Delivering Integrated Support Services (DISS) Conference
 
Date: Thursday, 28 January 2016 - CANCELLED


Venue: Congress Centre, London

Overview
“Holistic”, “person-centred”, “multi-agency”; call it what you will, but the fact is that future employment-related services will need to integrate with other, relevant support in order to achieve its goals.

With a predicted claimant profile of complex barriers, health issues and entrenched worklessness, employment related support programmes will need to become less siloed and more part of a seamless package of support that addresses claimants’ multiple and convoluted barriers.

This conference – the first of two such events – is aimed at informing providers of other related sectors and how they may integrate with employment support in the future, including “Work Programme Plus”. This event will focus on:

  1. Public health services - including support for substance misuse
  2. The skills sector - pre-employment programmes, workplace learning and community learning
  3. The social housing sector - including Registered Social Landlords and local authority housing services
  4. Mental health services - from common mental health issues to the treatment of severe and enduring problems
To help secure the right kind of employment outcome, to help transform people lives 
             
“I’ve spoken about how we can work together, in partnership, with providers, with stakeholders, but also, importantly, with employers, about how we can work together to really support those individuals who have got challenges or are stuck on Employment Support Allowance, to help get them closer to the labour market.

So, we’re now working across government and with other departments, to see what we can do to really integrate our way of working, to stop the silo-ised way of working that has taken place in the past, to help secure the right kind of employment outcomes that can help to transform people’s lives.

So at the heart of this, of course, will be many of the providers including Work Programme providers and Contracted Support Providers, to see how we can work together to achieve those outcomes, to be focussed on right type of interventions for people, the right kind of support. To support training, to support skills investment and working with employers in particular, to join this up and help transform people’s lives and secure the right kind of employment outcomes.”


Rt. Hon Priti Patel MP, Minister of State for Employment
Inclusion Into Work Convention | 14 July 2015, London

Delivered in two parts, the morning sessions will help providers to understand:

  • The need for the sector’s existence and its overarching goals
  • How a sector operates and what services are delivered
  • How employment related support could integrate with existing services
  • Best practice examples of integration and the scope for innovation
Following a networking lunch, the afternoon will be largely focussed on how providers can get involved with each of the sectors, including:
  • Understanding the opportunity for contracted services – can a provider bid to deliver any of the sector’s services themselves?
  • Opportunities for a multi-agency approach – can a provider dovetail employment support into other services?
  • Ramifications of involvement – what a provider needs to know about getting involved, from staff competency requirements to inspection and compliance regimes
  • Next steps – tips on what to do next to create links, identify opportunities and get involved

Who should attend?

The conference is aimed at all organisations that deliver, or aim to deliver, employment-related services, including:

  • Current Work Programme prime contractors
  • Work Programme supply chain partners
  • CWP providers
  • Deliverers of non-mandatory provision
  • Organisations looking to enter the market 
  • Public sector procurers with an interest in co-commissioning
Day Two is planned for early March 2016 and is provisionally designed to cover homelessness, finance/debt advice, Troubled Families and offender management.