Professor Dame Carol Black is to head up the taskforce that will produce a voluntary occupational health framework for employers this summer, the government has announced.
The taskforce, which is meeting for the first time today, intends to devise a framework that will set out the minimum levels of occupational health provision to stop sickness-related job losses and better support people to return to work after a period of ill-health.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions, just 28% of employers in Great Britain offer occupational health services, with large employers (89%) three-times more likely than small firms (28%) to do so.
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Only an estimated 45% of workers have access to OH services.
Plans to develop the framework were announced in November in the government’s response to its Occupational health: working better consultation, which ran last summer.
Dame Carol, who authored the landmark 2008 report Working for a Healthier Tomorrow and recently received a rare GBE in 2024’s New Year’s honours list, will be joined in the group by experts in OH, public health and business.
Its aims include:
- increasing information on OH for employers and the benefits it can offer for retaining employees
- empowering employers to play an active role in improving employee health
- removing barriers to offering OH by focusing on SMEs with restricted finances and by ensuring that the framework is applicable across sectors
- looking at how OH services can complement other existing health and disability workplace initiatives, including where occupational health provision is required by law.
Dame Carol Black said: “It is a privilege to chair the new taskforce which will review occupational health services available to employees across businesses of all shapes and sizes and then create a framework to support better employee health and wellbeing. We will encourage employers to embrace practices that prevent or reduce ill-health related job loss.
“We know the impact high sickness absence and presenteeism has on businesses and their productivity, which is why I am so pleased to work with other members of the taskforce to ensure occupational health support is in place for employees and employers alike.”
Minister for employment Jo Churchill said: “Millions of working days are lost each year through sickness. We are helping businesses tackle this challenge head on so we can help boost productivity and grow our economy.
“The work of Dame Carol and her expert taskforce will be crucial as we drive down absenteeism, which we know is holding back British businesses and really focus on making occupational health support available to all.”
However, Nicola Brown, partner at law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter, said that employers could be “disappointed” to hear the government is “proposing to put the burden on them to cover the gaps in our healthcare system”.
Some employers already voluntarily assist employees with things like counselling and physiotherapy on a case-by-case basis, but it would be difficult to force all employers to do so,” – Nicola Brown, Mayo Wynne Baxter
She said: “There is no doubt staff absence is an issue that needs to be tackled, and both employers and employees benefit when they can get independent, up-to-date advice about the employee’s condition and prognosis. As we all know, GPs are so overloaded that getting guidance from them can be difficult, plus they don’t always understand the details of an employee’s role, and they can’t be impartial as they inevitably have an ongoing relationship with their patient.
“The plans are not going to be compulsory straight away. Some employers already voluntarily assist employees with things like counselling and physiotherapy on a case-by-case basis, but it would be difficult to force all employers to do so, especially when the business is small or when the issues causing the absence are unconnected with work.
“It will be interesting to see how the proposed national occupational health service is intended to work (and how it will be funded). Currently there are not enough occupational health providers, so it is not clear how that shortage is intended to be addressed.”
Dame Carol is currently chair of the British Library, the Centre for Ageing Better and the government’s fast-stream training programme for mental health social workers. She also co-chairs NHS England and Improvement’s expert advisory group on employee health and wellbeing.
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