The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced a major change for people suffering from ill health, aiming to provide earlier and better support to keep them in work. The new plan focuses on building more inclusive workplaces and improving workplace health provision to prevent health conditions from escalating and to support successful returns after absences.
Key figures behind the plan
Officials said around 300,000 people with a health condition leave work every year. Someone absent for four to six weeks has a 96 percent chance of returning, but after a year, fewer than half do. Since 2019, the number of working-age people out of work due to ill health has risen by 800,000, with a total cost to the economy of around £212 billion a year.
The plan brings together employers, the NHS, local authorities and other support services to ensure people don’t fall out of work unnecessarily and companies have better data on workplace health and inclusion to drive change.
Regional Vanguards and testing
Eleven regional Vanguards, including nine Mayoral Strategic Authorities, Cornwall Council, Hull City Council and Worcestershire City Council, and more than 200 Vanguard organisations are already building and testing the new system with employers, unions and disabled people across all four nations of the UK.
Sir Charlie Mayfield, author of the Keep Britain Working Review and Co-Chair of the Keep Britain Working programme, said: “Britain has spent too long treating economic inactivity as a welfare problem. It is not.
“Instead, it’s one of the largest and most attainable growth opportunities this country has. We’ve had a National Health Service for almost 80 years. We’ve never had a Workplace Health System. That is why the same people appear on the welfare bill, on NHS waiting lists and in the productivity figures without anyone being able to join them up.
“It’s also why we are missing the best moments to help people. The new Workplace Health System would change that. Ten months of building and testing with employers, mayors, providers, unions and disabled people have made us even clearer about what needs to change and more confident that a new system that helps to drive economic growth is within reach.
“The task now is to build it.”
Government response and support package
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: “Too many people fall out of work because of a health problem that could have been caught earlier, and too many employers have no way of knowing whether they are getting this right.
“This programme is working hand in hand with employers, mayors and local leaders to change that, so that good workplace health support is not just for big companies and it delivers growth across every postcode.”
A £3.5 billion employment support package includes WorkWell, backed by £259 million, to support up to 250,000 people to stay in or return to work. Connect to Work aims to reach 300,000 sick or disabled people with tailored support. Over 1,000 full-time Pathways to Work advisers are already in place across Britain.
A new employer data project and work and health prototype are being developed this autumn to address these gaps. Minister of State for Work and Health Ally McGovern said: “Anyone can find themself with an illness that could stop them working.
“Getting help quickly rather than waiting for the problem to get worse is the right way to support good health and a strong economy.”
The regional Vanguards include Cornwall Council, East Midlands, Greater London Authority, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, North East Combined Mayoral Authority, South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority, West Midlands Combined Mayoral Authority, West of England Combined Mayoral Authority, West Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority and Worcestershire County Council.
