Improving health and work: changing lives

NHS Employers welcomes Improving health and work: changing lives, the Government's positive response to Dame Carol Black's recommendations for improving the health of Britain's working age population.

The NHS has been identified as having a major role in driving this work forward, not only as the largest employer in Europe fulfilling its responsibilities to meet the Government's challenge, but also as the major provider of the healthcare services required to deliver the changes referred to in Dame Carol's report. NHS Employers looks forward to supporting the NHS to meet these challenges.

The Government response endorses the links between good work and good health and seeks to build upon previous activity and to ensure employment, where health conditions and disabilities are not a bar to enjoying the benefits of work.

The CBI estimates the cost of sickness, absence and worklessness to be £100bn and NHS Employers welcomes the report's focus not only upon the moral and social case for health and well being but also the economic case for all employers.

Read our briefing for an outline of the recommendations, opportunities and challenges. A full version Improving health and work: changing lives, is available on the Working for Health website.

• Review of the health and wellbeing of the NHS Workforce
• A National Centre for Working-Age Heath and Wellbeing
• Fit for Work early intervention pilots
• Electronic fit note
• Next steps

Review of the health and wellbeing of the NHS Workforce

The draft NHS constitution pledges to keep the NHS workforce healthy and safe and NHS Employers welcomes the Department of Health's forthcoming systemic review of how health and wellbeing is supported across the NHS.

As the largest employer in Europe, the NHS has always taken a lead in improving the health and wellbeing of its staff. Ensuring NHS staff are healthy will have a direct impact on a large proportion of the UK workforce. And, because the NHS workforce is at the heart of high quality patient care, this will also have an indirect affect on the health and wellbeing of the wider working age population.

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A National Centre for Working-Age Heath and Wellbeing

NHS Employers welcomes the proposals for the establishment of an independent centre for health and wellbeing and an employer led campaign to promote good corporate recruitment, development and retention practices. We shall support this through our work on NHS Jobs and our links with NHS networks. The report's focus on the need to work at local level will allow employers a variety of approaches, tailored to the needs of their organisations, patients and staff.

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Fit for Work early intervention pilots

The Government has committed to piloting a Fit for Work early intervention service. The Fit for Work service will help individuals on a period of sickness absence return to work more quickly than would otherwise have been the case.

NHS Employers welcomes the plans to make a Fit for Work Service available to all people of working age and look forward to discussing the development of the service, including how the service will be staffed.

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Electronic fit note

The Government intends move to an electronic fit note instead of a paper-based sick note. NHS Employers supported Dame Carol's suggestion to switch to electronic fit notes and we welcome this development which moves the focus to what people can do and improves communication between employers and GPs.

People of working age are generally healthier when they are working than when they are not, and, when health problems do occur they often recover more fully and more quickly when in work. It is therefore important that those who are unemployed due to long-term illness are given the opportunity to rebuild their health and contribute fully to society.

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Next steps

NHS Employers will continue to work closely with Dame Carol, the Health Work and Well Being team at the Departments of Health and Work and Pensions and with NHS Plus to drive the agenda forward and to support, wherever possible, NHS organisations in making their contribution to this exciting new strategy

We are already working closely with the Department of Health to assist NHS organisations to meet the Government target on providing work opportunities for mental health service users and those with severe learning difficulties.