you succeed
- Give advice on reasonable adjustments that could help you
- Offer information on Access to Work funding you might be able to get to help you
- Tackle any other concerns that might be making it harder for you to keep your job
- Resolve any disputes or miscommunication between you and your employer.
What’s the catch?
There isn’t one! Working Well East Midlands is:
- Fully funded – that means no charge to you
- Voluntary – you decide if you want to take part
- Lead by you – you make the decisions on what’s best for you.
What our participants say*:
“Job searching can be proper stressful, my Employment Specialist made it feel like a breeze. It’s also nice to have someone to chat too about it to“
“Every step along the way my Employment Specialist has been really good about not just asking but discussing how it could happen“
“My Employment Specialist helped me identify a list of things I could recognise when having a bad day and helped me plan for what I could do to help myself”
*Feedback from Standguide’s 2022 Cheshire IPS Fidelity Review
How to join Working Well East Midlands:
To join our service, call 0161 881 4826, option 5 or textphone 18001 0161 881 4826
Can’t use the phone? Email referrals@standguide.co.uk for more information.
Deaf or hard of hearing? Relay UK makes chatting to us easy when using the phone is tricky. Download the Relay UK app via the App Store for Apple devices, or at
Google Play for Android devices, or visit www.relay.uk.bt.com
View our full eligibility criteria here:
Benefits for Referring Partners
How does IPS support recovery?
We believe that the right employment is good for health. According to the World Health Organisation’s: World Mental Health Report: Transforming Mental Health for All (2022): “Throughout adulthood, employment under decent working conditions is particularly important for mental health”.
Our service ensures that participants are supported to find paid jobs, negotiating hours, support and working conditions with employers where required. This helps ensure that employment positively contributes to condition management and recovery, providing a benefit to the individual and reduced demand on attached health services.
Who we work with:
Standguide work on behalf of Nottingham City Council to deliver Working Well East Midlands in partnerships with primary care teams in Mid Nottinghamshire, Derby City and Bassetlaw. If you’re of working age, have a health condition or disability and are not receiving help to find employment from anyone else other than Jobcentre Plus, then you could be eligible for our service.
How we work with you:
Collaboration is core to our service delivery. This means we:
- Contact referred individuals within 3 working days
- Work in line with each individual’s support plan
- Schedule appointments around your teams’ availability
- Share information to keep you informed of participant progress
- Work with you to prevent disengagement from services.
Our performance and quality:
In autumn 2022 our Cheshire NHS IPS service was assessed under the Fidelity Scale by IPS Grow. We are delighted to have scored 119 out of a maximum 125 marks, graded as “Exemplary”. This was the highest score awarded to any organisation nationally. We also received the ‘Quality Mark’ for high performance across key criteria, including number of participants entering paid employment.
Our service has also been praised in The Big Book of Best Practice, page 33: Download it here:
What our clinical partners say*:
“We really do sing their praises”
“The Employment Specialist is distinctively good”
“They have slotted right into the team. They are flexible and respond quickly”
“It feels like the linking in is really easy… there are not lots of forms, you can just pick up the phone”
*Feedback from Standguide’s 2022 Cheshire IPS Fidelity Review
Eligibility:
- Individuals must not be on another Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) contracted employment programme or provision including ESF
- Individuals must not be on another employment programme or provision delivered by another government department, charitable trust, or third party
- Individuals must not be receiving employment support, other than from Jobcentre Plus.
- Individuals must be of working age
- Individuals must have a physical or mental health disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010
- Individuals must have an entitlement to public funds
- If an individual is already in-work, they must have been employed for at least 6 months before starting IPSPC and be working a minimum of 7 hours per week
- Individuals must be willing to participate in IPSPC to remain in paid work or be willing to find and sustain paid work
- Individuals may or may not be in receipt of DWP benefits.
How to make a referral:
To refer an individual to our service, call 0161 881 4826, option 5 or textphone 18001 0161 881 4826
Can’t use the phone? Email referrals@standguide.co.uk
Benefits for Employers
Why is IPS important for employers?
Supporting the physical and mental health of your workforce is more important today than ever, due to:
- The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the nation’s physical and mental health
- An aging population resulting in an older workforce
- Promoting workplace wellbeing reduces turnover, helping combat the increasing costs of recruiting.
How Working Well East Midlands can help your business:
We can help provide your business with new staff and in-work support, as well as offering you the opportunity to give something back to the community and support our NHS.
Our employer partners receive:
- Skilled candidates who choose to work for your business
- Guidance on supporting your workforce, their wellbeing and specific health conditions
- Information on applying for Access to Work funding to further support employees
- On-site visits and support phone calls when required.
Unlike other employment services we place then train. This helps businesses improve their support for employee health and wellbeing, which ensures higher job retention and lower recruitment fees.
Best of all, we provide our services at no charge to your business!!!
Get in touch today:
Ready to find out what Working Well East Midlands can do for your business? Email workingwellem@standguide.co.uk for more information.
