Health and work update for clients as at 7th April 2025
PROMOTING, PROTECTING AND SUPPORTING HEALTH IN WORK
Primary recipients of this and each of our regular monthly updates are asked to ensure these are disseminated to colleagues in HR, those in line management positions, and to senior management.
1. Supporting people in work and preventing people falling out of work
Preventing people falling out of work is a key theme of the consultations released by Government in this last month. There has been much attention in the media following the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announcements in the Commons, and the elements of the Chancellor’s Spring statement on reducing the benefits bill. We see our role as occupational health providers to support our clients as employers in advising on promoting health in work, preventing ill health and injury and sustaining their people in work, and so reducing risk of people falling out of work.
We will be responding to the Government’s Green Paper on reforming benefits and support to sustain people in work (as at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper ). There has been less media attention on the Discovery phase of Sir Charlie Mayfield’s independent Keep Britain Working Review (as at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-britain-working-review-discovery/keep-britain-working-review-discovery ) but we will also be responding to this important paper which focuses primarily on how employers can prevent people from falling out of work due to ill-health and the barriers faced by disabled people and how they can create new pathways for reintegration.
2. Health Surveillance
Reducing the risk of people falling out of work includes the effectiveness of risk management and controls to reduce the risk of ill health and injury. Health surveillance may be indicated based on the employer’s risk assessment (as in HSE guidance at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/health-surveillance/overview.htm ) or when required in statute (e.g. working with ionising radiation).
We suggest that our clients periodically review arrangements for health surveillance, to ensure those who need this are having this systematically. In particular, when health surveillance identifies health effects amongst individual workers, or more than one worker, we advise the risk assessment is reviewed and risk management controls adjusted as needed. In addition to informing employers when such issues arise, in our routine period management information reports to employers we will indicate if there are any trends observed, so as to enable timely action when needed.
Dr Robin Cordell
MBA FRCP FFOM
7 April 2025
We should draw attention to the links on our home page to this current monthly health and work update for our clients, and also to our previous updates at: https://cordellhealth.co.uk/.