Public Health England will work with substance misuse treatment providers in seven areas across the country, including Birmingham, to deliver a randomised controlled trial of a specialist form of employment support – Individual Placement and Support.
This initiative involves intensive, personalised support, a rapid job search, and for those who secure employment in-work support for both employee and the employer.
If the trial is successful, and IPS is found to be both effective and cost-effective, it could have a transformative impact on the way that employment support influences treatment and recovery.
It has been the aim of successive governments to support people from substance misuse treatment into paid employment. There are many positive reasons for this; employment is associated with improved treatment outcomes as well as a range of other personal gains, such as greater independence, financial resilience and new social networks. All of these gains can strengthen the benefits of treatment for an individual long after the treatment ends.
Some areas have seen some excellent outcomes but overall there has been little increase in the number of people moving from treatment into employment.
Public Health England, backed by funding from the Government Work and Health Unit, is now working with partners in seven local authorities to deliver the trial, including, Birmingham, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Haringey, Sheffield, Blackpool and Brighton and Hove. The IPS-AD sites provide a broad mix of characteristics – town and city; urban and rural; high deprivation and lower deprivation.
The results attained by these seven sites will feed into analysis which will form the basis for future policy and service provision – evidence-based policymaking in action.
IPS has eight key characteristics that distinguish it from most other forms of employment support:
- Paid employment secured in the competitive job market is the goal
- It is open to all those who want to work
- It aims to support people to find work that matches their preferences and interests
- Job search and contact with employers are initiated quickly – within 4 weeks
- IPS is embedded in and integrated with the treatment services
- The IPS specialists engage directly with employers, building relationships to benefit their clients
- It provides individualised support to the participant and their employer (in standard IPS this would be time-unlimited, although IPS-AD is trialling a time limited version of IPS offering support of up to 13 months)
- Participants are given expert advice around welfare benefits to enable them to make informed decisions about work
The IPS for alcohol and drug dependence (IPS-AD) RCT is intended to test the IPS approach in community treatment for substance misuse – the first time a trial of this sort and scale has been attempted with this client group.
The trial opened to recruitment in May 2018, and is scheduled to run until March 2020 with the results expected to be published in 2021.
(Source: Public Health England)
(Image: Ross Jukes)
