News Tag: Disability and Health Employment

West Sussex Mind are looking for a consultant to evaluate ‘ Families in Mind Service’

West Sussex Mind would like to engage a consultant to evaluate our Families in Mind Service and make recommendations on how the service could be developed to better meet the needs of families going forward.

Background to Families in Mind Service

Families in Mind started as a pilot project between 2015-2018 which was funded by a mixture of grants and statutory funding. In 2019 we were successful in a bid to the National Lottery Community Fund, through their Reaching Communities programme and are now in the last year of the three year funded programme ending on 31st March 2022.

The service supports parents of children under 5 years old to develop understanding and resilience around their mental health and works in Adur, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor.

The objectives and outcomes of the lottery project are:

Objectives:

We need to reach out to people as early as possible to ensure that they can address their issues before they get more complex. We will do this by:

Promoting and raising awareness around mental health and well-being to, and build emotional resilience, in parents
Reaching out to and make contact with parents who are experiencing mental health difficulties and their partners in a variety of informal ways
Providing advice, information and sign-posting to parents and their partners around their mental health
Providing time limited and recovery focused individual mental health support to parents
Providing structured group learning and development sessions to parents around mental health and well-being
Facilitate and develop the giving and receiving of individual and group peer support

Outcomes:

Specific outcomes that will be measured will be for parents to:

Be less isolated and have more developed support networks
Increase their awareness and understanding of their own mental health and well-being
Increase their skills to manage their own mental health and well-being

Although the focus of outcome measurement will be around parents, it is an explicit intention that the service will contribute to improved outcomes for children.

What we are looking for

We are looking for a consultant to look at how effectively the current model is meeting the needs of our service users and make recommendations on how the service could be developed or reshaped. Ideally we would want this work to start by the end of August 2021 and be completed by Mid October 2021.

In particular we would like it to include:

How effectively has Families in Mind achieved the outcomes and objectives set out in the Lottery bid (as described above)
What are the current needs of our audience, are there any specific needs following the pandemic that need to be addressed?
Recommendations on what is needed/what could we offer, what should stay the same, develop, be added, stop?

This consultation would need to include input from:

Prospective service users / parents of young children
Current Service user views
Current Staff views
Stakeholder/partner views

When awarding this contract we will look to agree the engagement numbers for each of these audiences.

Our experience has taught us that the approach to engage and seek the views of service users and prospective service users is likely to work best with phone calls or face to face discussions (due to the fact they are parents with young families) following on from timetabled group activities. Surveys are more likely to work with stakeholders/staff.
As part of this work we would like the consultant to chair a task and finish group which will meet 3 times over the course of this evaluation between end of August and Mid October which will include contribution by an expert by experience who will we recruit from our service users to be involved in this work.

The key output of this work will be a written report summarising:

the approach to the evaluation and who was involved,
how Families in Mind has achieved its outcomes and objectives since the start of the Lottery funded programme,
how the needs of the community have changed in this period and;
how the service can be developed to reflect these changes

We anticipate that the work will take between 8-10 days to complete.

Consultant expected to:

West Sussex Mind will:

Chair task and finish groups

Create consultation tools and arrange phone calls or in person consultation sessions

Write up out-puts from task and finish groups, consultation sessions

Create a report summarising the evaluation project and recommendations for the future of the service

Provide link person to liaise with around this piece of work

Provide data, reports and contact information needed for this work

Engage the expert by experience and set up the task and finish group meetings and provide zoom links

Promote the opportunities to be involved in the consultation to service users

Our requirements

We are interested in receiving CVs from those interested in this piece of consultancy work.

We will review received CVs as they are received and will make contact with those shortlisted to discuss the work ahead of requesting a costed proposal.

We are looking for this work to take place between late August – mid October 2021, so please indicate your availability for this period when you submit your CV.

