DAUK warned a plan to embed job coaches in GP practices overlooks significant practical and systemic barriers.\r\n\r\nThe Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced tens of thousands more sick and disabled people will be offered support into work through advisers based in general practices.\r\n\r\nThe initiative aims to improve employment opportunities for people with long-term health conditions.\r\n\r\nDr Rosie Shire, a member of DAUK\u2019s GP committee, said: \u201cIt is great the Government is connecting work and health, and funding is being allocated to this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know being in work is important for people\u2019s health, and people want to work. What is not mentioned are the barriers to this.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Shire said that while job coaches can help with training and interview skills, many people with disabilities and long-term conditions need sustained, practical support to stay in employment.\r\n\r\n\u201cPeople with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or impairments have a lot to offer employers, but many will need support in the workplace and employers may need support to keep that person in their job,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\n\u201cFor example, someone with a hearing impairment might require a British Sign Language interpreter. Who will fund that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added delays and rejections in the Government\u2019s Access to Work scheme<\/a> had already left many without the help they need.\r\n\r\n\u201cUpskilling is helpful, but it\u2019s not the only barrier preventing people from working. Who is going to provide the support long-term?\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Sarah Jacques, DAUK GP co-lead, raised logistical concerns about the proposal.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe DWP has been trying to do this for a while,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowever, when I have spoken to my regional DWP, it hasn\u2019t been able to have a presence in GP practices as there aren\u2019t any spare rooms.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt also only has enough coaches to be in a surgery once a month.\r\n\r\n\u201cOn one occasion they wanted a delay in issuing a sick note until the patient had seen a job coach.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe coach was only going to be able to offer a handful of appointments each time they were present.\r\n\r\n\u201cHow am I going to reason with a patient that they may have to wait four weeks before they saw someone when they might not have any money to survive that four weeks?\r\n\r\n\u201cUnless DWP is going to up capacity and GP surgeries turn into a Tardis, I don\u2019t know how this is going to work.\u201d\r\n\r\nDAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign about issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK<\/a> or donating to our GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DAUK warned a plan to embed job coaches in GP practices overlooks significant practical and systemic barriers. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,58],"tags":[557,426,656,23],"class_list":["post-1442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-practice","category-the-nhs","tag-dauk-gp","tag-dr-rosie-shire","tag-dr-sarah-jacques","tag-gp-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}GP practices<\/h3>\n\n\n\n