Right to Control Trailblazer - Youth Unemployment | DWP Leicester

The Right to Control ( RTC) programme was a pilot initiative set up in partnership with Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Leicester City Council (LCC) whereby customers were referred to the provision via Disability Employment Advisors (DEA) within the DWP in Leicester City. Leicester City was part of 11 national Trailblazer pilots for RTC, which was a radical shake-up of the way disabled people use state funding, allowing them to buy their own support services or equipment through the Right to Control.

For the first time, disabled people in the Trailblazer areas could combine money from different state funding streams, for example, as a cash payment, to be spent on whatever they think most appropriate for their needs. This allowed a more personalised service, joining up housing, employment and community care.

Worth-it were one of many providers of services where each client could choose the type of support they felt would be suitable to their individual needs. This was facilitated by LCC and Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL). A meeting was set up where clients could meet the providers of their choice to enable them to make an informed decision about the support available.

The length of time each client’s support plan was determined depended on where they were in the timescale of the pilot scheme but generally, 12 and 9-month plans were the agreed timetables. Although this went down as low as 4 month plans as the pilot came towards its end date. With the longer 12-month plans a further 12 months‘ in-work support’ could be accessed should any client be in work for 16 hours per week or more within their initial 12 month support period.

Each client met with a Worth-it Coach for an engagement session to discuss what type of support they wanted and whether Worth-it could provide that to enable them to achieve their aims before any support plans were completed. As our vision states,‘We are providers of positive psychology coaching, personal development and training interventions. We specialise in the promotion and protection of mental well-being for vulnerable people’. Once the plan was set up by the DEA and LCC/LCIL a date was agreed for the client to start the programme. This was a problem at times as often the gap between agreeing with us to start and the length of time it took the DWP to give the ok to the funding sometimes took as long as 4 months. This was an unacceptable amount of time and had a directly on some clients as they felt as though they had been given hope and then forgotten about. Should any further programmes of this nature be looked at again, one of the points we would insist on would be structured referral dates and guidelines in line with other programmes ie. approx 2-4 weeks from referral to start.

Our end of project evaluation report showed a significant increase in all aspects of each lives, but most notable were improvements to, ‘managing mental health’ ‘Work’ and ‘Trust and hope’. Although not all of our clients found sustainable paid employment, as other factors contributed towards this such as the general economic climate, the steps they made towards achieving that goal have substantially increased their chances.

One of the main areas we see an increase is with ‘Managing their mental health’. These figures show that their coping strategies have improved and have helped to minimise the often debilitating effects, leading to a more meaningful life.

RTC Trailblazer ended in March 2014, which is a shame as it was an amazing project which a significant difference to unemployed people’s lives.

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