Dame Carol Black to lead occupational health taskforce
Centre for Ageing Better Chair Dame Carol Black will lead a new taskforce to improve employer awareness of the benefits of occupational health in the workplace.
Only around a quarter of employers in Britain currently provide some form of occupational health.
Dame Carol, who has decades of experience in medicine and policy development and having previously chaired multiple government reviews, will head up a taskforce that will produce a voluntary occupational health framework for businesses.
The framework will include details setting out minimum levels of occupational health needed to stop sickness-related job losses and help businesses better support those returning to work after a period of ill-health.
Currently just 28% of employers in Britain provide some form of occupational health, with large employers (89%) nearly three times more likely than Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (28%) to do so.
This means that fewer than half (45%) of workers in Britain currently have access to some form of occupational health service with an estimated 1.8 million workers reporting work-related ill health in 2022/23.
The taskforce met for the first time this week aiming to increase access and uptake of occupational health through:
- Increasing information and visibility for employers on occupational health and the benefits of quality occupational health provision in retaining employees in the workplace.
- Empowering employers to play an active role in improving employee health.
- Removing barriers by focusing on SMEs with restricted finances and by ensuring that the framework is applicable across sectors.
- Complementing other existing health and disability workplace initiatives, including where occupational health is required in law.
Dame Carol Black, who has led the Board of Trustees as Chair of the Centre for Ageing Better since 2019, said: “It is a privilege to Chair the new Taskforce which will review occupational health services available to employees across businesses of all shapes and sizes and then create a framework to support better employee health and wellbeing. We will encourage employers to embrace practices that prevent or reduce ill-health related job loss.
“We know the impact high sickness absence and presenteeism has on businesses and their productivity, which is why I am so pleased to work with other members of the Taskforce to ensure occupational health support is in place for employees and employers alike.”