For many people, having a job is about much more than earning a living. It can bring purpose, build confidence, create friendships and open-up new opportunities. For someone experiencing mental health challenges, the right employment support can also play an important part in their recovery. Our Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment support services help make this possible.

At Southdown, we have delivered employment support across Sussex for many years and are the largest IPS provider in the county, with services integrated into mental health teams across Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex. We believe people should have the opportunity to explore their ambitions and build the life they want, including finding and staying in paid employment if that matters to them.

Why employment matters

A job can help someone develop skills, build social networks, improve financial security and discover new possibilities. Everyone’s circumstances are different, and employment is not the right goal for everyone at every point in their lives. But for people who want to work and whose mental health has affected their ability to find or keep a job, specialist support can make that ambition feel more achievable.

IPS is an evidence-based approach integrated with mental health services. Rather than treating employment as something to consider only after recovery, it recognises that finding meaningful work can be part of recovery itself. Our employment specialists work alongside people to understand their goals, explore opportunities and support them into paid work. They also work closely with mental health professionals and other services to help people find and sustain employment.

Building on our experience to reach more people

Southdown has developed considerable expertise in IPS from nearly two decades of providing Employment Support services across Sussex. We remain committed to maintaining high standards and improving the support we provide.

Over the past year, we have grown our teams across Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex, giving us more employment specialists to support people. We are also looking at further growth next year. One of the most encouraging aspects is being able to tell colleagues across health and community services that we have capacity to support more people. At a time when many services are under pressure, this is a real opportunity.

Growth must go hand in hand with quality. IPS is a clearly defined model built around eight principles, and we need to deliver it as intended. To strengthen this, we are introducing a dedicated IPS Fidelity Assurance Lead role. This will help us maintain a consistent focus on the principles, prepare for external reviews and identify opportunities to improve. Fidelity reviews assess how closely a service follows the IPS model and where it can develop. Our aim is not simply to support more people, but to ensure they receive high-quality employment support that gives them the best chance of achieving their goals.

Making it easier to access employment support

Referrals have traditionally come directly from clinical teams at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and these relationships remain fundamental to our work. We have also introduced self-directed referrals for people already receiving care from the Trust’s mental health services, allowing them to contact our employment service through our website rather than waiting for a clinician to refer them.

We are also developing additional referral routes with community-based mental health services and partners. This includes working with our mental health support coordinators linked to Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams and our UOK Wellbeing Service in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex, alongside discussions with partners in West Sussex. We are also exploring opportunities to connect people with support through primary care networks and GPs.
These developments aim to make accessing employment support more straightforward and help us reach people who are eligible and would benefit.

If you work in a mental health or community service and support someone who wants to work, I encourage you to find out more about our IPS service and referral routes. By working together, we can help people move towards employment and access the wider support they need to sustain it.

A huge thank you to our teams

Finally, I want to recognise the colleagues delivering this work every day. We have seen encouraging progress, including around a 15% increase in referrals compared with the same point last year, alongside an increase in the number of people moving into paid employment.
These results reflect the hard work, experience and knowledge of colleagues across our services, alongside the fresh ideas and energy brought by new team members. A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in delivering our employment services. Your commitment makes a real difference to people’s lives.