Following discussions with Government to stop the trailblazing Working Win scheme from being scrapped, South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard has announced grant funding to keep it going for a further two years, helping thousands of people with health conditions find or stay in work.
The programme has already supported more than 6,500 people in South Yorkshire. Through the new funding, it’s expected that a further 3,000 people with physical or mental health conditions will be supported until March 2025.
South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard, who also chairs the region’s Integrated Care Partnership, has welcomed the new funding as part of his commitment to address the region’s health inequalities.
South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said: “When I was elected as South Yorkshire’s Mayor, I said I’d do what I could to make South Yorkshire the healthiest region in the country, and Working Win is a great example of how we’re working to tackle health inequalities in South Yorkshire.
“Too many people are held back by poor health in South Yorkshire, and are unable to stay in work or find new jobs. Working Win has been genuinely life-changing for thousands of people here, so I’m so really pleased our campaigning efforts have paid off and it’s been given further funding to keep going, and will now help thousands more people in South Yorkshire.”
The new funding, secured by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), is part of the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) initiative. The aim of the IPSPC initiative is to promote inclusive growth by helping to achieve a reduction in health inequalities through supporting people to access employment.
The £5.9 million IPSPC grant will mean that the current instalment of the Working Win programme, which has provided support since April 2018, can continue to benefit participants until June 2023. In July 2023, the delivery of the new grant programme will commence, for which an open procurement process will be announced soon.
Richard Stubbs, chair of the South Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Fifteen million days of work a year are lost due to stress, anxiety and depression alone. This leads to businesses losing productivity and causes reduced quality of life for individuals. Working Win can help by supporting those out of work or off sick with free coaching to get them to a better place in their employment journey. This brings benefits to them, to employers and to the wider community.”
