Workplace Health Promotion in the UK
Across the UK, there is a lot going on in the field of workplace health promotion, or workplace health improvement as it is called in some areas. Usually, stress management or mental health promotion is one of the major areas for workplace health promotion. Please scroll down this page to access all the information resources.
The quality of workplace health initiatives and the services/resources available vary hugely across the country. Scotland and Wales, where health is a devolved policy area, have national workplace health promotion initiatives, which are well resourced.
In England, the situation is very patchy, with excellent services and resources in some areas (notably the North East and South West) and little or nothing in other areas. Some English workplace health initiatives are offered through local NHS Foundation Trusts whereas others are offered through local authorities. In the better resourced areas, there can be very good co-ordination between different agencies, providing a good range of resources for employers and employees to tap into.
Until recently, most workplace health promotion services have been provided through the public sector but the squeeze on public sector spending has put many of these services in jeopardy. Some areas are now looking at the potential for new organizational structures and sectors to provide these services, including social enterprises and charities.
Scotland - Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives
www.healthyworkinglives.com is the access point for information related to occupational health, safety and wellbeing in Scotland. It has a wide variety of excellent, free resources available. (Please note: workplaces outside Scotland can access online resources, but will be unable to take advantage of other services on offer).
It operates an Adviceline on 0800 019 2211 which gives free, confidential help and information on matters of health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace. More details on the adviceline can be found here.
The centre has a network of specialist Healthy Working Lives Advisers throughout Scotland who provide free and confidential workplace visits, giving advice on issues related to occupational health, safety and wellbeing. For contact details for your local Healthy Working Lives Team visit the website or call the Adviceline.
It also operates the Healthy Working Lives Award Scheme. This supports employers and employees to develop health promotion and safety themes in the workplace in a practical, logical way that's highly beneficial. More details on the award programme are available here.
Stress Resources Available from Healthy Working Lives can be found on its stress portal page. Healthy Working lives also has more general mental health and wellbeing resources.
Work Positive
Work Positive is a stress risk management resource developed by the centre to help employers identify and reduce the potential causes of stress in the workplace. The Work Positive tools and resources can be downloaded from our Free Stress Tools page.
A Guide to the Business Case for Mental Health is also available at Health Scotland's website
Free training is also available via e-learning, blended learning and traditional training courses. The main training courses relevant to stress are:
Wales - Healthy Working Wales
Healthy Working Wales has been developed to support employers, employees and health professionals to improve health at work, prevent ill health and to support return to work following ill health.
For information on the services and award schemes available visit their website.
Health at Work Advice Line Wales 0800 107 0900
This pilot scheme provides smaller organization employers and employees with access to free, confidential advice on any occupational, physical or mental health issue. For more information visit their web page.
Workboost Wales 0845 609 6006
This service provides confidential, practical, free advice to small businesses in Wales on workplace health and safety, management of sickness absence and return to work issues. It is for businesses employing between 5 and 250 workers which do not have access to specialist health and safety advice. Workers in Wales can call the service for confidential, free advice too.
In addition, employers in Wales can have a free on-site visit by a Specialist Adviser to look at their health and safety problems in depth. For more information visit the workboost site
Small Workplace Health Award Wales
This is the Welsh quality mark for health and well-being in the workplace. It is for businesses and organizations employing fewer than 50 people. Free support and advice is available for small businesses and organizations to develop workplace health and well-being initiatives. To find out more telephone: 0845 609 6006 or e-mail: [email protected]
The Corporate Health Standard
An initiative for employers to improve the health of the workforce and their organizations. It's a free service delivered by Public Health Wales.
Workplace Health Promotion in England
In England, unlike Scotland and Wales, there is no single point of contact for Workplace Health Promotion. There is however a lot of work taking place in the fields of Stress and Mental Health, with some areas employing Specialist Health Promotion Advisers (or Workplace Health Improvement Specialists) with a remit of Workplace Mental Health Promotion. Contact the Health Promotion Department or Public Health Department of your local Health Authority to find assistance in your area.
