OUR HISTORY
In the mid-1990s, three people came together in Greenwich: Paul Lelliott, a psychiatrist, Ronnie Wilson, the director of a local mental health work project and Carole Furnivall, a Social Services manager of local mental health services. Together, they formed First Step Trust.
First Step Trust was based on a fundamental belief that work is one of the most important aspects of many people’s lives that enables them to maintain their mental health. And yet, people with long term mental health issues were regularly denied access to work. Standard mental health day services were caring but unchallenging, causing some to lose self respect and belief in their ability to contribute meaningfully to society.
First Step Trust’s goal was to make work accessible to people with mental health problems/other disabilities. Many of these would not yet be able to sustain the pressures of paid employment, but could move closer to it with support and work structured to be accessible.
Social enterprises, funded through statutory agencies and trading income, provided work, trading with the local community. In the early days, they delivered grounds maintenance and decorating, expanding later into catering and garage services.
It was essential that the workforce was fully involved in all aspects of work, taking responsibility for administration, finances, management as well as delivering the contracts.
Work was structured to make it accessible, training provided and, above all, support to the workforce to manage their mental health to meet their responsibilities.
Assistance to move on to paid employment elsewhere was given where needed and salaried positions within FST provided. Statutory agencies responded positively, including secure mental health services, so FST developed projects across London, the Midlands, Northern England and Scotland, as well as in Broadmoor Hospital and 4 medium secure units.
However, FST has come a long way since those early days although the basic values remain firmly at its core. It faced two major challenges: funding pressures on statutory agencies and changing government focus to short term training/employment support.
FST welcomed these challenges, responding by concentrating trading in the automotive sector, with better income generation capacity and employment opportunities. It joined hands with major players in the car industry such as Halfords and the Institute of the Motoring Industry.
FST also took time to understand what was holding its willing and capable workforce back from moving into paid employment. Research into FST’s workforce revealed many lacked educational qualifications, but above all, confidence in their own ability to learn.
Work therefore began on creating a range of training materials using Virtual Reality and other technical support.