Employment support for disabled people with the relationship between investment and outcomes (people getting paid work)

Introduction

This study found that there is good evidence Individual Placement and Support (IPS) (in mental health services) and supported employment (in learning disability services) are the most effective ways of supporting people to achieve paid work outcomes (henceforth “evidence-based models”). There is little or no evidence to support other service models currently being used by commissioners.

Only around one third of current employment-related spend is being committed to these evidence-based models; overall levels of spend on employment support appear to have levelled off, and are beginning to decline after a period of growth in recent years; commissioners and providers have little systematic data or knowledge about how best to target funding to generate positive job outcomes (i.e. jobs gained or jobs retained).

Basic information to calculate cost-effectiveness exists locally, but is generally not being used to determine local value for money or compare costs to available information on best practice; cost per job outcome in individual services ranged from £208 to £57,640 and averaged £8,217. The average proportion of people supported who secured a job outcome was 38%; sites working to evidence-based models of employment support typically delivered the most cost-effective outcomes, with an average cost per job outcome of £2,818 and a job outcome rate of 43%; there was no relationship between a proxy measure for the complexity of disability of those supported and either the cost per person supported or the cost per job outcome; sites achieving greater levels of job outcomes generally did so by supporting a larger proportion of people to retain a job rather than to gain one.