The UK Government's approach to workplace health comes under the 'Health, Work and Wellbeing' heading. This is a cross-Government (a number of Government departments, HSE, NHS, Scottish and Welsh Governments working together) workplace wellbeing initiative. There were until recently regional Health, Work and Wellbeing Coordinators covering the whole of the UK who co-ordinated activities in this area, though this role was cut early in 2012. Through the DWP site you can still access a wide range of useful resources and research reports.
Across England, the provision of publicly funded, local/regional workplace health promotion projects is patchy. There appear to be excellent services in some areas and nothing at all in others. We have found excellent workplace health promotion projects in places as far apart as Teesside and Cornwall. If want to find out more about what is support is available to businesses and organizations in your area, check out your local NHS or Business Link for more information.
Workplace Wellbeing Charter
The Workplace Wellbeing Charter is a Government-sponsored workplace heath and wellbeing initiative, that has been piloted in the North West (Liverpool, Cumbria) but is now being adopted in other parts of England, notably in London. It's a simpler (and cheaper) approach to workplace health promotion than those adopted in Scotland and Wales, and is less rigorously assessed. Nonetheless, it's worth checking out the website and resources available. It's likely that, if other parts of England adopt the Charter approach, they'll develop websites for their own areas.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a lot of resources related to managing stress and mental wellbeing at work. We have collated a lot of the key HSE stress research reports and stress tools on this site, or you could check out HSE's stress site, which is an excellent place to find information and resources.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on Promoting Mental Wellbeing at Work contains a number of useful resources including a costing template to enable organizations to calculate the costs of stress and mental health problems in their workforce. This allows them to create a business case for addressing these issues.
Mindful Employer
Mindful Employer is a non-profit organisation run by an NHS-linked organisation in Devon. It's a simple but powerful idea around employers making a commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of their employees. It's caught on much more in England than other parts of the UK, because there is such excellent state-sponsored support with workplace health promotion for employers outside England. In some parts of England there are active Mindful Employer networks. More information can be found on the Mindful Employer website.
Europe
The European Agency for Safety and Health in the Workplace has specific guidance and resources for Employers, Employees and Occupational Safety and Health Specialists. This is an excellent and under-used resource for workplace health promotion across Europe.
If you know of workplace health promotion resources that could be featured here, please let us know and we'll make sure people know about them.
The quality of workplace health initiatives and the services/resources available vary hugely across the country. Scotland and Wales, where health is a devolved policy area, have national workplace health promotion initiatives, which are well resourced.
In England, the situation is very patchy, with excellent services and resources in some areas (notably the North East and South West) and little or nothing in other areas. Some English workplace health initiatives are offered through local NHS Foundation Trusts whereas others are offered through local authorities. In the better resourced areas, there can be very good co-ordination between different agencies, providing a good range of resources for employers and employees to tap into.
Until recently, most workplace health promotion services have been provided through the public sector but the squeeze on public sector spending has put many of these services in jeopardy. Some areas are now looking at the potential for new organizational structures and sectors to provide these services, including social enterprises and charities.
Scotland - Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives
www.healthyworkinglives.com is the access point for information related to occupational health, safety and wellbeing in Scotland. It has a wide variety of excellent, free resources available. (Please note: workplaces outside Scotland can access online resources, but will be unable to take advantage of other services on offer).
It operates an Adviceline on 0800 019 2211 which gives free, confidential help and information on matters of health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace. More details on the adviceline can be found here.
The centre has a network of specialist Healthy Working Lives Advisers throughout Scotland who provide free and confidential workplace visits, giving advice on issues related to occupational health, safety and wellbeing. For contact details for your local Healthy Working Lives Team visit the website or call the Adviceline.
It also operates the Healthy Working Lives Award Scheme. This supports employers and employees to develop health promotion and safety themes in the workplace in a practical, logical way that's highly beneficial. More details on the award programme are available here.
Stress Resources Available from Healthy Working Lives can be found on its stress portal page. Healthy Working lives also has more general mental health and wellbeing resources.
Work Positive
Work Positive is a stress risk management resource developed by the centre to help employers identify and reduce the potential causes of stress in the workplace. The Work Positive tools and resources can be downloaded from our Free Stress Tools page.
