The Health and Growth Accelerator in Calderdale will focus on boosting people’s health alongside tackling conditions that most impact people’s ability to work with the aim of helping people return to work.
The rate of economic inactivity due to long term health issues in Calderdale is 32.2%, higher than West Yorkshire and England. (Calderdale Inclusive Economy Strategy)
In Calderdale, there is high rate of people off sick from work due mental health and/ or musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, such as back pain.
The pilot in Calderdale will target approximately 500 adults across Calderdale who have received a fit note from their GP for mental health and/or MSK reasons and provide quick access to tailored interventions that can support people to improve their health and return to work.
Interventions will include a mix of increased capacity in existing services already available in Calderdale, new approaches and will also test the use of new digital tools.
- Individual placement support - expanding existing service into primary care to support people to retain employment with additional focus on work retention. This work is already happening in community mental health services.
- Talking Therapies – expanding employment support capacity offered by the Talking Therapies service
- Employment navigators – new roles which will link people through all interventions available through the pilot
- Support to be physically active - expansion of existing Better Living services to integrate MSK support for people and to create new physical activity opportunities for people with mental health and MSK conditions where there are gaps. Will include physical activity notes prescribed alongside fit notes and one to one support for individuals referred from general practice.
- VCSE employment and wellbeing offer - builds on existing provision to reach a wider a range of people in their community. To provide recognised approaches to working with employers such as reasonable adjustments and access to work and personalised wellness plans.
- Occupational health – new offer providing tailored support to people at risk of losing employment and to support people to stay well in work.
- Muscular Skeletal (MSK) app - new self-management tool to help people recover from common MSK conditions offering personalised support with access to first contact practitioners and links into all Health and Growth Accelerator interventions being offered in Calderdale.
People involved in the pilot will be able to access multiple interventions to support them to return to work. The pilot will run for one year 2025-2026 with delivery starting from July 2025.
There is a second element to the Health and Growth Accelerator initiative in Calderdale which focuses on the health and social care workforce. Calderdale is also part of the Trailblazer scheme and some of the Health and Growth Accelerator interventions feature within the Trailblazer offer.