Vocational Rehabilitation

Improving support in Greater Manchester

We work collaboratively with the stroke/neurorehabilitation teams, voluntary sector and job centres to improve delivery of vocational rehabilitation (VR) across Greater Manchester. An audit of our clinical teams highlighted:

• Professionals would welcome further training to improve their knowledge and understanding
• No standard pathway or assessment tools across the region
• Teams are unable to always provide effective support due to resource limitations, with time restrictions of the service also a factor
• No funding for services provided by the voluntary sector who often support people following discharge from NHS teams

The network will continue to:

1. Upskill local healthcare professionals in supporting people with neurological conditions in vocational rehabilitation
2. Develop a pathway of best practice, with access to specialist vocational rehabilitation support
3. Encourage better links and working with other agencies including the voluntary sector and job centres

Training of staff

The network has commissioned a training programme for Greater Manchester healthcare professionals supporting people with neurological conditions. The training has been delivered and is now available as webinars for GM based health and social care professionals. Please email our Facilitator Cillian O’Briain to access these: cillian.obriain@nca.nhs.uk

For teams external to GM, the University of Salford can support provision of a training package.

North West Vocational Rehabilitation Steering Group

As part of the Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation (SQuIRe) initiative a North West VR Steering Group was developed where we have worked collaboratively with the other two North West ISDNs on exploring service delivery models for specialist level VR and have developed a VR model for clinicians providing vocational rehabilitation to patients with neurological conditions.

Working with job centres

We have been working with job centre staff to help them understand how they can better support people with neurological conditions in returning to work. We are encouraging our community teams to establish links and provide teaching to local job centres and have developed an online training package and an information pack (found in the VR Toolkit below).

Vocational Rehabilitation Community of Practice (CoP)

We have set up a quarterly forum for clinicians providing VR services across GM to meet and share resources, knowledge and skills through discussion of complex VR cases. A recent confidence rating survey has highlighted an increase in clinician’s confidence in delivering VR since the CoP was set up. Future dates and approved minutes of previous meetings can be found on our GMNISDN website.

National Neuro Vocational Rehabilitation Forum

We are supporting the development of a national forum for stroke and neuro rehab clinicians working in VR. The forum has a workspace where clinicians can access VR related resources from meetings, share knowledge and ask VR questions. There is no cost to signing up and you can register here to access it.

Please email our Facilitator Cillian O’Briain for further information and meeting invites for both the VR CoP and National VR Forum.