Health and Employment Partnerships is a social purpose company within Social Finance, set up in 2015, that aims to help people with health conditions and disabilities secure, sustain and retain fulfilling work.
Too many people are out of work with a health condition. For example, 70-90% of people with mental health issues would like to work, but only 37% are in paid employment. For people with severe mental illness, this falls to 7%. Supporting people into fulfilling employment can improve health and wellbeing and deliver substantial savings to government. We believe that building closer links between the health and employment systems can drive transformational change in the employment rates of people with health conditions and disabilities.
Social Finance designed and manage the world's first social investment-backed programme in health and work, which aims to develop the evidence-based Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model in partnership with local areas. The programme started in three areas of London and the West Midlands in 2016 and now operates across 12 areas. By March 2019, we had supported over 550 people with mental health issues into paid work. Social Finance also manages IPS Grow, an NHS England-backed initiative to support the growth of IPS services across England. Beyond IPS, we are developing programmes to support people who are struggling with a health issue in work and new models of employment support for people with addictions, people with learning disabilities, and older workers.