Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Latest NewsWellbeingOccupational Health

Government decision on workplace ill-health training due

by Nic Paton 28 Oct 2009
by Nic Paton 28 Oct 2009

The government will later this year be asked to decide whether to fund a national roll-out of two-day workplace health training programmes for health and safety professionals.

An Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IoSH) pilot project, backed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has been running in Leicestershire this year, and its results are to be submitted to ministers and officials at the end of the year.

If it is given the go-ahead, the programme would offer the IoSH’s 35,000 members access to training in how better to identify ill-health in the workplace, strategies to ­support workers to stay at work rather than take time off sick, and ways to help them return to work after a period of absence.

A workshop held in September to discuss the progress of the pilot scheme was attended by leading ­occupational health figures, including the Royal College of Nursing’s Cynthia Atwell, Theresa Harrison from the Association of Occupational Health Nursing Practitioners and the DWP’s chief medical officer Dr Bill Gunnyeon.

“We need to help people back into work and into similar jobs to those they left. We want to work to a point where people see it as an everyday, sensible necessity to provide support and adaptations for people returning to work,” said Gunnyeon.

IoSH chief executive Nattasha Freeman stressed to Occupational Health that the training would not mean health and safety professionals setting themselves up as alternatives to OH, but rather, they would act in support of OH and other ­clinicians.

The shortness of the course meant it could also be targeted at small and medium-sized organisations (SMEs), Freeman suggested.

“If we can recognise things earlier, we may be able to help to stop more people falling out of work,” she said.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Occupational health nurses had little to fear from such forms of collaborative working, as long as the boundaries are clearly set and communicated, agreed Gail Cotton, head of occupational health and safety services at Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service.

“People do have to be realistic that there are not enough nurses to go around and if health issues can be identified earlier in this way, then that is all to the good,” she said.

Nic Paton

Nic Paton is consultant editor at Personnel Today. One of the country's foremost workplace health journalists, Nic has written for Personnel Today and Occupational Health & Wellbeing since 2001, and edited the magazine from 2018.

previous post
Royal Mail asks staff to switch offices or shifts to avoid strikes
next post
Talk-therapy boost adds 52 more centres

You may also like

Company director wins £15k after being told to...

4 Jul 2025

Skills shortfall in construction threatens housing target

4 Jul 2025

MPs demand Home Office tightens visas to protect...

4 Jul 2025

It’s all about the Monet: how art transforms...

3 Jul 2025

Stop chasing quick fixes: return to the office...

3 Jul 2025

Asda hails major upgrade in employees’ benefits

3 Jul 2025

100% success for latest large-scale four-day week trial

3 Jul 2025

NHS 10-year Health Plan sets out vision for...

3 Jul 2025

Microsoft to cut 9,000 jobs globally as role...

3 Jul 2025

Decline in workplace deaths: falls from height remain...

3 Jul 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today