Government to extend job coaches in GP surgeries with £167m funding

The Government is extending its scheme to embed job coaches in GP practices to provide intensive employment advice to 40,000 more sick or disabled people.

Nine more areas in England – including Oxfordshire, Devon, the South Midlands and West Sussex and Brighton – will be putting specialist employment advisers in GP surgeries through the Connect to Work scheme.

It follows on from a White Paper published in November in which Labour unveiled its plans to reform unemployment support, including £45m of new funding for ICBs to contribute to tackling unemployment, and an expansion of NHS Talking Therapies.

North East and North Cumbria ICB was one of the trailblazer sites who said it would use the funding to place work and health coaches in GP practices to ‘offer advice, coaching and support’ to people when health issues become a barrier to working.

Nine areas will be given an additional £167m investment in Connect to Work with funding also used to support people through mental health services, and community-based referral partners. They are:

• North East
• Buckinghamshire
• Oxfordshire
• West Sussex and Brighton
• Berkshire
• Devon, Plymouth and Torbay
• Cumbria
• South Midlands
• York and North Yorkshire

The Government said the total funding was now set to reach over £1bn across England and Wales over the next five years and provide 300,000 sick or disabled people with help to get into work by the end of the decade.

Connect to Work is voluntary and open to anyone who is disabled, has a health condition, or faces complex barriers to work and meets the programme’s criteria, the Government said.

Their figures state over one-in-four people out of work cite sickness as a barrier to employment – up from one-in-ten in 2012, while over one-in-three people on Universal Credit have a disability or health condition that limits their ability to work.

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden said ‘writing off’ people with long-term health conditions or disabilities was failing them and the scheme was already ‘delivering results’.

‘We are giving people a hand up, not a handout, realising their potential and providing them with the skills to succeed as part of our Plan for Change.’

Minister of state for health Stephen Kinnock added that for too long health and work had been treated in isolation.

‘Our 10 Year Health Plan sets out how we are bringing the two together, through innovative schemes like this one.

‘For many people, getting help finding the right work could be as an important part of their prescription as the correct physio or medication.’

‘This investment is just what the doctor ordered and will help thousands more find the help they need to get back into a job.’

The Connect to Work advisers work with individuals to understand their circumstances, career aspirations, and any barriers they face, ensuring the support provided is tailored to them, the Government said.

However GPs warned the scheme could further add to workload and that premises upgrades are needed.

A spokesperson for the Rebuild General Practice Campaign said: ‘Following this announcement, GPs have already expressed concerns around the plans to put return to work advisors in surgeries, citing lack of capacity – both physically and from a resource perspective – and citing instead the importance of the continuity of care and the family doctor. 

‘We know what’s best for our patients and we’re trying to work with the Government to offer solutions, but they don’t seem to be listening to those of us on the ground, doing the job.’

Dr Rosie Shire, a member of DAUK’s GP committee, said: ‘It is great that the Government is connecting work and health, and funding is being allocated to this area.

‘We know that being in work is important for people’s health, and people do want to work.

‘What is not mentioned are the barriers to this. Job coaches may be able to help with things like training and interview practice, but just helping people to upskill isn’t sufficient to get them into work.

‘Who is going to provide the support they need in the workplace? People with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or impairments have a lot to offer employers and business, but many will need support in the workplace, and employers may need support to keep that person in their job.

‘For example, someone with a hearing impairment might require a British Sign Language interpreter for their work. Who will fund that?

‘In the last 12 months, the Government’s Access to Work scheme, which is designed to support people with disabilities to do their job, has seen it’s waiting list for assessment for support increase substantially, and more applicants are having their claims rejected.

‘Upskilling is helpful, but it’s not the only barrier that is preventing people with health conditions from working.

‘Who is going to provide the support long-term?’

Dr Sarah Jacques, DAUK GP co-lead, said: ‘The DWP has been trying to do this for a while.

‘However, when I have spoken to my regional DWP, it hasn’t been able to have a presence in GP surgeries as there aren’t any spare rooms.
‘It also only has enough coaches to be in a surgery once a month.

‘On one occasion they wanted a delay in issuing a sick note until the patient had seen a job coach.
‘The coach was only going to be able to offer a handful of appointments each time they were present.

‘How am I going to reason with a patient that they may have to wait four weeks before they saw someone when they might not have any money to survive that four weeks?

‘Unless DWP is going to up capacity and GP surgeries turn into a Tardis, I don’t know how this is going to work.’

NHS leaders recommended in 2024 that GP practices should host work coaches and other career advice services to help people get back to work, and plans for GP surgeries to station job coaches to get unemployed over-50s back to work had also been floated by the previous Government. 

A similar project placing job coaches in GPs surgeries was set up in North London, but campaigners protested against the programme, defined at the time as an ‘intensive and personalised employment coaching pilot scheme’, saying it would threaten the doctor-patient relationship.