Introduction

In this chapter we will explore active labour market interventions in employment and health. We will look back at those interventions offered to people with health conditions as well as the role of local authorities and their place as partner with the employability sector. This chapter will conclude by focusing on those programmes that prioritise people. This begins with a mapping of those key employment support policies of the last 30 years or so, leading up to the current day.

Employment support interventions

Supported Employment: Traditionally, employment interventions targeting people with health conditions and disabilities were delivered by local authorities, often at a county council level, as part of their then statutory duties to provide services for people with learning disabilities. These were usually focused on Day Service facilities, but from this emerged the Supported Employment policy. Supported Employment had set the scene for all future health and disability provisions and became a model for supporting people with significant disabilities to secure and retain paid employment (Wilson and Finch, 2021). This was based on the premise that anyone could be employed if they wanted paid employment and if they were provided sufficient support. Supported Employment has sometimes been called the ‘place, train and maintain’ model of vocational rehabilitation. Supported Employment providers use a five-stage process itself based on a model of Customer Engagement, Vocational Profiling, Employer Engagement, Job Matching, In-work Support and Career Development.

In the contemporary period, many local authorities still fund Supported Employment services, others have ended these services due to lack of funding and, in some instances, has been picked up by national and local third sector organisations. There has been some Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) interest in Supported Employment with a DWP Proof of Concept Pilot which followed the publication of the ‘Improving Lives: The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper’ consultation in 2017. This, however, has been overshadowed by nationally procured programmes and those of the devolved commissioners.

The District Managers Discretionary Fund: In the mid-1990s there were some locally procured Employment Service contracts (now known as DWP Jobcentre Plus), these contracts tested approaches by community based organisations delivering services to people with health conditions and disabilities.