An employment service supporting people across North Cumbria who are struggling with serious mental health issues has been granted £3,240 to provide laptops on loan to the people they help.

The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Employment Service, run by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW), supports people who are being treated by the Trust’s Community Mental Health Teams to find, or stay in, paid work.

The laptops will be loaned to people across North Cumbria and the North East who are receiving support from the IPS team, for around two months at a time when the person is ready to start applying and interviewing for jobs.

Service Lead for the Individual Placement Support (IPS) Employment Service, John Bolland, said: "Without a computer and internet connection at home, the practicalities of modern job-hunting are a really big roadblock to someone getting into work.

"Even when libraries and Job Centres are open, who would perform at their best conducting a video interview from a public space?

"Or having to make an appointment and go to a specific centre just to check your emails for news of an application?

"We hope this pilot will be a pioneering way of helping to end the cycle faced by some of the people we support, where they don’t have the money to purchase a computer or a good internet connection, but because of that they can’t get a job to get the funds they need.

"This project will undoubtedly help some of the people we support secure their dream jobs, improving their mental health in the process."

The team hope that about 20 people per year will benefit from this pilot scheme.

In-between each loan laptops will be cleaned, and their profile wiped by CNTW’s Informatics department before being passed on to the next user.

They will also be able to be remotely controlled, so that IPS staff can provide direct support if someone is struggling, for example, with using a site or software.

The grant has been awarded by The SHINE Fund, the official charity of CNTW.