Businesses will be told they must provide healthcare to stop staff being signed off sick under plans to stem the benefits bill and boost the economy.
Minimum standards for occupational health services will be set out by the government within months as ministers promise to make help to stay in work “available to all”.
Staff will be promised access to services such as physiotherapy, mental health treatment, screening and preventive care as ministers tell bosses they need to do more to stop employees becoming too ill to work.
Long-term sickness has risen to a record 2.8 million, and ministers have made getting people back to work a “top priority” as they face rapidly rising benefits costs at the same time as businesses are struggling with many vacancies.
Previous schemes have focused on getting the long-term sick back to work, but ministers are now focusing on how to stop people leaving their jobs through illness in the first place. Plans for tax breaks for companies that offer occupational health services are on hold as ministers seek to target any spare cash in next month’s budget towards tax cuts for workers, although could be revived later in the year.
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However, on Wednesday, ministers will announce a taskforce to draw up “minimum levels of occupational health” that businesses should provide. Standards will initially be voluntary but ministers have not ruled out making them compulsory once they are more clearly defined.
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Jo Churchill, the employment minister, promised to “drive down absenteeism, which we know is holding back British businesses, and really focus on making occupational health support available to all”.
She added: “Millions of working days are lost each year through sickness. We are helping businesses tackle this challenge head-on so we can help boost productivity and grow our economy.”
Bosses will also be promised help from an embryonic national occupational health service, which is being piloted this year, and will allow NHS GPs to refer staff for treatment to keep them in work, rather than sign them off.
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Dame Carol Black, who first recommended such a national service in a government review of health and work in 2008, has been appointed to draw up minimum occupational health standards by the summer.
“We will encourage employers to embrace practices that prevent or reduce ill-health-related job loss,” Black said, promising to “ensure occupational health support is in place for employees and employers alike”.
She said her work would “review occupational health services available to employees across businesses of all shapes and sizes and then create a framework to support better employee health and wellbeing”.
Only 45 per cent of staff are offered any form of occupational health services to keep them fit to work, with small businesses the least likely to offer such help. Smaller businesses are likely to be offered a standard deal to buy such services, in an arrangement brokered by the government to keep costs down.
Ministers point to figures showing that simple advice for staff can cut the length of sickness by five days, while those off work for longer are far less likely to return. While 95 per cent of those off for four to six weeks ultimately return to work, this falls to 56 per cent of those off for more than a year.
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Helen Whately, the health minister, said: “A healthy economy is only possible with a healthy workforce. We want more people to be able to benefit from good occupational health, especially employees in small businesses, because we know it works. This taskforce will set us on the path towards a healthier workforce, in turn boosting productivity and economic growth.”
