0800 688 9938
Leicestershire Employment &
Skills Programme
​Funded by the Leicestershire County Council and the NHS, we are dedicated to offering employment support for individuals with or at risk of mental health problems. To be eligible for this service, individuals must meet the following criteria:
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Aged 18 years or over
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Lives in Leicestershire county (excluding Leicester city)
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Looking for employment, volunteering or learning, OR in employment and wanting to change or needs support to stay in current job
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Registered with a GP surgery
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At risk of or has mental health challenges
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Not under NHS secondary mental health services*​
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*We are funded to work with individuals who may be accessing primary care services for mental health support i.e. through their general practice (GP), mental health facilitators, local surgery-based or private counsellors/therapists. In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust Employment Support Service works with individuals under secondary mental health services. Secondary mental health services include hospitals, some psychological wellbeing services, community mental health teams (CMHTs), crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRHTs), a psychiatrist or community psychiatric nurse (CPN).
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If you fall outside of this eligibility criteria, please get in touch and we will do our best to find you a suitable alternative.
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To make a referral or self-refer, please use our referral forms.
Mental Health at Work Specialists
We have nearly 30 years combined experience of working with individuals who have mental health problems and other barriers to support them into employment.
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We are able to provide guidance about your protections in UK employment law around reasonable adjustments as well as disclosure of mental health problem(s) to your employer.​​
One-to-One
Employment Adviser
These sessions are with your personal employment adviser and can be face-to-face at an Employment Clinic, or over Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp or by phone.
We will give you a personal employment adviser who will help you on your journey to finding and sustaining paid employment, voluntary work or a learning opportunity.
Employment Clinics
We run these advice clinics across the county, where we can see you face to face (we also offer support virtually as well as by phone).
We can see you at community locations local to where you live and the clinics will be on set days and times where you will be offered an appointment.
Get Work-Ready
We will help you ensure that when you get paid employment you are already prepared for the Right to Work in the UK checks that everyone has to undertake by making sure you have the correct documents, as well as a bank account and National Insurance number.
This means that when you get a job offer you can move into work without delay.
CV Writing
A CV is an important tool for getting into work, however, there is an art to making sure you ‘sell yourself’ to an employer or voluntary work provider.
At Real Purpose we have the skills, experience and tools to ensure that you appeal to them. It is crucial that you believe in yourself and a CV helps you see all what you have to offer.
Application Support
This help is vital to ensuring you ‘get that job or voluntary work’, as we can support you in unravelling the online system of applying for work, which can be confusing but is more or less adopted by all employers and placement providers nowadays.
We are experts in helping you succeed with paper or online applications.
Interview Preparation
Interviews with employers and placement providers are an inevitable part of your journey into work yet they can often feel daunting and provoke anxiety.
Your personal employment adviser will help you prepare, offer you our face-to-face or online group sessions on interview preparation and provide you with a mock interview using our staff to practice for the real thing and provide supportive feedback.
Training
Join our tutor-led sessions, available in-person or online.
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Building Confidence and Motivation in Employment, Volunteering and Learning
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Empowering You for Employment, Volunteering and Learning​​
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Designed to prepare you for real-world challenges, our sessions focus on enhancing your confidence, developing essential skills, and equipping you with the tools needed to succeed in your job search, volunteering, or educational pursuits.
Employer Connections
Our team engages with local employers to place our suitably prepared and skilled clients to benefit their business.
We create relationships that mean we support your new employee(s) to sustain their job but also to support you as the employer with this.
In-Work Support
We know that the benefits to your mental health comes from not just securing employment but being able to sustain this.
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Once we have helped you find employment, we can offer you in-work support appointments to help you stay in work and feel supported with this.
Job Retention
We can support you if you already have a job to retain this.
For example, with returning to work after sick leave, or negotiating reasonable adjustments with your employer, or simply giving you regular in- work support by phone.​
