October 2015
Briefing: Community Learning / Mental Health Pilots
Background
1.The Autumn Statement announced£20 million over two years (£5m 2015-16 / £15m 2016-17) to pilot courses to help adults manage mild to moderate mental health problems. We invited bids from directly-funded Community Learning providers (mostly Local Authority adult education services and FE colleges), who developed their proposals in conjunction with local mental health partners.
2.The Department’s Skills Funding Agency allocated funding across its six operational areas, with a minimum 5 pilots per Agency area and maximum funding per contract of£80k. 62 successful projects were announced in March 2015.
Rationale
3.There is already evidence that ‘mainstream’ adult education (i.e. courses not targeted specifically at people with mental health problems):
-improves wellbeing, with an impact sufficient to offset a gradual decline in wellbeing as people get older (Learning and Wellbeing Trajectories among Older Adults in England, Institute of Education, 2012)
-reduces depression, particularly in women (The Relationship between Adult Learning and Wellbeing: Evidence from the 1958 National Child Development Study, Institute of Education, 2012)
-improvesreported life satisfaction and self-worth(Review and Update of Research into the Wider Benefits of Adult Learning, London Schoolof Economics, 2012). LSE researchers also found that “Adult learning has more than twice the impact on self-confidence as being employed.”
4.Some adult education services and colleges have already developed mental health courses targeted specifically at people with mild to moderate mental health problems. They report that these courses are helping participants develop strategies for understanding and managing their mental health problems.
5.We are using the Autumn Statement funding to pilot these targeted mental health courses more widely and externally evaluate their impact to determine whether adult learning can support people to manage their mental health problems and if they do, which types of course are effective for which types of mental health problem.
Pilot activity
6.We have not set a top-down ‘blueprint’ for the content of mental health courses. Courses may:
-focus directly on a mental health problem, e.g. a ‘Manage your Stress’ course
-use adult learning activities, such as art, music, craft, dance etc. as a vehicle for sharing, developing and practisingpersonal strategies for improving mental health
-directly complement interventions such as IAPT[1], NHS-fundedRecoveryCollege[2]courses or other activities commissioned by local mental health services
-develop completely new learning content and delivery approaches to support and improve mental health.
7.Each pilot’s provision must include:
-pre-course discussion and on-going individual support to help participants select a course, discuss progress and plan for return to employment, and /or progression to training, employment or fulfilling family and community life
-short, part-time courses to help eligible learners develop the tools, strategies and resilience to recover frommental health problems, reduce their use of medical services, re-engage with families and communities, progress to further learning/training, progress to work or return to work.
-‘top-up’ mental health workshops, as required, for people who have progressed from courses but feel the need for subsequent support at stressful times.
Beneficiaries
8.Course participants must be adults aged 19 and over, and experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems.
Referral
9.Participants can be referred by a local mental health team, Recovery College, housing association, GP, Jobcentre Plus, Probation Service, careers service or other relevant local service. People may also self-refer, providing they are experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems. The mandatory pre-course discussiondetermines whether the providers’ courses are suitable for the applicant. Providers’ referral channels are being compared and assessed as part of the external evaluation process.
Outcomes
10.Outcomes will vary according to the individual. External evaluation is gathering anonymised evidence about participants’ progress in relation to:
-anxiety, depression and wellbeing, using the same standardised and validated assessment scores as used by the national IAPT programme (WEMWBS, GAD-7 for anxiety and PHQ-9 for depression[3])
-use of medical services
-return to employment or progression to new learning, training or employment
-positive re-engagement with family and/or active participation in community life.
External evaluation
11.A consortium comprising IPSOS MORI (lead), the Centre for Mental Health and the Centre for Citizenship and Community was appointed via a competitive procurement exercise and is undertaking the externally evaluation of the pilot projects. The evaluators are comparing the effectiveness of different approaches to workforce training, outreach, referral and delivery of mental health provision. Findings from Year 1 pilots will help shape the specification for Year 2 work.
BIS/OGD links
12.The project Steering Group includes senior officials from the Department of Health, Public Health England, NHS England, DWP and Cabinet Office.
13.At the local level, individual projects are working with relevant teams/projects, including IAPT, DWP Psychological Wellbeing and Work pilots[4], NHS Recovery Colleges and mental health charities such as MIND. 61 pilot projects are currently working with more than 400 mental health partners across England.
[1] Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) is an NHS programme rolling out services across England offering interventions approved by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
[2] 30 + NHS-funded Recovery Colleges in England deliver courses to help people with moderate to severe mental health problems manage their recovery/ stay well; courses are co-developed by mental health professionals and people who have personal experience of mental disorders; Recovery Colleges are committed to partnership working and some FE colleges and adult education services are already actively involved
[3]In the event thatIAPT changed its assessment tools, pilot projects would need to adopt the new IAPT tools
[4] DWP pilots to find the best ways to improve employment and health outcomes for benefit claimants of working age who have mental well-being needs, so they can find - or move closer to - work