Anybody remember Dame Carol Black and her review of the Health of Working Age People? Thought not. More of that later, but first a heads up on some other up and coming developments affecting your responsibilities towards the health and wellbeing of staff. Next week the government's Foresight programme (which pulls together scientific evidence on key issues, for example the obesity report launched in October 2007 ) will launch a Mental Capital and Wellbeing report, which includes a section on 'Wellbeing and Work: Future Challenges' which looks at research evidence on the impact of managers' behaviour on mental health. You can download most of this from the Foresight website.
This will feed into a new government strategy on Mental Health and Employment Strategy which is due next March, led by Dame Carol Black. That old favourite office poster may have to be rewritten as: "You don't have to be mad to work here but if you are we can help". I need hardly point out that in the current economic circumstances quite a few of us are likely to develop minor mental health issues over the next few months.
And whatever happened to Dame Carol Black's recommendations on workplace health, launched in March this year? Rumour has it that this will be on 24 November. There's no immediate call to action for HR but expect to hear more about the business case for health and wellbeing initiatives and how to measure the benefits over the next couple of years. A new fit for work note has been piloted in England and the results are being evaluated right now, while an electronic fit note has been piloted in Wales. These in theory should help employers prevent short-term absence turning into long term absence.
