00:00Groundwork Northeastern Cumbria will lead part of the Connect2Work scheme in Newcastle
00:05and North Tyneside funded through the North East Combined Authority.
00:10The initiative is designed to help people who are currently out of work move into jobs
00:14quickly with continued support once they are employed.
00:18What Connect2Work is about is unlike other employability programmes where people may
00:22present to you with a number of barriers and you would normally work through the barriers
00:27and then say work is the end result, this turns that on its head.
00:32So Connect2Work and IPS are very much around trying to understand people have barriers,
00:37needs and issues but actually using work is one of the routes to resolve and eradicate
00:43some of those barriers so it's very much a work first programme.
00:47One of the things that we're really keen to do in Connect2Work is to build relationships
00:51with the primary and secondary care health sectors.
00:55We're aware there are a lot of people who are receiving primary and secondary care particularly
01:00primary care and again you know we understand the pressures that there are on the NHS and
01:06health related services.
01:07We want to work alongside those services to basically support those individuals where they
01:13want to to progress into work whilst the health professionals can obviously work with the
01:18individuals around the health concerns.
01:19The programme takes what organisers describe as a jobs first approach.
01:23Participants who want to return to work will be matched with employers and supported to move
01:29into employment ideally within four to eight weeks.
01:32The scheme is open to people who are economically inactive including some living with physical or
01:38mental health conditions as well as people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
01:43So the programme is aimed at basically predominantly people who are economically inactive so people who have a health condition.
01:49However, the programme is open to people who have a very, very wide range of barriers.
01:54That could be people who have maybe been ex-veterans, people who have drug and alcohol issues, people who maybe
02:00have been affected by a life of crime.
02:03But predominantly it's for people who have a health condition and see health as their largest barrier to returning to
02:10work.
02:11I think the other thing I'd like to add around Connect2Work is unlike a lot of other employability programmes, as
02:17well as putting the customer at the centre of the project, it also puts employers front and centre as well.
02:23Because obviously our role within Connect2Work is to bring people who want to work but understand that they may have
02:29issues and barriers and concerns with employers who need good people, who want to work, who are ready to work
02:36and perhaps understand that some of those customers need a little bit of extra support.
02:40And again, what we will deliver to employers is that extra support to them as well as to the customers.
02:48Organisers say the aim is to help more people move into stable employment while supporting businesses to retain staff.
02:55The programme is expected to run for five years across parts of the region.
02:59As I've got to create a routine or not, I think that's another standard, two, if this is something that's
02:59the thing, I mean that the best plan is this.
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