CVs should be submitted to: kate.scales@westsussexmind.org

Attracting Talent for the Music Industry: Accessible Employment Guide

Research suggests that disabled people remain hugely underrepresented at all levels of the UK music industry, despite significant increases in disabled audiences at live music events and the fact that 19% of working adults are considered disabled under the Equality Act. More concerningly, a study published by UK Music in April 2021 found that one in five disabled people in the music industry have faced discrimination at work.

The Accessible Employment Guide, borne out of TNL Community Funded Beyond The Music programme, wants to help address and remedy this situation.

Aimed at businesses of all scales, and particularly small and micro-sized enterprises without extensive HR resources, this guide offers simple and straightforward tips on how to attract talented Deaf and disabled workers with advice on everything from accessible job interviews and accessible meetings to suggested adjustments to office and work environments. It also features comprehensive first-hand insights from Deaf and disabled people about the challenges they face in the workplace, as well as changes to employment practices that can alleviate these barriers.

Read and download the guide here:

Accessible Employment Guide – PDF

If you would like the guide in a different format, please e-mail Skills Development Manager, Phoebe (Phoebe@attitudeiseverything.org.uk)

People, Not Tick Boxes – MIND call to reform the disability benefits system

When people get the right support from the benefits system it can be life changing. However too often those of us with mental health problems are going without the support we need.

Our report sets out what we’ve heard from hundreds of people with mental health problems, and sets out a case for five changes that would make sure the benefits system treats all of us with dignity and respect.

An independent regulator for the benefits system would redress the imbalance of power, which leaves so many of us struggling to challenge inaccurate decisions.
A clearer route to long-term awards would reduce the burden of repeated assessments on people who are already unwell.

Giving people more choice over the method of assessment would help make sure that all

disabled people have the opportunity to put their case across and get a fair hearing.
An independent commission led by disabled people would give people with experience of the system a role in designing the future of disability benefits assessments.
An end to benefit sanctions for disabled people would give people who are unable to work the financial security and peace of mind needed to stay well and move forward with their lives

All of us should be able to turn to a benefits system that’s there when we need it. We should know that we’ll get a fair hearing, that we’ll be listened to and taken seriously. Benefits should give us the security we need to focus on moving forward with our lives. Download the report to find out more about how we can get there.

Download the full report: https://www.mind.org.uk/media/6483/people-not-tick-boxes-october2020.pdf

A National Strategy for Disabled People to remove barriers and increase participation

The Cabinet Office’s Disability Unit is working across government and with disabled people to develop a National Strategy for Disabled People.

The Cabinet Office’s Disability Unit is working with government colleagues, disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, charities and businesses to achieve practical changes that will remove barriers and increase participation.

A key focus is the development of a National Strategy for Disabled People. This will put fairness at the heart of government work, to level up opportunity so everyone can fully participate in the life of this country.

The strategy will build on evidence and data, and critically on insights from the lived experience of disabled people.

It will include existing commitments, such as to increase special educational needs and disability funding and support pupils, students and adults to get careers advice, internships and transition into work, whilst identifying further opportunities to improve things.

Our objectives for the National Strategy for Disabled People are to:

develop a positive and clear vision on disability which is owned right across government
make practical changes to policies which strengthen disabled people’s ability to participate fully in society
ensure lived experience underpins policies by identifying what matters most to disabled people
strengthen the ways in which we listen to disabled people and disabled people’s organisations, using these insights to drive real change
improve the quality of evidence and data and use it to support policies and how we deliver them

As the coronavirus pandemic is the current priority for the government, we are reviewing our plans for the development of the strategy. We want to ensure we have enough time to get this right and undertake a full and appropriate programme of stakeholder engagement. People’s views and insights will be crucial as we work with colleagues across government, disabled people and other stakeholders on possible solutions.

Join ERSA to be part of its Disability and Health Employment Forum to help influence and shape government thinking on this and other key areas of employment support. Get in touch with the team at membership@ersa.org.uk.