Ideas Plus was set up as a Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee and its purpose, as set out in the Memorandum of Association, was to ‘relieve need…and advance the education of disabled people.’ The charity would achieve this through ‘the provision of vocational training’ with the long term aim of enabling disabled people ‘to obtain employment or otherwise become self-supporting’.

The initial resources were running out and new management began the process of rebuilding over the next 3 years.

We began partnership working with Harlow District Council and were involved in Single Regeneration Budget and European Social Fund projects such as Community Connections (SRB) and Firm Foundations (ESF) – both focused on return to work.

This started a five-year period of consolidation and development.

We moved on to Essex wide partnership work as Ideas Plus became part of the Essex Welfare to Work Implementation Group, delivering through a large County wide ESF bid – Workskills.

We consolidated our 2-adviser workforce and had some core funding i.e. money for premises and management.

We also delivered the first of several projects funded by DWP from 2003

– A programme called PAThS – Positive Attributional Thinking Skills

The working name of the charity (but not the registered name) changed from Ideas Plus to Employ-Ability as we felt this better described what we did.

We secured our Matrix accreditation for the first time and began delivering advice sessions under the Information Advice and Guidance partnership. We went on to achieve a re-accreditation in February 2007.

The Sainsbury’s Centre for Mental Health introduced a programme involving  Individual Placement and Support (IPS) from the USA – a specific form of supported employment designed for people experiencing mental ill health.

We became involved in a Centres of Excellence programme run through the Centre and were able to pilot IPS delivery in the Uttlesford Community Mental Health team (CMHT).

Funding for our core delivery moved to contract tendering and we won our first 3 year contract, to deliver IPS services across West Essex, with one full-time adviser – Employment Specialist – in each of 4 teams.

We secured funding to pilot job retention services, working in GP surgeries. Job retention support was targeted at people struggling at work because of their mental ill health.

We continued to deliver projects funded by DWP. This time the Future Jobs Fund contract, working in partnership with Harlow District Council.

We secured the employment support element of West Essex Mind’s successful bid to deliver the Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies contract in West Essex. This contract ran for 4 years.

We also began our pan Essex partnership working with the Essex Mental Health Trusts and were successful in another 3-year contract to deliver IPS in West Essex.

Commencement of delivery on a third DWP contract, Work and Wellbeing, in partnership with Harlow Leisure services.

The pan Essex partnership re-tendered and secured an IPS contract for the whole of Essex and, as a result, we extended our delivery into South Essex.

Funding streams were changing, and our last ESF and Lottery joint funded partnership  project – HeadsUp – ran across Essex for a period of five years. Our delivery in West and South Essex involved providing employment support through the use of peer support workers – people with lived experience of mental ill health.

NHS England introduced the Mental Health Transformation of services as part of their Long-Term plan. For Employ-Ability this meant an expansion of existing services and the opportunity, in partnership with EPUT, to deliver in Suffolk – an area with no pre-existing IPS service. This contract had a five-year delivery term.

In addition, 10 years after piloting Job Retention services in Harlow, Essex Commissioners included the delivery of Job Retention services in their tender and we are now able to offer those services across our Essex patch.

Delivered two standalone pieces of work:

EmpowHER on behalf of UK Youth for young women in Loughton.  Designed to address the worryingly low levels of wellbeing amongst YW&Gs in the UK, supporting them to give back to their local communities with inclusive, meaningful social action.

Multiply on behalf of ECC to assist in improving numeracy levels and barriers that are hindering people’s confidence in the workplace.

Our IPS work was expanded into Primary Care services, including those with physical disabilities, as part of a DWP pilot running from October 2023 to March 2025 and involving a significant expansion of provision across all our current service areas in West and South Essex.