Employment: Mental Health Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the average cost per participant of the Support Conversations programme.
Answered by Sir Stephen Timms
Support Conversations are voluntary, one-off hour-long discussions to help disabled people and people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit to discuss their support needs and identify extra help they may need. This personalised support is designed to identify any barriers they may face and link individuals to appropriate support across areas such as appropriate employment support, health, skills, housing and debt advice. This is part of the Government’s £3.5bn investment in Pathways to Work reforms. Support Conversations are currently being delivered as an early-stage pilot scheme. This is testing whether a more holistic approach to understanding customers’ needs and supporting engagement with services to meet these needs helps them move towards work or into meaningful activity (such as volunteering).
The Department does not currently publish regular data on Support Conversations, as the programme is in an early pilot phase. There will be a formal evaluation completed of the pilot scheme that will be published in due course. This will include appropriate information on participation and early outcomes where available.
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