Project details
Portfolio: Education, skills and inclusion
Area: County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside, Sunderland
Funding amount: £50m
Funder: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Project status: Planned
Delivery partner: TBC
Key contact: Work and Health Team
Key contact email: connecttowork@northeast-ca.gov.uk
Page last updated 21-03-2025
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By encouraging join-up between health systems and employment support, Connect to Work will support those, primarily, currently outside the workforce and facing greater labour market disadvantages, to stay in work and get back into work. In turn, supporting the Government’s ambition for a more inclusive economy, supporting local people to realise their potential and supporting local and national growth.
In England and Wales, Connect to Work funding will support around 100,000 disabled people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to get into employment and on in work. In the North East, this programme will support 13,500 residents.
Connect to Work is a voluntary programme, providing a specific form of support targeted at the right people at the right time, based on their individual circumstances. The programme will deliver the evidence-based Supported Employment model, ‘place, train, and maintain’, via two different types of interventions - Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF), also referred to as Local Supported Employment (LSE).
As the Accountable Body, the North East CA is responsible for the commissioning, implementation and management of the Connect to Work programme.
An Invitation to Tender for the IPS intervention was launched for providers in March 2025 and closed on 9th May 2025.
The Connect to Work Programme is expected to launch in September 2025. More details will be confirmed in due course.
