We have a considerable track record in the field of mental health, employment and working lives including;-

Health, Work and Wellbeing in the Third Sector (2010)

SCVO and SDC have launched a new project to develop good practice in workplace wellbeing in the Scottish third sector. The project is supported by the Department for Work and Pensions via the Health, Work and Wellbeing Challenge Fund.

The Challenge Fund is an initiative designed to enable small to medium sized organisations to address issues that may affect the health and wellbeing of employees. This will enable the Department for Work and Pensions to produce a set of strong examples of implementation of the ‘business case’ particularly around mental health and wellbeing. The project supports activities across the public, private and third sectors.

This project will support three organisations to develop and implement an action plan for monitoring and improving wellbeing in the workplace. SDC will provide training, development and implementation support to the selected organisations, in exchange for a commitment on the part of those organisations to commit time to developing and implementing the plans. It is hoped that three detailed case studies will come out of this, alongside a set of more general recommendations for the sector.

As well as working with the beneficiary organisations, SDC and SCVO will also be asking for examples of good practice from the third sector to include in a wider document giving some brief overviews of practice.

Employability and Workplace Training

Through a variety of employability and working lives projects, SDC has provided mental health training and facilitated focus groups for the public sector.

Our training is tailor made to suit our clients requirements.

Supported Employment and Individualised Placement and Support (IPS)

People with long term mental health issues face serious barriers to gaining and retaining employment, as has been highlighted in Working Our Way to Better Mental Health, and the accompanying independent report Realising Ambitions.

SDC is interested in the potential of the Individualised Placement and Support (IPS) model to promote sustained employment, and recovery, for more people. SDC has been liasing with international partners developing IPS in practice, for example the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Centre in the USA, the Queensland Mental Health Research Centre in Australia, who are leading the evaluation and development support, and the Sainsbury Centre in England, who have established IPS Centres of Excellence. SDC has produced a briefing paper on IPS and Supported Employment.

In 2010, The Scottish Government, published A Working Life for All Disabled People: The Supported Employment Framework for Scotland

As a part of the development and implementation of The Framework, Workforce Plus has funded SDC and The Scottish Union of Supported Employment to support demonstration sites to move towards the vision and practice laid out in The Framework. This project will run until April 2011.

Evidence Based Supported Employment Paper
This paper explores using international learning and research in the implementation of The Supported Employment Framework for Scotland.

Dame Carol Black's Mental Health and Employment Strategy

The Scottish member of the UK  Mental Health and Employment Strategy High Level Steering Group was Sheila Durie, SDC Associate Consultant. The Group contributed to the publication of “Working Our Way to Better Health: A Framework for Action” in December 2009.

Promoting Positive Mental Health in Workplaces

SDC and the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) formed a strong partnership to provide mental health awareness training and action learning to 5 Scottish workplaces. The project increased trade unions members’ understanding of mental health improvement and its links to good work.  The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives (SCHWL) was a partner in this project.

In the past, SDC developed  SCHWL’s two day Mentally Healthy Workplace training, which has been positively evaluated.

Scottish Public Sector Employers as Exemplar Employers

In 2009, The Scottish Government Health Department commissioned SDC to work with Local Authorities and Health Boards to find out more about their experience of: Promoting mentally healthy workplaces; Supporting people who develop mental health problems at work; Encouraging the employment and Support of people with mental health problems.

The project's report outlines findings and provides some recommendations for improving workplaces.

Support to Workforce Plus, Scotland's Employability Framework

Workforce Plus aims to support people to move from welfare into work, through the promotion of good practice and partnership working. SDC was funded by Workforce Plus to work in key areas nationally to ensure the inclusion of the “mental health world” in the employability agenda and to develop systems that promote the employability of people with mental health problems. As part of this project, SDC gathered and wrote examples of good practice for the Employability Learning Network mental health pages.

SDC was funded by Workforce Plus to work in key areas nationally to ensure the inclusion of the “mental health world” in the employability agenda and to develop systems that promote the employability of people with mental health problems. As part of this project, the Mental Health and Employment Network produced the three leaflets below:

Leaflet for Employers

Leaflet for Individuals

Leaflet for Professionals