Health Trainer and Worklessness Pilots

Background

A total of 367,420 people of working age in the North West are currently out of work and claiming Incapacity Benefit (IB) due to ill health. This is almost 40% higher than the national average and equates to the second highest concentration of claimants nationally after the North East. In the Office of National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey (2005) 18.2% of North West households were classed as workless. Nearly two thirds of this worklessness is attributable to ill health.

The final economic impact review and final project report will be available from November 2011.

Understanding the association between worklessness and poor health is important from a broad range of perspectives. And by developing services that can impact on both agendas should result in several positive outcomes, if developed sensitively and appropriately.

Approach

July 2009 HM Partnerships, on behalf of the Cheshire and Merseyside and NW Health Trainer Partnerships conduced a review examining the potential relationships between agencies focused on employment and the Health Trainer Services. A number of services, were identified in the report (Health trainers and Job Centre Plus: Making the links) as having a significant potential to jointly develop interventions.

Three pilot sites (Workington, Barrow and Sefton) were identified to deliver a Health Trainer service focused solely on the workless community. All areas had high levels of worklessness, and individuals claiming benefits relating to poor health. The funding needed to deliver the project was taken from money awarded by the Department of Health to Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside for the development of the health trainer model in supporting health inequalities. A budget of £60,000 was identified (£20,000 for each pilot) with £15,000 for evaluation.

The pilot sites all recruited full time Health Trainers to work with the local population, engaging them in their services with the aim of improving their health and increasing their chances of becoming job ready. HM Partnerships strategically coordinated the pilots and managed the project network and project steering group.

The economic impact review conducted in April 2011 by our partner CLES (Centre for Local Economic Strategies) found that approximately 140 people had been supported through the project and had reported some positive impact. The feedback from stakeholders and clients demonstrated that working with the health trainer was having a real impact on the lives of the clients in three main ways:

• Healthier Lifestyles
• Direct Steps to employment
• Signposting to other services