The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has called on government to develop a replacement for its Fit for Work Service as hundreds of thousands of adults become economically inactive and “too few” employers provide access to occupational health services or support.
The HR professional body’s warning follows Office for National Statistics which show 377,681 more adults aged 18-64 have become economically inactive due to a long-term sickness since the start of the pandemic.
Jonathan Boys, labour market economist for the CIPD, warned the UK clearly has a problem with long-term sickness which employers and policymakers needed to take more seriously.
“Significantly improving workers’ access to occupational health services and advice and support for employers on occupational health issues affecting staff could have a big impact over time,” Boys said.
“The provision of timely access to occupational health services to workers in their 20s and 30s who suffer from back pain or other musculoskeletal problems would mean that steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of these conditions becoming chronic, affecting people’s health and their ability to work.”
According to Boys, too few employers, particularly smaller businesses, provide workers with access to occupational health services or support, while access to NHS physiotherapy and talking therapy services can be subject to very long waiting times.
Consequently, he claimed there is a need to replace government’s Fit for Work Service which was abolished in 2018 – a move which he added came only two years after it was set up and “well before sufficient employers were aware that it existed, and people could be helped.”
The Fit for Work Service, originally named the Health and Work Service, was planned during the Conservative-led coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, but closed by the Conservatives.
Long Covid numbers soaring
The release of the ONS data follows on from last week’s revelation that the number of people with long Covid for more than four weeks rose by 300,000 to 2.3 million people from late July until early September.
The same data showed more than one million people had been suffering long Covid for more than a year and more than half a million for more than two years.
David Pye, a director at independent consultancy Broadstone, said the UK’s high rates of economic inactivity is being driven by soaring long-term sickness as the nation’s public health service struggles to cope with the pandemic-induced backlog.
“As we head into a winter where the trajectory of Covid is unknown, spiking energy bills are likely to cause health issues and waiting lists continue to grow, the pressures on the NHS are only likely to intensify,” he said.
“It means that businesses are suffering immense financial and productivity damage as employees struggle to access the healthcare they need to get back on with their jobs after suffering an illness.
“Employers must then either find suitably skilled replacements which sucks up time and money or deal with diminished numbers and face weaker performance levels.”
Pye added businesses must proactively assess how they can best navigate this current crisis of inactivity.
“Given the pressures in the NHS, employer-provided private healthcare insurance will become increasingly sought after for those worried about how illness might impact their financial and personal situation,” he continued.
“Putting in place measures like this will give workers the ability to quickly access treatment should they need it at an affordable cost. It can drive a transformative change in absenteeism which improves productivity, as well as having a broadly positive impact on wellbeing through the increased confidence in employees’ health and finances.”