Tackling economic inactivity due to long-term sickness is a top priority for the government.
The Chancellor announced £2 billion at the Spring Budget 2023 to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work, which included a package of two consultations, Tax Incentives for Occupational Health and Occupational Health: Working Better. The UK Government’s chief concern is that according to its statistics, 1 in 13 working age people, excluding students, is not in work due to long term sickness.
Therefore,the latter consultation is seeking views on proposals aimed at increasing employer use of Occupational Health (OH) Services specifically exploring:
– the introduction of a national ‘health at work’ standard to help provide a baseline for quality OH provision including guidance, the option of pursuing accreditation and additional Government-funded support services as well as employer best practice sharing;
-best practice from other countries and other UK-based employer models that enable employers to provide support for their employees; and
-how we develop and support a multidisciplinary workforce in work and health, including expert OH workforce.
This is intended to build on HSE’s existing work with the OH sector and explore the opportunities this can offer businesses and providers.
The consultation is aimed at employers, OH professionals, OH service providers and service users. Both consultations will together inform potential policy options to enable and encourage employers and OH provision to support individuals to remain and thrive in work.
The consultation is due to close on 12 October 2023.
For more see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/occupational-health-working-better