UP to 1,000 Blackburn with Darwen residents with disabilities and long-term health problems are set to helped back into employment under a new £807,000 scheme.

The borough has been selected for a government WorkWell Vanguard pilot programme.

Blackburn with Darwen Council is set to receive £240,000 in 2024/25 and £567,700 in 2025/26 for the project from the NHS's Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.

A similar scheme is due to be rolled out across Burnley borough.

A joint report to Thursday's meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive board by growth boss Cllr Quesir Mahmood and public health boss Cll Damian Talbot says: "WorkWell is a joint Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Health and Social Care pilot that seeks to provide holistic support to overcome health-related barriers to employment, and a single, joined up pathway to wider support services.

"The focus is on early intervention, supporting those at risk of falling out of employment and those who have recently fallen out of work due to health issues, within the first 12 weeks of unemployment.

"It provides an opportunity for local systems to support everybody, including disabled people and people with health conditions, to start, stay, succeed in work and also to return to employment.

"WorkWell will support the development of integrated health and work services, which will provide person-centred health and work support based on a biopsychosocial model.

"Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and local authorities will play a central role in convening local partnerships to design and deliver the programme.

"The WorkWell Vanguard pilot is based on supporting circa 1,000 Blackburn with Darwen residents over the course of the programme, commencing in October 2024 through to March 2026.

"The Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB footprint is a large geographic area with a total population of 1.8 million residents.

"The area is diverse with urban, rural and coastal communities, districts with large minority ethnic populations and areas of significant economic and social disadvantage.

"The proposal is to operate a vanguard across seven places within the ICB footprint which includes; Blackburn with Darwen, Barrow, Burnley, Blackpool, Lancaster and Morecambe, Preston and West Lancashire.

"Each locality has an additional focus on specific cohorts.

"Blackburn with Darwen’s will be deprived communities, ethnic minorities, those recently unemployed within the last 12 weeks and those with health conditions that affect a person’s ability to stay in work, including mental health and musculo-skeletal conditions.

"Blackburn with Darwen has a mature network of partners in place with a strong track record of collaborating to deliver joined up services to the same demographic groups as the WorkWell Vanguard."