THe secretary of social protection, Liz KendallWearing an apron, rolls a ball of sourdough. When it comes to removing people with inability and going back to work, the creation of bread, it seems, has a role to play.
Kendall is at Work workA community center in Northampton. There is a coffee, garden center and workshops and kitchens offering people with mental illness, autism, learning disabilities and brain damage the possibility of developing their lives and professional skills.
People referred to Workbridge often take their first provisional measures to a job or return to work. Activities – art, wooden return, ceramics, creation of bread – are essentially therapeutic, on confidence, routine and confidence.
During his visit last month, Kendall wanted to highlight the less discussed aspects of the ambitious work plan, Make Great Britain workBut the visit came in a context of political noise around government cuts for incapacity benefits.
The service system was “broken,” said Kendall. She said that she wanted to replace the idea of work as a place of distrust and punishment by the one who provided real help to people in incapacity benefits, many of whom say they want to work.
The existing system did not provide appropriate support for disabled job seekers but has created incentives not to work, she said, adding that places such as Workbridge are part of the new approach. “I'm here to change the system,” she said. “It must be a real reform, not just cuts.”
Josh, a 19 -year -old with dyspraxia, took leather workbridge and bread creation courses. With additional Mencap support, he had to start working, with a work boyfriend, at Amazon.
He was first uncertain, then charming irrepressibly. Has he helped him? “It gave me more confidence to talk to people,” he said. A friend asked him what he would like to do. Josh smiled: “I like to play.”
Mark, 54, was an experienced professional when the anxiety who had tormented him for most of his life turned into a breakdown. With a purpose of depression, he lost his job, his relationship and his savings, and has become a virtual recluse.
The Local Jobcentre referred it to Woodbridge. “I would never have chosen to take a course in the leaven in a million years. But it brought me out of the house. After two or three weeks, I went from terrified to: “No, what is the next one?” “”
The creation of bread was not a magic solution, he said. He was not ready to return to a full -time job. But it was a start. He contrasted him at his first disastrous meeting at the Jobcentre.
“I was sweating, panicked. It was as if they wanted me to hold universal credit as soon as possible, “he said. “If I had been forced to a job (at that time), I would have been sick after three weeks. I would have had none of the tools I needed. The compulsion does not work. »»
Richard Draper, job advisor for handicaps at Northampton Jobcentre, said Jobcentres had lost his way in recent years, becoming too focused on social benefits and deliver financial sanctions to people who fell against the rules of rigid profit.
He wanted to see a more personalized and flexible approach. More face to face, a sustained commitment, helping the applicants who had not worked for years to “find their feet” in the world of work. “Absolutely everything in this business to put people back to work concerns relations,” he said.
Sanjith Kamath, deputy director general of the charity of St Andrew's Healthcare, who directs Workbridge, said that he had produced positive results, but that it would be bad to overexploit the latter: “Not everyone could work 40 hours a week. Our role is to maximize the hope that they can do as best. »»
Funding is precarious for charitable organizations such as Workbridge, which are under the shock of the financial impact national labor insurance cuts. “We need coherent funding. Everyone recognizes (what we do) is a good thing. But they have to pay for that, ”said Kamath.
Kendall said that helping people who wanted to work and who could work but who were abandoned by an uninteresting system of services, was a “cause of labor”. She said, “There are a lot of people who, with the right help and good support, could work. But we must help them acquire skills and confidence. »»
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