Community Spotlight - Working Minds

Today marks the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month. At Reed in Partnership, we are committed to having open and honest conversations about mental health and foster this approach by providing health and wellbeing support to participants accessing many of our services.

By working closely with community partners, unemployed jobseekers using our government-funded employability services are offered welfare support to guide them on their journey toward sustainable employment. One example of this is the mental health and wellbeing specialists at Working Minds who we have partnered with since 2017. Working Minds help unemployed individuals to improve their wellbeing and become job ready through support which is tailored to their personal needs.

Nick Morgan, Deputy Operations Manager at Reed in Partnership, commented: “Working Minds provides key clinical support to our service participants across the Home Counties, North East & Humberside and London, including counselling, psychotherapy and coaching. Their work complements the support delivered by our Employment Advisers, enabling us to deliver a comprehensive service to all participants and better support them in finding a job that is right for them.”

Simon Coombs, Founder and Director of Working Minds, shared, “Our relationship with Reed in Partnership began with the start of the Work and Health Programme. Since then, we have successfully delivered our innovative and specialist mental health and wellbeing services to thousands of participants across their range of employability services.

“Our evidence-based provisions enable people to reduce or remove often long-standing psychological barriers to employment. This provides a stable and sustained recovery from presenting mental health issues, facilitating better engagement with Reed in Partnership’s Employment Advisers and delivering industry leading social and economic outcomes.

“Through our support, participants gain employment, get closer to work and are often connected to community services that might previously have been inaccessible to them. Our organisation shares a similar ethos with Reed in Partnership which is why we work so brilliantly together.

“Alongside our day-to-day support, we also deliver our popular mental health best practice roadshows across Reed in Partnership’s offices, giving Employment Advisers and managers an insight into our work, methods, and critical outcomes, as well as sharing good news stories and our plans for the future.

“It is always a pleasure to spend time with anyone from Reed in Partnership, and we are proud of the work we do together across offices and services to bring life-changing outcomes and support to those that need it most.”

At Reed in Partnership, we are proud to partner with organisations who strengthen our commitment to make health and wellbeing services more accessible to local communities. Through collaborations, we continue our mission to support unemployed jobseekers back into work and help them on their journey to building a brighter future.