How Working Well: Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care Helped Lee Find the Right Internship

• The Growth Company (GC) delivers Working Well: Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (WWIPSPC) across Greater Manchester.
• The programme aims to help adults with physical and/or mental health disabilities into – or back into – sustained employment.
• Find out how it helped Lee overcome his anxiety to find the ideal internship.   

A new programme delivered by the Growth Company is already creating positive outcomes.

Commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Working Well: Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care aims to help Greater Manchester residents with physical or mental health disabilities into sustained employment – or provide them with support to stay in or return to their current job.

The initiative follows the “place, train, and maintain” model. This means prioritising flexible one-to-one support for individual participants, from guidance on how to write a CV and apply for jobs to bespoke career advice and follow-up assistance once paid work has been secured or resumed. It also involves direct and ongoing engagement with employers to produce the best possible results.

Lee is just one of the people who has benefited from this approach.

Lee’s Barriers to Working Well

Lee was referred to WWIPSPC by the Salford Living Well mental health service.

He was unemployed and wracked with anxiety about the value of his university degree and prospect of not securing a graduate job – or any job – before Christmas.

Soon after graduating, he unsuccessfully applied for a role at a museum in Manchester. This experience undermined Lee’s confidence because he was certain that his CV and cover letter were of a high standard. From this point on, he struggled with imposter syndrome, questioning whether he should pursue a career in his chosen field.  

At the same time, Lee had begun to lose interest in his studies and other passions, making him more and more unhappy.

Finding the Right Support

The Working Well team initially gave Lee advice on finding work, including feedback on his CV and the job application process, from supporting documents to interview techniques. They also provided guidance on setting up a business and finding vacant retail space.

When Lee began looking for graduate level internships, the team provided targeted support to help him make the most of the available opportunities.

As Lee recalled, “[t]hey motivated me to find the right roles related to my skillset and to apply for them.”

“Once I started to get interviews, they helped me to prepare by introducing me to the STAR method, which greatly improved my performance.”

A Successful Partnership

This proactive support paid off when Lee was offered an internship at a local university.

Lee is still receiving support while he looks for a more permanent opportunity: “I’m happy that the team intend to support me for the foreseeable future – during and after the internship.”

Lee reserved special praise for his adviser: “Kate became my WWIPSPC worker around January and during the few weeks we worked together, we developed a fun, dynamic, and honest relationship.

“Kate had a buzz phrase – ‘gut instinct’ – which meant I had to make an honest decision about certain elements of the application process – a system that I found very useful.”

He added: “Having Kate support me for my internship interviews made me more focused and less stressed. Her backing was one of the reasons I received a job offer so quickly.”

Find Out More and Get In Touch

The Growth Company is an award-winning social enterprise with a mission to generate growth, create jobs, and improve lives. We provide employment services across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire and Humber.

Get in touch today to find out more.

Working Well: Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) is commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and funded by UK Government. The programme is delivered across Greater Manchester by The Growth Company in partnership with Groundwork and will support up to 1,500 individuals between September 2023 and March 2025.