Centre for Mental Health

Primary Care and Employment

Developing the evidence base for Job Retention

To avoid long-term unemployment, it makes sense to help people remain in work whenever possible, and not to wait for them to become completely detached from the workplace.

As yet there is no robust evidence base for an intervention that operates in or near the workplace, in primary care settings. But we do have some practical examples and a body of expertise built up in this country over many years.

Sainsbury Centre conducted its own study to help build the evidence base.

Turning the Tide:
What characterises an effective Job Retention service?

GPs in Cambridgeshire have been providing access to specialist employment advisers in their surgeries to help people with mental health problems keep their jobs or get into work.

The Retain / Regain scheme is run by the Richmond Fellowship. The scheme aims to break the link between depression, unemployment and poverty by helping people retain their jobs and helping those who do not have work to get into the labour market.

Sainsbury Centre has carried out a research study into this scheme, contacting both GPs and people who have used the service to find out whether and how it makes a difference. The Greater Cambridge Partnership, through the East of England Development Agency's Investing in Communities programme, has supported this important work. The findings will have implications for policy makers, Fit for Work teams and the development of the employment advisory services in the IAPT roll-out.

Details of the study will be available later in 2009.

Delivering job retention services

The what ifs of mental health job retention

Produced by Roger Butterworth of the Job Retention network, this guide looks at what can happen when job retention cases don't go according to plan. It looks at possibilities including the employer refusing to engage with you or your client not wanting you to talk with their employer.

Download the what ifs of job retention (164 KB)

Providing effective job retention services for people with mental health difficulties: Principles and Practice

Based on the knowledge gained from surveys and a pilot study, and in consultation with colleagues around the country, this paper sets down the guiding principles and practices that govern good job retention services.

Job retention principles and practice (172 KB)

Suggested reading

Vocational Rehabilitation - what works, for whom and when? (Warning - this PDF is 11 MB in size).
You can also download a summary here.

Vocational Rehabilitation: What is it, who can deliver it, and who pays?

Getting back before Christmas evaluation report (409 KB)

Robdale, N. (2004) Vocational Rehabilitation: the Enable Employment Retention Scheme, a New Approach. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67 (10), pp. 457-460.

Working for a Healthier Tomorrow: Dame Carol Black's Review of the Health of the Working Age Population.