What the Mayfield Keep Britain Working Review Means for Workplace Health and Wellbeing

Everyone today, in my world of supporting people to return to work is going to be talking about the Mayfield Review. And rightly so. It is a landmark, once in a decade, review considering what we can do to prevent workplace absence, enable workers to thrive at work, employers to have a productive workforce and Government to save on rising costs of ill health benefits and NHS bills.

 

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Chair of the VRA, a membership organisation supporting vocational rehabilitation practitioners, and am Founder of Working To Wellbeing™, a vocational rehabilitation company that supports people with long term health conditions, neurodivergence and the menopause to stay in or return to work following a period of sickness absence. I am one of those seemingly rare people who totally loves their work and I talk with passion on a regular basis about the importance of being employed, not just from a financial perspective, but also from a social, psychological and physical perspective. As Dame Carol Black stated way back in 2008, good work is good for health, and this is a principle that I wholeheartedly agree with.

 

I therefore read the Mayfield review from my two perspectives and I reflected on, firstly, how the VRA can support this new initiative and how VR practitioners can step neatly into the space of Workplace Health Provision and secondly, how can we at W2W innovate and better support employers to embrace this new landscape of a ‘Healthy Working Lifecyle’ proposed by Sir Charlie.

 

Since starting W2W, I have seen firsthand the benefits of an employee being supported by their employer to remain in or return to work. It may sound idealistic, and as Sir Charlie stated, many employers are fearful of approaching the topic of disability, ill health and work, yet it does make a difference. People get their lives back, the employer gets their employee back and the country gets taxes paid and reduced burdens on public sector systems. Everyone in the cycle benefits.

 

So, I welcome Sir Charlie’s review and can appreciate the benefits of having a life cycle framework upon which to structure strong work and health conversations and create a culture of health and wellbeing that starts the moment you step over the threshold of your new organisation. For now, it will feel ‘business as usual for us in the context of ‘workplace health provision’ as I feel that we have been providing such support to employers for over 14 years now, within a stepped care model that provides the right support at the right time and flexes non-clinical and clinical input to employee need.

 

We can support you to develop your own Lifecycle framework and enable you to implement ‘stay at work’ or ‘return to work’ plans.

If this is something you would like help with, or if you are a Vanguard employer, do reach out. We can help navigate you through these exciting times.

In fact, we could be just what you need.

In fact, we could be just what you need. To find out more read our Vocational Rehabilitation Coaching pages here.

alternatively contact us at: hello@working2wellbeing.com

 

To read the full review, visit the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-britain-working-review-final-report