Background to Workplace Health Connect

Workplace Health Connect was designed to test a delivery model for giving advice on workplace health, safety and return-to-work to small and medium sized enterprises. But how did this come about?

The Health and Safety Commission’s Strategy for Workplace Health and Safety to 2010 and Beyond recognised that tackling occupational health and safety in the workplace needed a strategic and partnership based approach, involving the public and private sectors. This is reflected in the White Paper "Choosing Health", chapter 7 – Work and Health. The Government considers that keeping people in work, and helping them return to work quickly after injury or illness, is important.

The Workplace Health Connect pilot also sits within the government’s wider strategy Health, work and well-being - Caring for our future [PDF 236KB] , which aims to break the link between ill health and inactivity, to advance the prevention of ill health and injury, to encourage good management of occupational health, and to transform opportunities for people to recover from illness while at work, maintaining their independence and their sense of worth.

Workplace Health Connect was based on a model for occupational health, safety and return-to-work support, developed by HSE following work undertaken within the Securing Health Together programme. The HSC endorsed the model and the programme of work to extend access to occupational health, safety and return-to-work support. The direction taken for Workplace Health Connect was shaped by key elements of HSC’s Strategy, namely:

• Innovative ways of working
• Working with and through others
• Providing accessible advice and support, and
• A focus on small businesses

Workplace Health Connect originally sought to:

• Establish a service with the potential to significantly increase the level of healthy workplaces within small and medium sized businesses across England and Wales
• Provide workplace health support for both employers and workers who do not currently benefit from such support
• Deliver, at a minimum, the basic principles of the problem-solving service and give small and medium sized businesses the knowledge and skills to resolve workplace health, safety and return-to-work issues, so that employers can resolve current and future issues themselves
• Change employer and worker behaviours so that, ultimately, preventative measures are put in place to avoid unnecessary workplace health issues
• Improve small and medium sized businesses understanding of workplace health issues and of the benefits of sickness absence and return-to-work procedures
• Develop innovative partnerships that deliver a consistent service to all customers