Feature
LETS make a difference
The jump from unemployment to work can be stressful for anyone who has had mental health problems. Anita Aggarwal describes a scheme that allows people to exchange their services and skills as and when they feel able to participate
People who have experienced mental health difficulties often have major problems finding and adjusting to employment. Now Sheffield Mind is setting up project to help them meet their occupational goals. It is being developed as part of the Pathways project, which has been successful in helping over 200 people with mental health difficulties draw up plans identifying their occupational goals and helping them overcome barriers to achieving them.
However, in the two years of the Pathway project’s work, Sheffield Mind found that for many the direct jump from unemployment to work was too great. The new scheme, called LETS (see box opposite), offers an alternative to mainstream work that is flexible enough for anyone to take part in.
Sheffield Mind initially became interested in the ideas of LETS after reading about a project in Stirling – ‘LETS Make It Better’ – which offers support to people with mental health needs taking part in the programme’s trading and other activities. A visit to Stirling showed staff from Sheffield Mind how the project benefited members: they were taking part in the system at their own pace, in a way they felt comfortable and had the support of one another, as well as a member of staff.
LETS Make It Better runs a community cafe, a painting and decorating team and carries out team gardening tasks. Members are encouraged to come to meetings and find out what needs to be done. This enables them to be involved with the system at all levels. However, it is up to members to choose how much they want to take on and when they want to trade. LETS allows people to work as and when they are able.
Since that visit, Sheffield Mind has secured funding from the Social Regeneration Budget to set up a LETS scheme in the north of the city. The charity has developed an inclusive model for the project that draws from best practice from a number of sources, including other LETS, Timebanks and mental health schemes.
The scheme is being established as an independent organisation, with its own constitution and management structures. Sheffield Mind will support the system by providing training, advice, resources and staff time. This will allow the members to have ownership and control of the system, and enables the system to be responsive to the needs and interests of its users. The LETS project worker will additionally offer practical and emotional support to members to help them take part in ways that they choose.
“LETS can improve members’ employment prospects by helping them keep their skills in use”
The system will operate in one of the most deprived areas of Sheffield. It is generally acknowledged that poor housing, unemployment and poverty can be detrimental to people’s mental health. However, statutory mental health services concentrate on treating people with severe and enduring mental health problems. This project aims to reach some of those in need of mental health support whom the statutory sector does not reach.
Because Sheffield Mind is based on an inclusive model, LETS will be open to everyone and members do not need to have had mental health difficulties to join. By taking this approach, Sheffield Mind intends to promote good mental health for all, in line with the National Service Framework for Mental Health.
The framework’s first standard is about mental health promotion, stating that health and social services should promote mental health for all, working with individuals and communities, and combat discrimination against individuals and groups with mental health problems, promoting their social inclusion.
The approach taken by Sheffield Mind’s LETS project clearly falls within this framework. The project will promote mental health for all by encouraging people to take part in activities that can improve their mental health or reduce factors that can be detrimental. It will help people to use and develop their skills; focus on what people can do rather on what they cannot; increase social contact through regular LETS events and trading; and allow people to work as and when they are able, at their own pace.
LETS will help combat discrimination by introducing those without mental health difficulties to the reality faced by those living with them, to correct the myths perpetuated by the media and society. This will happen through trading activities, at social events, through the general organisation of LETS and the allocation of associated tasks.
Participation in LETS can also help people economically by providing services that can be paid for through the LETS scheme and freeing cash for things that cannot be provided by its members. It can improve members’ employment prospects by helping them keep their skills in use and widening the network through which they may find out about job opportunities.
This is acknowledged by the Policy Action Team on Jobs, which looked at the potential benefits of participation in a LETS and concluded: ‘Such schemes could offer the opportunity to acquire valuable work experience.’
The holistic approach offered by a mental health organisation developing a LETS provides a wide range of opportunities for a wide range of members of the community. These include the services offered by members of the system, as well as those available through the organisation of the system itself. It is hoped that as the system develops the community and the participants will begin to feel the social, health and financial benefits of being part of LETS.
Anita Aggarwal is LETS project worker at Sheffield MindWhat is LETS?
A local exchange and trading system (LETS) is a group of people and organisations who agree to buy and sell goods and services from each other using a locally based currency. This is often named after a feature of the area, so in north Sheffield the currency is ‘Spoons’. Members advertise their services in a system directory that is used like a yellow pages. Between them, members offer a wide range of goods and services, from dog walking to web design, photography to tuition.
How does it work?
Each LETS member holds an account, like a bank account, with the LETS. When a member wants to trade they search the directory for the service they want. They contact the member offering the service and agree details, including a price in the local currency. Often LETS recommends that a standard rate of pay is received by all members, regardless of the service they offer.
Once the trade is satisfactorily completed, the buyer will make out a LETS cheque to the provider which is sent to the LETS administrator who adjusts the account balances accordingly. Unlike a bank account, however, interest cannot be charged or earned on balances.
How are LETS managed?
LETS are run for and by the members. Any member who provides a service is paid in the local currency, which is covered by a small service charge in LETS to each member.
What do the members say?
Here are some of the things members of Stirling’s LETS Make It Better programme said:
‘I think it’s an excellent scheme. I felt I was part of it. I wasn’t on the outside looking in, with other people doing things. It gave me a reason to get up in the morning, especially when I was working in the office, and I made friends.’
‘I’ve been depressed for 12 years. This is the first time I’m beginning to a take an interest in things. It helps my confidence when people say “That was good!” about the soup I made.’
LETS and the welfare benefits barrier
For many of those who would most benefit from participation in LETS, the fact that they claim welfare benefits can prove a barrier. Current legislation regards LETS trading as work for which members receive remuneration – so any ‘income’ from LETS trading can be deducted from benefits payments.
Despite independent research showing that the average LETS member earns the equivalent of less than £1.25 a week – well below the disregard levels – the fear of a cut in benefit is enough to stop many people joining the system.
Those who receive an incapacity benefit face another obstacle: because they are able to take part in LETS trading, their inability to work will be questioned by the Benefits Agency. Often the process that people have to go through in order to be defined as unfit for work is distressing and confusing. Once they are considered eligible for incapacity benefit they must undergo regular reassessment – and there is a natural unwillingness to take part in any activity that might threaten this.
The government is aware of this barrier and there are some indications of a willingness to change the legislation. Reports from the Social Exclusion Unit have recommended that the benefits barriers to participation in LETS be removed. This is in line with the government’s wish to encourage people to do voluntary work and take part in the Active Community Initiative to improve their skills. Work undertaken through Timebanks is already disregarded by the BA.
Locally, Sheffield Mind has approached the BA to see how the fear LETS members have over their benefits might be removed. So far, the BA has shown a willingness to work with the system to enable people to take part without fear, and LETS schemes elsewhere have had similar success.
