Blog

This is the time of year when it is traditional to review the main events of the year.  I have been writing this blog throughout 2011, and whilst the area of Work, health and wellbeing cannot claim to have been momentous as many other events of the year, it has certainly been a busy time.

I started by noting that health and work have never been so close together, and this trend certainly hasn't weakened, with the NHS and Job Centreplus engaged in conversations around welfare reform and how best to promote work as a health outcome.  There is a lot more to come on this subject, with discussions over joint commissioning on the agenda and more direct clinical engagement with the health disabilities issue on the cards.

For the Welfare to Work industry still digesting the impact of the Work Programme.  I wonder, for some in the industry, this may be a case of being careful of getting what you wish for.  The new programme has all sorts of flexibilities, but is very much driven by the kind of referrals it is getting. As the impact of previous New Deal regimes lessens providers will be getting a wider range of referrals, and as the Work Capacity Assessment takes affect, more ex-health related benefit claimants will be coming there way.  Unfortunately, data in the London contract areas remains thin, but undoubtedly contractors will welcome clients who are younger and closer to the labour market, or alternatively carry a bigger financial premium for successful sustained job entry.  From the perspective of an employer, the training and employment advice offer looks disconnected and I remain convinced that employers need more incentives to engage with the programme, especially where they offer training themselves.  I asked if the Work Programme would Work, and while it is unlikely to totally fail, it certainly will not have the impact spoken of without further adaptation.  The role of JCP is critical, and I feel Health, Housing and Local Authorities need to be joined more closely for it to reach its goals.

Underlying this agenda is of course the increase in unemployment across the UK.  I take no pleasure in being proved right in doubting that unemployment would continue to go down as it was earlier in the year.  Unfortunately trends are in the wrong direction at present and this will continue to dominate the agenda in 2012. Locally we have the Olympics, of course, and a rare note of good news comes from the successful local recruitment campaign that I hear is happening for the temporary jobs created during the Games.   In January we will look at what is happening in the NHS, and how the health service can build its support for health, work and wellbeing.