At Archer Project Enterprises, we’ve worked with many people who have faced multiple disadvantages – homelessness, mental health challenges, addiction, and trauma – and one thing is always clear: people want to work. Everyone we’ve supported has expressed a genuine desire to contribute, to build a future, and to experience the benefits that work can provide – purpose, stability, connection, and independence.
However, wanting to work and being ready for full-time employment are two very different things. Many people we work with know they’re not yet ready for the demands of mainstream employment. They understand that jumping straight into a full-time job without the right support could set them up to fail, rather than succeed. What’s needed isn’t pressure to ‘get back to work’ at any cost, but a realistic, supported pathway that allows people to rebuild confidence, resilience, and stability at a pace that works for them.
That said, sometimes people get a little stuck, and a gentle nudge can be helpful – a conversation that encourages someone to take a step forward, an opportunity that feels manageable, or the reassurance that support is there if things feel overwhelming. But stripping people of the funds they need to have even a basic standard of living is not that nudge. That’s not support – it’s coercion. When survival itself is under threat, how can we expect people to take risks, build confidence, and step into work in a way that’s sustainable?
And is it really a surprise that so many people feel stuck in fear and anxiety when the benefit system and mainstream employers bridge the gap between support and work so ineffectively? Or that people’s self-worth and confidence are so low when they have spent years – sometimes decades – facing systemic stigma and marginalisation? These are the deeper forces we need to address if we want to create real and lasting change.
One of the biggest flaws in mainstream, outcome-focused approaches is that they don’t value prevention. Success is too often defined by quick employment outcomes, with little attention paid to whether someone remains in work long-term, or whether the job was appropriate for them in the first place.
In our work, prevention doesn’t just mean helping someone into a job – it means preventing regression back into addiction, street homelessness, or, in some cases, even death. We’ve seen a number of individuals really succeed in our supported employment programme, but it pains me to say that we’ve also experienced all of the above.
This begs the question: In the drive to reduce the welfare budget, how much do we truly value human lives in this country? Because if prevention mattered, we would be prioritising stability over short-term cost-cutting.
And even if we play the government at their own game, why aren’t we talking more about the financial savings of keeping people in a place of relative stability? The cost of emergency services, hospital admissions, temporary accommodation, the criminal justice system – all of these skyrocket when people fall through the cracks. The evidence is there: investing in prevention is not just the right thing to do – it’s the financially responsible thing to do.
Mainstream employment simply isn’t set up to accommodate people who are in the process of recovery or rebuilding their lives. The reality is that most jobs require a level of stability that many people just don’t have yet. A graduated, supported exposure to work is essential – where people can build skills, adapt to structure, and gain confidence in an environment that understands and accommodates their challenges.
That’s exactly why we’ve spent years developing a range of social enterprises – not just as businesses, but as stepping stones between the world of support and mainstream employment. These enterprises help bridge the gap, providing real work experience, structure, and purpose, but in an environment that acknowledges:
The need for flexibility. Progress isn’t linear, and people need room to step back if things become overwhelming.
Support must be embedded in the job itself. It’s not just about work experience – it’s about relearning how to navigate challenges in a safe environment.
Success looks different for different people. Not everyone will transition to full-time mainstream employment, but everyone deserves opportunities to build confidence and skills.
The current political rhetoric around benefits, work, and economic inactivity suggests that if people aren’t working, they simply need to be pushed harder. This completely misunderstands the reality of recovery and employment for those facing multiple disadvantage. Forcing people into unsuitable jobs before they’re ready doesn’t lead to long-term employment – it leads to breakdowns, relapses, and people falling through the cracks all over again.
At Archer Project Enterprises, we see employment not as a demand, but as an opportunity to be built towards when someone is ready. We listen, we adapt, and we work with each person as an individual – not a statistic, not a problem to be solved, but a person rebuilding their life.
I recently wrote a longer piece for Now Then Magazine about the dangers of the current political narrative on work and disability, and why we need to rethink how we support people who have faced long-term exclusion.
You can read it here: No, Alan Milburn, We Won’t Fix the Economy by Further Punishing Disabled People
If we’re serious about creating real opportunities for those facing the biggest barriers, we need to ditch the punitive approach and start recognising that true progress isn’t about forcing people forward – it’s about walking alongside them, at their pace, towards something sustainable and meaningful.
Written by Terry Murphy, Archer Project Enterprises Managing Director. You can find out more about our social enterprises by visiting https://archerproject.org.uk/what-we-do/our-social-enterprises
Image with headline: An employee at Printed by Us applying brown printing ink to a screen to print a copy of 'Strong & Northern' Screen Print - Henderson's Relish® vs Rich Wells.
