Working for Health

The Working for Health project runs in the familiar environment of the GP’s surgery, providing access to a specialist employment adviser for patients coping with health problems arising from long-term unemployment.

Working for Health began as a partnership between Haringey Teaching PCT (TPCT) and the charity Tomorrow’s People, but has now been mainstreamed and is delivered by the TPCT. It is one of the Haringey Guarantee Partnership projects, and aims to target Incapacity Benefit claimants through GP practices and other health care settings.

The employment adviser works as a member of the primary health care team, offering professional employment advice and guidance to patients. He/she attends the health centre for one session a week, meeting patients who are either referred by medical staff or who approach the service directly. By providing targeted employment support in the secure and familiar environment of the surgery, we can help patients navigate a route back to work, financial independence and improved health.

The project was developed in response to the fact that many people receiving Incapacity Benefit and Disability Allowance are willing and able to work. However, some need extra help navigating their way back into employment because of related mental and physical problems, such as chronic back pain, depression and stress.

Our experience with beneficiaries already registered on the programme has shown that people who have been away from employment or the process of seeking employment for many years, in some cases as long as twenty years, will need to address many issues before they become ready to start the job searching process.

Some people will have experienced many years of ill health, complex treatment regimes and medication. Others will have encountered the unexpected onset of injury or heart attack after previously fairly good health. This means a wide variation in expectations regarding future health.

In order to address some of these more enduring problems and to support the Working for Health Employment Advisers, Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust has piloted a Condition Management Programme (CMP) from October 2007 until March 2008, and this has now successfully secured funding for another year.

The focus of the CMP is on personal support rather than clinical intervention. The evidence highlights the need to address the psychosocial, as well as the physical barriers to work faced by incapacity benefit recipients, and therefore the CMP adopts a model of rehabilitation that helps customers better manage their own health condition and firmly refocus them on their potential for work and active job preparation.

We are currently operating in 7 practices.

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Opening times

Working for Health operates at:

• The Laurels, St Ann’s Road, N15 5AZ - Tuesday 9am - 1pm
• Castleview Surgery, Bruce Grove, N17 6XE - Tuesday 9am - 1pm
• Somerset Gardens, White Hart Lane, N17 8NW - Wednesday 1pm - 5pm
• Westbury Medical Centre, Westbury Ave, N22 6RX - Wednesday 2pm - 5pm
• Charlton House Surgery, High Road N17 6SB - Monday 9am - 12pm
• Morum House Surgery, Wood Green, N22 8HE - Thursday 2pm - 6pm
• Lordship Lane Clinic, Lordship Lane, N17 6AA - Thursday 9am - 12pm

Contact details

Contact Claire Wass, Patricia McLeod or Gloria Daly
Address St Ann’s Hospital, St Ann’s Road,Tottenham, London N15 3TH
Tel 020 8442 6007

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