Employment Wellbeing Support

Our wellbeing support is open to Monmouthshire residents aged 20 and over. If you don’t feel ready for work or you’ve been out of work for a while, we can explore a tailored range of support to help you manage your wellbeing and explore next steps. 

  • A Confidential Space: Time for you to explore what is going on for you right now. Whether you lack confidence, feel anxious or overwhelmed, 1:1 sessions are a space to for you to talk about this and consider ways forward.  
  • Work Specific Barriers: Whether you’ve been out of work for a while or you don’t feel ready for work, identifying what worries you could be helpful. Do you lack confidence to apply for jobs? Have anxiety around interviews? Feel overwhelmed about starting something new? Feel worried about the possibility of starting a new job? Struggle to think of how to manage anxiety or worry?  
  • Advocacy: Finding the support you need can be difficult with so many services around. Whether you need help going to the GP to discuss your mental health or to obtain a fit note, or to access other agencies such as MIND or Housing, we can explore this together. 
  • Employability Focused Counselling: If you feel support is needed above and beyond 1:1 sessions, we can explore referring into Counselling. If there are multiple things going on for you, it may be useful to explore some of this with a Counsellor and some of this 1:1. We complete the referral with you to ensure it is current and Counselling is appropriate for you. Our Wellbeing Workers will be able to provide further information about criteria and referrals.  
  • Six Steps Workshop:The first day of the workshop helps explore barriers surround employment, confidence, qualifications, and experience. This is followed by an introduction to structured goal setting. If you don’t feel comfortable in small groups, we can explore 1:1 delivery.  
  • Invent Your Future:A more in-depth version of Six Steps and delivered 1:1 over three or four sessions. We start by looking at areas of your life you want to begin to make meaningful change in, we examine core habits, attitudes, and beliefs in some depth. We finish by understanding and practicing how to reframe these and apply these to structured goals you may want to achieve
  • Wellbeing Groups – To be updated in April 2025.  
  • Urgent Support: Our service is not a crisis service, whilst we can signpost you to appropriate support if needed, it is better to discuss extra support you may need during the initial catchups. We have included a list in the tab ‘Resources’ at the bottom of this page. 
  • Information: We need to gather some information from you, we will complete an assessment and mutually agree an action plan. We will need you to confirm we’ve explained GDPR, confidentiality and you’ve signed our working agreement.   
  • Meetings: We can catch up face to face in one of our community venues or Job Centre drop ins. We can also catch up by phone or Teams call. Due to our lone working policy, we are unable to conduct home visits.  
  • Cancellations: If you need to rearrange a meeting, please let us know with at least 24 hours’ notice. This will allow us to let our community hubs know if a room is no longer required. Whilst unexpected things can crop up, if you cancel at short notice or do not attend, we might need to have a conversation about whether a different day or time may be more suitable or whether now is the right time for our support. 
  • Staff Cancellations: On rare occasions, staff may need to postpone or cancel meetings due to training, meetings or safeguarding concerns, if this is needed, we will give you as much notice as possible and offer you the next available time to catch up.  
  • Flexibility: All meetings will take place between 9.30am – 4.30pm, due to opening times of our venues, we are unable to meet in the evenings. Our staff may send information outside of these hours such as course confirmations or reminder texts. Any texts we receive outside of hours will be responded to within our normal working hours.  
  • Length of Support: There is no set timeframe or number of sessions as everyone is different. You may find catching up a few times is all you need, or you may benefit from longer term support. We will review every 4 – 6 weeks.   
  • Other Agencies: We can work with you if you’re engaged with other services. It is important you let us know what other support you’re receiving. We don’t want to duplicate the good work that is already being done. Having the same conversation with two people or agencies can get confusing for you. 
  • Referrals: The easiest way to refer to us is to complete our Triage Form. You can book people in to see our Wellbeing Workers at Job Centre drop ins (Abergavenny only) the referral will still need to be submitted to Triage with a note to say, ‘booked in at drop in’. This is to keep track of all referrals. 
  • Voluntary Support: All projects within Economy, Employment and Skills are voluntary and cannot be considered part of mandated support.  
  • Other Projects: We can support participants if they are engaged with other agencies such as RESTART or other services. Please consider how our support can be helpful if someone you’re working with is engaging with similar services.  
  • Urgent Support: Our service is not a crisis service, whilst we can signpost to appropriate support if needed, it is important to consider other services if the need is urgent. Examples include the participants GP, NHS 111 (Option 2) or Samaritans. In an emergency (including mental health), please dial 999. We have included a list in the tab ‘Resources’ at the bottom of this page. 
  • Feedback: We welcome suggestions and comments on how we can improve our wellbeing support, including if any similar services or projects operate within Monmouthshire.  

*Please note this is not an exhaustive list. This list was last updated in January 2025 and is due for review in June 2025. 

 

NHS Mental Health Helpline: 111 Press 2 (24/7, 365 days a year)  

Samaritans: 116 123 / jo@samaritans.org / online web chat (24/7, 365 days a year)  

Crisis Support: Get Urgent Help Now | Mental Health Help | Melo Cymru 

C.A.L.L. Mental Health Listening Line: 0800 132 737 / Text ‘help’ to 81066  

Shout (Text) – Text ‘Shout’ to 85258  

CALM (Men) – 0800 58 58 58  

New Pathways (Sexual Violence) – 01685 379310  

Domestic Abuse (Live Fear Free) – 0808 8010 800  

Gwent Drug and Alcohol Service – 0333 999 3577  

Talk to Frank – 0300 1236600  

Dan 24 / 7 – 0808 808 2234 / dan@helplines.wales / https://dan247.org.uk