A Guide to the Business Case for Mental Health is also available at Health Scotland's website
Free training is also available via e-learning, blended learning and traditional training courses. The main training courses relevant to stress are:
- Mental Health in the Workplace
- Work Positive training
- Other stress related training courses are also available.
Wales - Healthy Working Wales
Healthy Working Wales has been developed to support employers, employees and health professionals to improve health at work, prevent ill health and to support return to work following ill health.
For information on the services and award schemes available visit their website.
Health at Work Advice Line Wales 0800 107 0900
This pilot scheme provides smaller organization employers and employees with access to free, confidential advice on any occupational, physical or mental health issue. For more information visit their web page.
Workboost Wales 0845 609 6006
This service provides confidential, practical, free advice to small businesses in Wales on workplace health and safety, management of sickness absence and return to work issues. It is for businesses employing between 5 and 250 workers which do not have access to specialist health and safety advice. Workers in Wales can call the service for confidential, free advice too.
In addition, employers in Wales can have a free on-site visit by a Specialist Adviser to look at their health and safety problems in depth. For more information visit the workboost site
Small Workplace Health Award Wales
This is the Welsh quality mark for health and well-being in the workplace. It is for businesses and organizations employing fewer than 50 people. Free support and advice is available for small businesses and organizations to develop workplace health and well-being initiatives. To find out more telephone: 0845 609 6006 or e-mail: [email protected]
The Corporate Health Standard
An initiative for employers to improve the health of the workforce and their organizations. It's a free service delivered by Public Health Wales.
Workplace Health Promotion in England
In England, unlike Scotland and Wales, there is no single point of contact for Workplace Health Promotion. There is however a lot of work taking place in the fields of Stress and Mental Health, with some areas employing Specialist Health Promotion Advisers (or Workplace Health Improvement Specialists) with a remit of Workplace Mental Health Promotion. Contact the Health Promotion Department or Public Health Department of your local Health Authority to find assistance in your area.
The UK Government's approach to workplace health comes under the 'Health, Work and Wellbeing' heading. This is a cross-Government (a number of Government departments, HSE, NHS, Scottish and Welsh Governments working together) workplace wellbeing initiative. There were until recently regional Health, Work and Wellbeing Coordinators covering the whole of the UK who co-ordinated activities in this area, though this role was cut early in 2012. Through the DWP site you can still access a wide range of useful resources and research reports.
Across England, the provision of publicly funded, local/regional workplace health promotion projects is patchy. There appear to be excellent services in some areas and nothing at all in others. We have found excellent workplace health promotion projects in places as far apart as Teesside and Cornwall. If want to find out more about what is support is available to businesses and organizations in your area, check out your local NHS or Business Link for more information.
Workplace Wellbeing Charter
The Workplace Wellbeing Charter is a Government-sponsored workplace heath and wellbeing initiative, that has been piloted in the North West (Liverpool, Cumbria) but is now being adopted in other parts of England, notably in London. It's a simpler (and cheaper) approach to workplace health promotion than those adopted in Scotland and Wales, and is less rigorously assessed. Nonetheless, it's worth checking out the website and resources available. It's likely that, if other parts of England adopt the Charter approach, they'll develop websites for their own areas.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a lot of resources related to managing stress and mental wellbeing at work. We have collated a lot of the key HSE stress research reports and stress tools on this site, or you could check out HSE's stress site, which is an excellent place to find information and resources.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on Promoting Mental Wellbeing at Work contains a number of useful resources including a costing template to enable organizations to calculate the costs of stress and mental health problems in their workforce. This allows them to create a business case for addressing these issues.
Mindful Employer
Mindful Employer is a non-profit organisation run by an NHS-linked organisation in Devon. It's a simple but powerful idea around employers making a commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of their employees. It's caught on much more in England than other parts of the UK, because there is such excellent state-sponsored support with workplace health promotion for employers outside England. In some parts of England there are active Mindful Employer networks. More information can be found on the Mindful Employer website.
Europe
The European Agency for Safety and Health in the Workplace has specific guidance and resources for Employers, Employees and Occupational Safety and Health Specialists. This is an excellent and under-used resource for workplace health promotion across Europe.
If you know of workplace health promotion resources that could be featured here, please let us know and we'll make sure people know about them.