Summary
Recognising the importance of employment as a determinant of health, the HCSP has embedded Employability Engagement workers within existing services which support young people, to help them into positive destinations.
Making A Difference
The project is currently in the early stages of being established, but we hope to soon be able to provide some positive stories of the great work being done and the genuine difference made to the lives of the young people it has supported. For more performance data, visit the Performance Report page.
Employment is recognised by the UK government as ‘one of the most important determinants of physical and mental health’, and those who are long-term unemployed have been shown to have a lower life expectancy and worse health than those in work. This effect extends beyond an individual level, as evidenced in a 2017 paper released by the Department for Work and Pension which found that children in workless families are almost twice as likely to fail at all stages of their education.
This issue is of crucial importance to Glasgow’s young people. Those in the 16-24 age bracket who are not in employment, education, or training are considered to be at significantly greater risk of unemployment and poor health in later life, and Glasgow has traditionally performed below the Scottish average in School Leaver Follow Up rates, a metric which tracks the percentage of school leavers who transition to positive destinations such as education, training, or further employment. It is clear that there is room for improvement here, and by supporting our young people through the challenges of entering employment we can simultaneously improve their long-term health outcomes.
With the core aims of improving Glasgow’s population health and recognising the importance of employment as a social determinant of health and wellbeing, the HSCP has implemented a YPG funded project which embeds employability support within a number of services which currently support young people.
The Youth Health Service, Family Nurse Partnership, Youth Intensive Social Work Service and ESTEEM will all be allocated a WTE Engagement Worker who will provide various forms of employability support to patients engaged with the respective service.
Working alongside clinical and non-clinical staff delivering health and social care interventions such as mental health counselling, peri-natal support, sexual health, weight management, and financial inclusion, the Employability workers will offer a range of support across the employability journey, including:
- Initial case management
- Pastoral support
- Needs Assessment
- Triage to other employability services based on client’s needs
- Building of referral pathways between hosted service and a range of other services offering employability related support e.g. training, volunteering, modern apprenticeships
- Specialist input such as CV building, job searching, confidence development, and goal setting
- Supporting the Employability Lead with monitoring and evaluation
- Connecting with other key programmes such as Community Link Workers
While the project is currently in the early stages of being established, we hope to soon be able to provide some positive stories of the great work being done by the Employability Engagement team and the genuine difference they have made to the lives of the young people they support. In the meantime, for more information contact the project lead Janice Hughes at Janice.Hughes2@ggc.scot.nhs.uk.
