NHS staff wellbeing: get fighting fit

As the largest employer in the UK, the NHS should continue to set the benchmark for workplace health and wellbeing and aspire to become a model employer. Good work is already under way across the service, and by highlighting and building on this the NHS has an opportunity to create new standards for providing wellness services and set the standard for other employers in the public and private sectors.

Attracting and retaining the best people is increasingly important in all spheres of business. For the NHS - faced with an ageing population and shrinking talent pool, coupled with increased expectations and service demands - it will be the cornerstone of success.

For many, work is an essential part of a healthy and fulfilling life, and yet the benefits of employers promoting the health and wellbeing of their workforce have only recently been acknowledged.

National director for health and work Dame Carol Black, in her March 2008 report Working for a Healthier Tomorrow, recommended among other things the introduction of an electronic "fit note", focusing on what a patient can do rather than what they cannot do.

We know that it can be difficult for employers to rehabilitate staff if they have no indication of what an employee can still do at work.

The proposed fit note will include information on what the employee is capable of so that the employer can work with them to agree on the tasks to be performed. It sets down a clear marker for the shift in thinking required.

The motivation to make this shift is clear: the economic reality is that the national cost of sickness absence and worklessness associated with workers' ill health is more than£100bn a year - greater than the NHS's entire annual budget.

The publication of Improving Health and Work: changing lives in November 2008, the government's response to Dame Carol's report, made clear the links between health and work. It set out a vision of a society where everyone aspires to a healthy and fulfilling working life and where health conditions and disabilities are not a bar to enjoying the benefits of work.

It recognises that the NHS has a major role to play in driving this work forward, not only as the country's largest employer fulfilling its responsibilities to meet the government's challenge, but also as the major provider of the healthcare services required to deliver the changes. It presents an opportunity for the NHS to create new standards for the provision of wellness services.

Everyone's responsibility

Examples of good practice in support of the healthy workplace plan abound in the NHS. Trusts already deliver a number of healthy workplace initiatives such as breast cancer awareness and managing stress sessions. Some have also formed partnerships with their local authority to extend their work to the wider population.

Improving Health and Work: changing lives stresses the importance of individual and collective responsibility. This happens in the NHS, where there are excellent examples of employers and staff side organisations working in partnership to deliver on the healthy workplace agenda.

NHS Employers is producing advice for employees and managers on reducing stress. We are also working with the NHS Security Management Service to reduce violence and aggression against staff and looking at manual handling to reduce the number of back injuries.

Lack of appropriate information and advice has been highlighted as the most common barrier to employers investing in staff health and wellbeing. In November 2008, the NHS staff council occupational health and safety sub-group published the document Occupational Health and Safety Standards. It integrated legal requirements, examples of good practice, practical pointers and signposts on meeting occupational health and safety legislation standards, together with non-legislative requirements.

NHS Employers is also working with the Department of Health to help the NHS employ more mental health service users and those with serious learning difficulties and to encourage it to become a model employer in this area.

The work we have done underpins the values set out in the draft NHS constitution. It commits NHS employers to providing staff with a healthy, safe working environment free from harassment, bullying and violence and pledges to provide support and opportunities for staff to keep healthy and safe.

To take the national healthy workplace plans forward, the NHS is going to face tough challenges, including extending provision of occupational healthcare to all who need it and making a greater contribution to holistic patient care. It must provide sufficient access to support for patients in the early stages of sickness, including those with mental illness, and ensure that GPs are properly equipped to offer advice to patients on remaining in or returning to work.

NHS Employers will continue to work with trusts, providing examples of good practice and up-to-date advice on how to move the healthy workplace plans for staff on. We have produced a briefing in partnership with NHS Plus that sets out the business case for delivering wellness services and gives examples of good practice across the country.

The NHS is well placed to meet the challenges it faces. There is at least a decade of experience in most trusts of working to improve staff health and well-being. Trusts can build on this base as they strive to meet the challenge of becoming exemplar employers in terms of staff health and wellbeing.

Find out more

Healthy workplaces

www.nhsemployers.org/healthyworkplaces

The latest healthy workplaces briefing is available to download now

www.nhsemployers.org/publications