Start Your Friday With Something Different

Attracting good calibre staff who are keen to be part of a working environment is challenge for all employers and can be a costly mistake if things go wrong!! People with learning disabilities are currently one of the most excluded groups in the labour market. Many want to work with getting and keeping a job often stated as a priority for people with learning disabilities. Employers of people with disabilities testify to their dedication and hard work and consider them valuable members of staff.

Want to know more?
Please join us on Friday 23rd April from 8.30am until 10am in Spoons café, 46 Trongate, Glasgow, G1 5ES. Breakfast will be service from 8.30 am after which there’s the opportunity to listen to the people who are the real experts in this – people with learning disabilities. Our “employment champions” will speak about their journeys to employment leaving you in no doubt about their abilities and desire to work.

Glasgow newest supported employment service will outline the work they are doing to ensure that individuals and employers get the right job match increasing the sustainability of employment and reducing recruitment costs.  

Places are limited so to confirm your place please contact; Angie Black, Glasgow Supported Employment Service manager on angie.black@glasgow.org.uk 

Glasgow Employer Coalition has joined forces with Healthy Working Lives, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Works and the Financial Services Agency to offer workplace based Financial Capability Sessions.  These free sessions are available to any employer** who is interested in supporting their staff to be more money aware.  

The sessions take one hour and cover:

• basic financial planning and budgeting;
• borrowing – long-term and short-term;
• insurance;
• saving and investing.

The sessions take place in your workplace and can take place at a time appropriate to you (lasting approximately one hour).  For more information or to download resources and materials visit the FSA website.

or to arrange a sessions during March 2010 contact:
Leona Seaton, Employer Engagement Manager, Glasgow Employer Coalition
lseaton@glasgowemployercoalition.org.uk
0141 800 3363/ 07500946298

** Please note a minimum of 20 participants are needed to run the course effectively.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) recently announced its intention to extend a pilot programme which aims to support people with mental health problems in the workplace. The pilot programme, run in conjunction with the mental health charity Mind, has demonstrated a 90% success rate in helping people remain in employment.

Jim Knight, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, announced that the Government was now looking to extend the support, with an expectation of rolling it out nationally with a range of providers. Making the announcement, the Minister said: "I know disabled people dearly want to stay in work and their employers want to do everything they can to keep good staff. Our plans to offer the right help early on can end the downward spiral of people falling out of work into sick leave, and onto benefits. We are all agreed that helping people stay in work is good news for them, their bosses and for the taxpayer."

Sophie Corlett, Mind's Director of External Relations, said: "If employers put their mind to it and provide the right support they can keep their staff mentally well and fit for the workplace. People with mental health problems want to work but are often failed by employers who lack the understanding or the skills to provide the necessary support. We welcome the Government's increased investment in mental health, particularly during these difficult economic times, when now more than ever people need the support and understanding of their employers."

The Government also announced that it would be doubling the Access to Work fund, from £69m to £138m, over the next five years. This support, available through JobCentre Plus, provides practical advice and financial support to disabled people and their employers to help them overcome work-related obstacles resulting from disability.

Additionally, the first ever National Strategy for Mental Health and Employment is due to be published in the autumn of 2009.