Training charity get national platform
A senior case manager at Exeter based charity St Loye’s Foundation has addressed a national conference focussed on getting disadvantaged people into work and the challenges they face along the way.
Jane Edwards, who specialises in offering employment advice and guidance to people with health conditions and disabilities, was joined in her presentation to the Into Work Convention by Simon Mills of Sustaincare, a Community Interest Company building a new model health service. They have been collaborating on a new ‘Health Journal’ which contains workbooks for clients covering sleep, stress, low energy and eating issues.
The joint presentation at the Arena Convention Centre in Liverpool on 9 July was entitled The St Loye’s Foundation Health Journal: enabling clients to “take ownership” and better manage their health conditions.
Jane Edwards said: “The Journal assists clients to better understand and recognise health-related barriers to employment. In addition to ‘ownership’, it helps them track their progress. It has been adapted for clients on the Work Programme and is also a toolkit for other work related contracts; it has been designed to assist staff and give them a structured management tool to work with clients on their health issues.”
Simon Mills added: “It was very valuable to see our innovation in the national context, where the challenges to improving employability were made very clear. We are ever more convinced that our approach can make a major contribution. We were able to demonstrate that it can add enormously to the constructive relationship between a health challenged client and the support team. Indeed we even drew interest from Australia.”
The Into Work Convention was organised by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, the UK’s leading not-for-profit company dedicated to tackling disadvantage and promoting social inclusion in the labour market. Keynote speaker at the Convention was the Right Hon Esther McVey MP, Minister for Employment, Department for Work and Pensions.
St Loye’s Chief Executive, Christopher Knee, said: “It is very gratifying seeing a St Loye’s initiative presented on a national stage. It is another key indicator that the work we set out to accomplish with the disabled and disadvantaged is reaching an ever increasing audience and I am certain that everyone at the charity will join in congratulating Jane and Simon on their very significant achievement.”
