Solutions
Health and Employment and Working Conditions
Being in good employment is protective of health, while unemployment contributes to poor health. Ill health can also affect people’s participation in the labour market, with costs to the individual, families, communities, employers and public services; combined costs from worklessness and sickness absence amount to approximately £100 billion annually in the UK, presenting a strong economic case for action.
There is growing evidence on what works to increase employment and improve working conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced guidelines and recommendations on workplace health. This guideline includes new and updated recommendations on: workplace culture and policies; assessing and certifying fitness for work; statement of fitness for work; making workplace adjustments; keeping in touch with people on sickness absence; early intervention; sustainable return to work and reducing recurrence of absence and how to support people with a health condition or disability who are not currently employed. In addition, NICE has produced a guideline on mental well-being at work that includes recommendations on: strategic approaches to improving mental well-being in the workplace, organisation-wide approaches and having a supportive work environment; external sources of support; training and support for managers; individual-level approaches, employees who have or are at risk of poor mental health and those in high-risk occupations; engaging with employees and their representatives; local and regional strategies and plans and considerations for small and medium-sized enterprises (including micro-enterprises).
In Wales, the Healthy Working Wales (HWW) programme aims to support and encourage employers to create healthy working environments, take action to improve the health and well-being of their staff, manage sickness absence well, and engage with employees effectively, all of which can help to achieve a range of positive business and organisational outcomes. HWW offers health advisor support, training events, workshops, information and guidance. The Welsh Local Government Association works with local authorities to assist them meet their health and safety requirements, and provides a broader skills and capacity role including support for development opportunities such as apprenticeships, work placements and graduate schemes and action to engage with and provide opportunities for those who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) and/or economically inactive. Also, the Equality Impact Assessment in Wales Practice Hub is a collective source of information and practice, with resources promoting and supporting the development of good quality, robust EIAs that meet the legal duties of the Equality Act 2010 and the Welsh Public Sector Equality Duties 2011.
During the COVID-19 pandemic it became even more evident that economic insecurity was not evenly distributed amongst the population in Wales, and inequalities widened. A report by Public Health Wales exploring the link between COVID-19 and employment changes in Wales highlighted the issues and identified potential solutions. Promising interventions for different groups included: investing in interventions that offer employment support, career guidance, vocational training and apprenticeships; job creation and job search assistance; education and training; employment protection legislation and more.
Useful Resources
GUIDE
Driving Prosperity for All through Investing for Health and Well-being: An Evidence Informed Guide for Cross-sector Investment
This guide by Public Health Wales suggests policy options for priority investment in Wales, based on the best available Welsh and European evidence. The policy options address areas of high burden and costs, as well as demonstrating co-benefits (returns) to the economy, society and the environment, including investing in improving working lives and mental health in the workplace. The guide can be used by policy- and decision-makers across national and local government, the health and social care service, and public bodies in all other sectors in Wales.
GUIDE
How to Make the Case for Sustainable Investment in Well-being and Health Equity: A Practical Guide
This practical guide by Public Health Wales is a tool to improve governance, investment and accountability for health and equity. The guide is intended to help the development of evidence-informed, context-tailored advocacy reports and other relevant documents and tools, enabling healthy policy- and decision-making across different sectors, levels of government and country settings. It aims to prevent disinvestment in health, increase investment in prevention (public health), and mainstream cross-sectoral investment to address the wider determinants of health and equity.
How to Make the Case for Sustainable Investment in Well-being and Health Equity: A Practical Guide
REPORT
Improving Health & Employment Outcomes through Joint Working
This report by the Public Policy Institute for Wales presents the literature and evaluation evidence on ‘what works’ in the field of health and work, and how health and employment interventions for people living with health conditions can be made to work more effectively.
Improving Health & Employment Outcomes through Joint Working
REPORT COVID
COVID-19 and Employment Changes in Wales: Promising Interventions to Improve Health and Health Equity
This report by Alma Economics and commissioned by Public Health Wales identifies and describes the evidence on labour market interventions that can be implemented to improve health and health equity outcomes for people in Wales, and protect them from the employment hardship caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
REPORT COVID
COVID-19 and Employment Changes in Wales: Insights for Policy – Young People, Employment and Health. Qualitative Research Findings
This report prepared for Public Health Wales provides population insights from organisations which support young people, young people aged 18-24 years (with and without dependent children) and policy influencers and decision-makers on COVID-19 related employment changes. The report presents their views on changes that would support young people in the future with opportunities for work, including ensuring the voice of young people is part of the process of co-producing solutions.
REPORT COVID
Placing Health Equity at the Heart of the COVID-19 Sustainable Response and Recovery: Building Prosperous Lives for All in Wales
This report by Public Health Wales places health equity at the heart of a sustainable response and recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic and explores its impacts on unemployment, employment and working conditions in Wales.
GUIDE
Health Labour Market Analysis Guidebook
This guidebook by the Health Workforce Department of the World Health Organization provides a comprehensive overview of the health labour market, offers guidance on how to analyse and understand its dynamics, and identifies key steps to undertake a health labour market analysis. It also facilitates the implementation of standardized health labour market analysis approaches in supporting countries to answer key policy questions relating to health and care workers.
Health Labour Market Analysis Guidebook
GUIDE
Delivering Fair Work for Health, Well-being and Equity
This guide is intended to support agencies in their existing efforts to improve health, well-being and equity through inclusive participation in fair work. This guide was informed by the work and recommendations of the Participation in Fair Work for Health, Well-being and Equity Expert Panel. Action on fair work supports a healthier, more equal and more prosperous Wales, and if done well, can support all seven well-being goals.
Delivering Fair Work for Health, Well-being and Equity
REPORT
Too Ill To Work, Too Broke Not To
Mental health problems in the workplace have garnered a lot of political attention in recent years. However, the focus has been primarily on prevention and support for people with mental health problems while they are well enough to work. Even with the best support, however, sometimes people will need to take time out of work as a result of their mental health. This Money and Mental Health Institute report looks at the financial costs of taking time out of work, the impact this has on mental health, and how it influences our ability both to return to work and to take time off when we need to.
Too Ill To Work, Too Broke Not To
REPORT
Cost of Living Crisis in Wales: A Public Health Lens
This report by Public Health Wales summarises the ways in which the cost of living crisis can impact on health and well-being. It takes a public health lens to identify actions for policy makers and decision-makers to protect and promote the health and well-being of people in Wales in their response to the cost of living crisis, outlining what a public health approach to the crisis could look like in the short and longer-term.
Cost of Living Crisis in Wales: A Public Health Lens
REPORT
International Horizon Scanning and Learning Report: The Cost-of-Living Crisis
The International Horizon Scanning and Learning reports, Public Health Wales, were initiated as part of the COVID-19 public health response, to support dynamic response and recovery measures and planning in Wales. This report focuses on the cost-of-living crisis, examining the impact of the COLC on health equity within Wales and the UK, before examining how other governments in other countries are attempting to mitigate the COLCs impact on health equity.
International Horizon Scanning and Learning Report: The Cost-of-Living Crisis