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

Clinical governanceEmployment lawWellbeingOccupational Health

How does the launch of Quality Accounts affect HR?

by Personnel Today 14 Feb 2011
by Personnel Today 14 Feb 2011

Dr Richard Preece draws readers’ attention to the fairly quiet launch of the Quality Accounts Regulations.

Two things happened in October 2010 that should change occupational health (OH). One has been headlining all year but the other has barely registered.

OH practitioners have been preparing their practices to take account of the Equality Act 2010. A great deal of thought has been put into refinements to pre-employment assessment.

Less thought is being given to changes of post in employment but the same (legal) principles should apply. Employers and OH practitioners should reflect thoughtfully on whether they offer employees alternative posts, promotions and redeployment before asking questions of fitness for that post. The procedural rigour of pre-employment assessment is often not applied to internal job changes.

The Quality Accounts Regulations 2010 have crept quietly in. These require the publication of Quality Accounts from all providers of NHS services, including independent practitioners and private sector organisations contracted to provide NHS services. Small providers are exempt only if their annual revenue from NHS contracts is less than £130,000. Even small commercial providers delivering OH for the NHS will quickly exceed this threshold.

In the past, a great deal of health-related legislation has not applied to OH. Notably, the Private and Voluntary Health Care Regulations 2001 specifically exempted providers of health support to workers from the quality requirements from which all other patients benefited. This is not the case here – there are no exemptions for providers of healthcare contracted to the NHS.

Quality Accounts are public documents that aim to improve the public accountability of services and involve boards in quality improvements. Quality Accounts should help service users understand the following.

What an organisation is doing well – OH providers have not been very good at publicising achievements. Some enter awards and share case examples but most do not. Quality Accounts are an opportunity for all OH providers to promote their contribution to the public health of the workforce (and do so alongside all other healthcare providers).

Where improvements in service quality are required – OH providers have long embraced clinical governance (Preece, 2006). The central themes of this are accountability and continual improvement. The publication of Quality Accounts all in a similar format in one place will be a welcome opportunity for current and potential service users to consider whether or not providers are contributing as much to improving occupational health as their rivals.

What the organisation’s priorities for improvement are for the coming year – the contribution of independent providers to the development of the specialty and more widely to healthcare is considerable. By annually reporting targets and achievements in Quality Accounts it will be much clearer who is and who is not really contributing.

How the organisation has involved people who use its services, staff and others with an interest in their organisation in determining these priorities for improvement – the engagement of service users is at the heart of future provision. Workers don’t often get a say in the OH service that is provided (or more often they don’t get a service). As providers report this, we can hope that users everywhere recognise its importance and the demand for excellent OH support expands.

Managers, workers and their representatives have long deserved access to regular reporting on the quality of care. The new Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service standards make it clear that customers must be able to understand “what they can expect from the service” [Standard E2.2] and “must consult and involve workers or their representatives regarding the provision of OH services” [Standard F2.2]. If Quality Accounts are the model for other health services they should be a benchmark for all OH services and not just a requirement for those doing a significant amount of NHS work.

All Quality Accounts are published on the NHS Choices website. They are uploaded quickly, so those from OH providers contracting with the NHS should have been published by now. Organisations that might reach the threshold for NHS work, and whose Quality Account should be published on the NHS Choices website soon, include: Atos; Capita; Healthwork; Team Prevent; and People Asset Management.

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.

The Equality Act and the Quality Accounts Regs are not that different from each other. Each aims to make sure that people are treated appropriately and organisations are held to account for this.

Dr Richard Preece is a consultant occupational physician.

Personnel Today

previous post
Government to launch review into workplace sickness absence
next post
Job losses set to rise sharply as cuts bite, says CIPD

You may also like

How can HR prepare for changes to the...

3 Jul 2025

Third in north west fear ill health will...

2 Jul 2025

Government publishes ‘roadmap’ for Employment Rights Bill

2 Jul 2025

Employers’ duty of care: keeping workers safe in...

27 Jun 2025

Welfare cuts would ‘undermine workforce inclusion and business...

27 Jun 2025

When will the Employment Rights Bill become law?

26 Jun 2025

Supporting employees through substance abuse

24 Jun 2025

Seven ways to prepare now for the Employment...

20 Jun 2025

One in four young workers rate mental health...

17 Jun 2025

The employer strikes back: the rise of ‘quiet...

13 Jun 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