Able futures - joint event

🧠 October is mental health awareness month – Let’s prioritise SME Wellbeing 🧠

This mental health awareness month, we’re shining a spotlight on the critical role people professionals play in supporting mental health within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With limited internal resources and growing pressures on teams, people leaders are often the first line of support—yet they may not have access to the tools or services needed to make a lasting impact.

Join us on Wednesday 2 October, 12:00–13:00 for an insightful session with Debbie Burns from the Able Futures, designed specifically with SME people professionals in mind.

💼 Why attend?

Able Futures is a confidential, no-cost mental health support service delivered through the access to work mental health support service. It’s designed to help employees, apprentices, and SME leaders access expert guidance and build resilience at work—without adding to your budget or workload.

💬 In this session, you’ll discover:

🔹 What Able Futures is and how the acess to work mental health support service works

🔹 Why the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is investing in mental health support for SMEs

🔹 How employees and apprentices can benefit from nine months of tailored support from Mental Health Coaches (MHCs)

🔹 How SME employers and their HR teams can create mentally healthy workplaces through practical strategies and expert advice

🔹 Answers to your questions about how Able Futures can support your people and strengthen your business

Let’s make Mental Health Awareness month a turning point for SME wellbeing—because people professionals deserve support too, and every team deserves more good days at work. 💙

About the speaker

Debbie Burns

Debbie Burns has worked on several Ingeus contracts for over 7 years, and is now thriving in her role as the Business Account Manager for the South of England on the Able Futures contract. In her current role, Debbie leads engagement with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), helping them access the Able Futures programme to support employee mental health.

With over two years of dedicated work on Able Futures, Debbie has become a passionate advocate for the service, drawing from her own mental health journey. That experience taught her two vital lessons:

1. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and
2. Timing is everything.

These insights fuel her commitment to Able Futures—a service offering mental health coaching without waiting lists, providing quick, confidential support without the need for a GP referral.

Debbie’s role is all about connecting SMEs with this transformative support, helping employers create mentally healthy workplaces where staff can thrive. Her belief in the power of timely, tailored mental health support makes her a driving force behind the success of Able Futures in the South.

Please note:

1. Webinar joining instructions will be sent to you again one day before the event, with a further reminder, 20 minutes prior to the event starting.
2. The session may be recorded and shared with people afterwards. Please bear this in mind and have your camera off if you do not wish for your image to be shared.
3. The chat function will be used for participants to engage with the webinar, so just be mindful of the login name you use and ensure you are happy for other people to see this.
4. For security reasons, it is requested that participants join the live session 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and with the same name as registered on Eventbrite as not doing so may cause a delay or non-admittance to the event.
5. This event may include an external speaker who has prepared their own presentation. Any views or opinions expressed by the speaker are their own and do not reflect those of the CIPD.
6. If you require any reasonable adjustments to enhance your experience, please get in contact with us by responding to this email and we will do our best to accommodate.