Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Taskforce
The role of the Task Force is to coordinate the Government's drive against social exclusion, ensuring that the cross-departmental approach delivers for those most in need. The Task Force champions the needs of the most disadvantaged members of society within Government, ensuring that as with the rest of the public service reform agenda, we put people first.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, along with the PSA 16 partner departments, has published two documents regarding lead professionals. The first document, Taking the Lead, briefly summarises the important role lead professionals can play in delivering PSA 16 and sets out proposals for how they and other partners involved can strengthen the lead professional role. This was produced in response to the second document, a report by the National Centre for Social Research, Lead Professional Roles to Improve Outcomes of Socially Excluded Adults.
The Social Exclusion Task Force has published Learning from the Past: Tackling worklessness and the social impacts of the recession. It argues that beating the social impacts of recession is crucial in preventing the downward spiral into long-term worklessness that the country has seen in the past.
Angela Smith, Minister for Social Exclusion, visited an innovative mental health project Southwark Works on 15 December. The successful partnership between the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and Southwark Council has helped people with mental health conditions to secure jobs. It illustrates good practice approaches encouraged by both 'Work, Recovery and Inclusion' (the recent delivery strategy on mental health and employment) as well as 'Link Up Link In' (the campaign encouraging joint working among frontline staff working with vulnerable groups).
The Government has published a new delivery strategy on mental health and employment. Work, Recovery and Inclusion sets out a high level vision to support people in contact with secondary mental health services into work. This strategy forms part of the Social Exclusion Task Force's latest work on the Socially Excluded Adults Public Service Agreement (PSA 16) which aims to support vulnerable adults in a home and a job.
It forms part of the Government's new approach to mental health which includes the New Horizons framework and Working Our Way to Better Mental Health, the new National Strategy for Mental Health and Employment.
The Social Exclusion Task Force, with support from the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the National Care Advisory Service today launches Realising Young Potential: supporting care leavers into education, employment and training.
The report aims to support local authority Leaving Care Teams and their partners to further help young people who have left care to access education, employment and training (EET). It includes 10 recommendations, with agreed actions and practical examples of how some local authorities are addressing issues identified in the report.
The Social Exclusion Task Force will be running a workshop and exhibiting at the Community Care Live: Children and Families 2009 conference on 18 November 2009 at the Business Design Centre, London.
Click on the logo for more information on the conference.
Naomi Eisenstadt, the director or the Social Exclusion Task Force, will be retiring at the end of September.
Campbell Robb, who currently manages the Office of the Third Sector, will also become responsible for the Social Exclusion Task Force following Naomi Eisenstadt’s retirement, as Director-General of the Office of the Third Sector and Social Exclusion.
A new toolkit supporting public service workers in helping at-risk groups into stable employment and accommodation has been launched by HM Government, as part of the Link Up, Link In campaign. The toolkit provides a range of case studies, guidance and useful facts, showing how organisations across the country are working together to improve the lives of vulnerable people. It forms part of the Government’s commitment to get more people from groups such as people with a learning disability, people with mental health problems, care leavers and offenders under probation supervision, into a stable home and sustainable employment.
Working together to deliver public services is vital to improving the lives of the most vulnerable groups in society. Ahead of a major cross-Government campaign aimed at front-line public service workers, the Social Exclusion Task Force is calling for examples of public services that have worked together and improved the lives of the most vulnerable groups in society, focussing on people with a learning disability, people with mental health problems, care leavers and offenders under probation supervision.