Coventry HDRC is establishing a research network to reduce health inequalities and improve the health of Coventry residents.
A report by Sir Michael Marmot in 2020 states that good-quality employment usually protects health, while unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, contributes significantly to poor health. Employment is an example of a building block of health. To create a society where everybody can thrive, we need to ensure all the right building blocks are in place.
Coventry’s Job Shop provides coaching, practical support, career advice, and skills support to help people find good quality employment. In addition to employment skills, the service aims to improve customers' soft skills, such as confidence-building and motivational sessions. Most Job Shop customers are unemployed, economically inactive or at risk of leaving employment.
The Employment and Skills team was interested in understanding the associations between the Job Shop services' support and the impact of health outcomes, such as mental health, on service users. They were also keen to learn more about the economic benefits, such as cost savings for the NHS, DWP, Coventry City Council and others. The Job Shop holds a large amount of characteristic data of service users and their outputs; they were interested in finding out how this can be used to determine the associations.
The Job Shop approached the HDRC following a presentation at our yearly celebration event. The HDRC and Warwick Medical School built a relationship, and a working group was facilitated with both, in addition to The Job Shop and the Employment and Skills Team. Partnership meetings explored the key focus of research, and public involvement was conducted before establishing the research context, aims, and objectives. This happened through informal conversations with employment coaches, Job Shop managers, and service users. A research proposal is being developed, which will later contribute to a funding bid. The research team is exploring other potential funding streams.
Employment advisors and coaches have noticed an improvement in service users' well-being after they have secured permanent employment; this was part of the motivation behind investigating the research. The planned study will examine the relationship between employment and well-being, as mentioned in the above report but in the context of the Job Shop model.
Coventry HDRC is thrilled to be part of this project and to collaborate with the working group to support the potential benefits The Job Shop services offer to customers and their objectives.