Employers should report their health and safety performance as part of their regular business performance reporting, the government has said.
The recommendation is one of many outlined in the government’s Health, Work and Wellbeing – Caring for our Future blueprint for the health of the working age population in the UK, published in October.
Other recommendations include incorporating leadership competencies relating to occupational health into management and HR training courses, and identifying incentives to encourage more OH provision among employers.
The document has also called for national standards for OH provision to be established, defining competencies for all professionals working in OH delivery and making sure there are better links between GPs, employers and OH practitioners.
In the public sector, which the government wants to be an exemplar of best practice when it comes to OH, quality standards for OH provision will be established. There will be more support for training in OH and more promotion of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) stress management standards.
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The strategy is a joint effort by the health and work and pensions departments, and the HSE.
At its launch, the then work and pensions secretary David Blunkett said the strategy was a first stage in trying to break “the link between ill health and inactivity”. “It will encourage good management and transform opportunities for people to recover from illness at work while maintaining their independence and sense of worth,” he added.
