Pathways to Employment: supporting people with lived and living experience of substance use in to work
This toolkit brings together best practice and support into one place to provide employers and employment support providers advice on how to attract, recruit and support staff with lived experience of substance use.
Supporting basic needs in employment and recovery
This section will help you to understand:
- How to support an employees’ basic needs.
- How to signpost employees to services for help with housing, healthcare, social care and financial support.
- What to consider in relation to an employee’s recovery journey, how to keep them safe and on track during employment.
It is vital that your employees’ basic needs are satisfied, and important that they feel supported in their recovery journey. Employers can help by signposting to resources when required.
Supporting recovery
Employees may benefit from access to healthcare, housing assistance, and welfare advice. If people encounter challenges, consider directing them to resources such as:
- Scottish Recovery Consortium – who list services for recovery, mental, and physical health support.
- Scottish Drugs Services Directory – who can help locate local support services.
- Any treatment, recovery or support groups they have already been engaging with.
Housing support
If housing becomes a concern, employers can consider signposting employees to:
- Scottish Government Housing Guidance – provides information on applying for social housing.
- Simon Community Scotland – helplines for rough sleeping in Glasgow (0800 027 7466) and Edinburgh (0808 1782323).
- Shelter Scotland – provides free advice on housing rights (0808 800 4444).
- Citizens Advice – can provide confidential advice on homelessness and benefits.
Physical and mental health support
Employers should ensure employees are aware of workplace support, such as counselling services, and direct them to:
- GP Services – assistance with finding and registering with a GP.
- NHS 24 – available on 111.
- Breathing Space – for information and support for mental wellbeing (0800 83 85 87).
- Samaritans – (116 123) for out-of-hours mental health support.
- The National Wellbeing Hub and helpline (0800 111 4191) is available to everyone working in health, social care and social work in Scotland.
- The Workforce Specialist Service (0300 0303 300) offers a confidential mental health service. This is available to all regulated professionals working in health, social care and social work in Scotland who, due to confidentiality reasons, cannot access care or treatment through their own GP or other local services.
Social Care support
Employees requiring additional assistance, such as childcare or disability support, can be signposted to social work and social care services.
Financial support
Employees can apply online for benefits by visiting Social Security Scotland or can call 0800 182 2222 for free to apply or request a paper application form.
Face-to-face support is also available from specially trained client advisers located in every local council area across Scotland. Advisers can meet people in a community space, in the Dundee head office, or in their homes at a time and place that suits them.
Universal Credit support
It can be helpful for you, as an employer to understand how Universal Credit works.
Universal Credit is designed to support people into employment. However, payments will decrease as a person’s income increases. For every £1 earned, payments reduce by 55p, with total income being comprised of any wages plus the adjusted Universal Credit payment. This may influence an employee’s finances and create concern or apprehension. However, support is available to help with this.
- The benefits calculator can help ease concerns and illustrate how Universal Credit changes with additional income from employment.
- Department for Work and Pensions, and Citizens Advice can also help assess eligibility for benefits.
As wages increase and earnings reach a certain level then payments will gradually stop. Payments will restart automatically if wages drop within six months, after that reapplication is necessary.
Universal Credit can provide additional support for childcare, housing costs, and access to a work coach for skill development and career progression. Depending on how long a person has been claiming benefits, they may also be able to access:
The UK Government also have a dedicated page to support people who are moving from benefits to work. People can also be directed towards Citizens Advice, who can provide advice regarding living costs and a more holistic approach to finance and benefits.
While it’s helpful for employers to understand how employment may impact an employee’s financial support, they should avoid giving financial advice. Instead, this toolkit should be used to signpost employees to the appropriate resources. This helps prevent the risk of providing inaccurate information that could negatively affect the employee.