IAPT background
The Department of Health runs the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (IAPT), which offers effective 'talking therapies' intervention and treatment choices to people with depression and anxiety disorders.
Initial pilots of this programme took place in Newham and Doncaster over 2006/7, and based on their success, the programme is rolling out across England. 35 Primary Care Trusts in England established new services in late 2008 and a further 80 will do so in Autumn 2009. Every Primary Care Trust in England will begin to do this in 2010. This is enabling the NHS to implement National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines on depression and anxiety disorders by 2011.
For more information on the wider IAPT programme, please visit www.iapt.nhs.uk
Employment adviser job retention pilots
In welcoming Dame Carol Black's Review of the health of Britain's working age people, the Department for Work and Pensions announced in March 2008 that it would fund a pilot to place Employment Advisers with 12 IAPT sites in England. These pilots began in January 2009 and will run until 2011. Similar job retention pilots linked to psychological therapy services are currently being developed for pilots in Scotland and Wales.
The employment advisers work alongside therapists, providing information, advice, guidance and practical support to help working people using the IAPT service to remain in work, or return to work as quickly as possible. Employment advice providers work with local businesses to raise the profile of the service and the availability of coordinated health and employment support for employees.
For IAPT service users who are out of work, the employment advisers help with access to Jobcentre Plus and partner support.
The Employment Adviser job retention pilots are taking place in:
- Camden and Ealing PCTs
- Swindon PCT
- Buckinghamshire PCT
- West Kent PCT
- Cambridgeshire PCT
- East Riding and North Lincolnshire PCTs
- Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Shropshire PCT
- Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT
- North Tyneside PCT
Employment Support workers in every IAPT service
In March 2009, DH and DWP announced additional funding to address the expected increase in demand for psychological support from people feeling worried by the impact of the economic downturn.
- From later this year every IAPT service will have linked employment support workers who will provide employment support for people with common mental health problems and help people back to work
This will ensure that service users of each IAPT service benefit from properly co-ordinated access to employment support, through Jobcentre Plus or whichever local or mainstream employment service is best placed to meet the needs of the individual.