The government have denied that work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said work coaches would visit mental health patients whilst they are in hospital, in spite of this claim still appearing on the BBC website.

Earlier this month the BBC ran a story headlined Mental health patients could get job coach visits

The article opened “Job coaches could visit mental health patients when they are in hospital to help them get back to work, the government has said.”

It went on to explain that Kendall had told the BBC that trials of employment advisers giving CV and interview advice in hospitals produced "dramatic results".

In a quote that was later removed from the BBC website, Kendall said "We really need to focus on putting those employment advisers into our mental health services. It is better for people. It is better for the economy. We just have to think in a different way."

The proposal received a strong and immediate backlash from mental health charities, appalled at the idea of trying to move in-patients into work.

On 21 October MP Sorcha Eastwood tabled a written questionTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisations she consulted on the proposal of having job coaches visit mental health patients in hospital.”

Answering on her behalf yesterday, DWP minister Alison McGovern claimed:

“The Secretary of State has made no announcement regarding having job coaches visit mental health patients in hospital and therefore did not consult any organisations. She was referring to her experience visiting a severe mental illness Individual Placement and Support programme.”

However, the NHS page on Individual Placement and Support services seems to suggest that they work within community mental health teams rather than on acute wards within hospitals.

Whatever the truth of the conflicting accounts by the BBC and the DWP, it seems that there is no longer any prospect of ill-trained work coaches roaming mental health hospital wards offering CV writing and interview practice sessions.

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 2 days ago
    Labour will not get my vote ever again, that's the main two permanently deleted from my list.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 2 days ago
      @Daz Yes Daz agree totally. I only voted because I live in Wales and could vote Plaid Cymru!
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    · 2 days ago
    I am always surprised that new ministers for DWP and chancellors are such brilliant miracle workers. They come into office, sign a few pieces of paper and, just like that, millions are cured and fit for work! Perhaps the tick box culture is at the root of all healing?  
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 9 days ago
    Reeves is continuing with the Tory changes to "save 1.5 billion" for the WCA, I think new claimants are in their targets for that. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 9 days ago
    Here we go......😱😱😱😱
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 9 days ago
    State likes testing the waters to see how people react to such claims. The Ministry of Truth put out an article claiming work Coaches would be visiting long "term mentally ill in hospitals" to having no official announcement" about such a decision. Interesting how the article got taken down. The state working in unison, so it doesn’t frighten us too much. I wonder whether the DWP will push for this further down the road. It seems like the BBC must've caught wind of something being considered. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @Orwell1975 Exactly, that it is why it is so important that as many people as possible speak out in opposition to such ideas when they are floated in public.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 9 days ago
    Whilst not wishing to speculate ahead of the Budget, the fact that the Government has announced that they will publish their review into PIP (and presumably other benefits) in the Spring does suggest that primary legislation is being considered, so from that it would appear there will be major changes to the welfare system for those of 'working age'.  Many may not like the views expressed in the right wing press, but do bear in mind all political parties use focus groups to frame their plans....

    Yesterday there was an extensive article on the BBC news website where various individuals gave their views on what they want from the Budget, with a breakdown of their earnings and outgoings. What did catch my eye was a single mum on benefits earing approx £33,000 a year.  This is a red rag to a bull to many of those who read the Sun and the Mail (less so the Torygragp, they're rich) who are, in effect, the working poor who are not on great wages, quite probably (if they are in retail) working part-time and under poor management (I've been there...)
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 9 days ago
      @Matt The Get Britain Working white paper will be published later in the autumn so I think we will find out what the Government have in mind re welfare reform a good bit earlier than the spring but I could be wrong about that.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 9 days ago
    https://inews.co.uk/news/pip-claimants-stop-viewed-scroungers-thieves-3350577

    Link to the independent online edition. Thank you to this interviewee for her bravery and courage sticking up for us all.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    I'm really not looking forward to Reeves' budget or Kendall's "getting Britain back to work" White paper at all. 

    This constant playing down of Mental Illness should rest on Labour's, Tories', Reform's, Telegraph's, the Sun's and the Daily Mail's shoulders. We know there are people who are seriously mentally ill who cannot work because they are not only a danger to themselves but potentially to others around them. 

    Could you imagine being on a psyche ward and the first thing you wake up to see is a Work Coach? It's black comedy at this point, it's unbelievably surreal and sinister, it's like Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmundson came up with the script from Bottom. Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry.


  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    Make no mistake, their wicked goal is to take as many claimants as possible off benefits in one way or another. The rest that they're blabbering is just a bluff.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 18 hours ago
      @A Yes and they don't care how many people may kill themselves because of their "reforms''.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    Well we knew this was a load of baubles, didn't we. When it seems too ridiculous, even for a newly elected bunch of zealots, it probably is.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    Means they floated the idea, got push back and killed it. It is why you are hearing about them denying they ever said it.

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    · 10 days ago
    I'm on the brink here now, don't think I can take anymore 😔
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    · 10 days ago
    It's promising if sickening to see them lie their way backwards out of this as a response to the backlash. I take it as hope that if they threaten to scrap the substantial risk criteria in the WCA that a similar backlash might produce the same backtracking. If the budget announces bad news tomorrow, get writing to your MP and to all the disability charities. Let's make them see sense.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    This is why I dont vote - Uniparty system
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    You couldn't make it up!
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    Typical labour punching disabled people below the belt.  It's obvious labour is denial when it comes to reality, therefore for labours need to be clutching at straws, to save a few bob.

    Of which in the long run, they will not.  The NHS bill will explode, resulting from the amount of people needing to visit GP's etc, and or hospital visits and admittance's.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    I'm sorry I voted labour.... 
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    · 10 days ago
    To think all of this confusion and anger could have been completely avoided if Kendall would have just spoken more clearly about what she meant and if the DWP had just taken the time to clarify her comments.
    Part of me thinks it was done on purpose purely to scare people because they love screwing with us that much.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 9 days ago
      @Tibbins It was done on purpose because it was their plan to do it, until the backlash started. When they got NHS workers saying they wouldn't allow it on their wards, they started to back pedal! Blair's mate Alan Milburn is running the show, and we can all remember what the Blair years where like for disabled people!
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 10 days ago
    Just typical media jumping to conclusions, one way or another. There is no way a work coach would actively visit hospitals as they are inundated with work and so many clients. They'd have no time to take part in such a nonsensical strategy and it would probably cost the welfare system more to be able to accommodate it. As far as I'm concerned, I won't be paying attention to any hopeful nor harmful stories like this until it is laid out in full and official. I have strong doubts that the welfare system will become fairer or at least better than the last 14 years, but I will wait and see how the budget tomorrow is laid out and then find out what we are about to have to deal with
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 2 days ago
      @John Doe Apparently Liz Kendall's army of work coaches numbers a cohort of 16000

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