The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have published a two-part consultation on ways to increase the uptake of Occupational Health (OH) provision, support businesses and increase labour force participation by tackling economic inactivity due to long-term sickness.
This supports the Prime Minister’s priorities of halving inflation and growing the economy.
In the Spring 2023 Budget, The Chancellor announced £2 billion to support disabled people and people with health conditions to work. This included the package of two consultations: “Occupational Health: Working Better” and “Tax Incentives for Occupational Health”. Both of these consultations are intended to be read together.
Through the “Occupational Health: Working Better” consultation, to better support businesses, government intends to seek views on establishing an agreement and partnership between government, employers and OH providers to help drive an ambitious increase in OH coverage, specifically in relation to:
- the introduction of a national ‘health at work’ standard to help provide a baseline for quality OH provision including guidance, the option of pursuing accreditation and additional government-funded support services as well as employer best practice sharing (Chapter 1);
- best practice from other countries and other UK-based employer models that enable employers to provide support for their employees (set out in Chapter 2); and
- developing work and health workforce capacity through new service models, building the skills mix and diversity of the current workforce and partnering with the private sector to develop a long term sustainable multidisciplinary OH workforce (set out in Chapter 3).
The second consultation, “Tax Incentives for Occupational Health”, is aimed at employers and exploring the role of tax incentives in boosting occupational health provision by employers.
Views are particularly welcomed from:
- Employers
- Healthcare Professionals
- Non-Healthcare Professionals
- Occupational Health Providers
The consultation is open until 11.59pm on 12 October 2023
You can access the consultations and find out how you can have your say here and here.
This is sure to be a hot topic debated at our timely sister event, the MAD World Summit on 12 October, where the stellar lineup of speakers includes Barbara Bradley, Work & Health Services Director General, Department for Work & Pensions. You can find out more here.
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