Other websites, tools and downloads
Some practical tools and downloads to help you make a difference within your organisation.
Absence management toolkit – Health and Safety Executive
Health and Safety Executive provide a free online absence management toolkit for line managers.
- Sickness Absence Toolkit (HSE)
ACAS – the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service
Information, advice and guidance about health, work and wellbeing
Advising patients about work
A flyer and leaflet of evidence for for GPs to consider when advising patients about work – based on the body of evidence showing the links between health and work.
- Advising Patients About Work – one page flyer (57KB)
- Advising Patients About Work – 8 page leaflet (185KB)
Arthritis Research UK – Work and arthritis
The unpredictable nature of arthritis can make a normal working life difficult. This booklet from Arthritis Research UK helps patients explore their options and explains how to change a work environment to suit their needs. It also advises people with arthritis or musculoskeletal pain on where they can go for further help and advice with work-related problems.
- Work and arthritis – Self-help and daily living (980KB) (Arthritis UK website)
Business in the Community (BITC)
BITC supports and challenges business to improve its performance and benefit society through four areas of expertise – community, environment, workplace and marketplace.
Business gateway
Information for businesses in Scotland.
Business Link
Business Link is the UK Government portal for businesses and employers.
- Improve employee health and well-being – guide for employers (Business Link)
- Occupational Health and Welfare – an overview (Business Link)
- Workplace Well-being Tool (Business Link)
Change4Life
Advice on healthy kids, healthy family, healthy recipes and exercise tips from the NHS.
Concepts of rehabilitation for the management of common health problems
This paper develops an intellectual framework for policy making, research and development.
Depression with a chronic physical health problem
Guidelines from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) 2009.
Employers' guide to creating a healthy workplace
Created by Faculty of Public Health and the Society of Occupational Medicine.
- Employers' guide to creating a healthy workplace (55KB) (Faculty of Public Health)
Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement
Recommendations for promoting employee engagement in the UK from the independent MacLeod Review, led by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
- Employee engagement (Department for Business Innovation & Skills)
European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP)
Promotes good practice in workplace health promotion and advocates the adoption of such practice in all European workplaces.
Faculty of Public Health
The standard-setting body for specialists in public health in the UK – a joint Faculty of the three Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom from London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Fit note
The new Statement of Fitness for Work, which has replaced the old sick note.
- Employers (Business Link)
- Employees and patients (Directgov)
- Healthcare professionals (this site)
- Patients (NHS Choices)
Flexible Support For Business – FS4B
Business Link in Wales.
Foresight – Mental Capital and Wellbeing
Development of public sector vision for achieving the best possible mental development and mental wellbeing for everyone in the UK.
- Mental Capital and Wellbeing (www.foresight.gov.uk)
GP health and work training workshops
The Royal College of General Practitioners provides health and work training workshops for GPs (National Education Programme for General Practitioners – Health and Work in General Practice).
Health & Work
Health & Work is a booklet for workers and patients offering information on work and health, and providing practical advice on how they can contribute to their return to work plan.
- Health & Work – employee booklet (free shortened edition) (213KB)
- Health & Work – employee booklet (full edition) (TSO Bookshop)
Health and well-being Good Practice Database
Investors in People’s evidence-based approach to health and work issues for General Practitioners and other healthcare professionals – 2007.
- Health and well-being Good Practice Database (Investors in People)
Health and well-being Self Check Tool
Investors in People’s online tool which helps you monitor and improve your approach to keeping your employees healthy and well-being.
You need an Investors in People account to access this tool.
- Health and well-being Self Check Tool (Investors in People)
Health and Safety Executive
HSE is the national independent watchdog for work-related health, safety and illness.
Health and safety performance indicator
To help small and medium sized businesses assess and improve their health and safety practices.
- Health and safety performance indicator (Business Link)
Health and safety performance index
The Health and Safety Executive’s performance index helps organisations with more than 250 employees assess and improve their health and safety practices.
Healthcare professionals – DWP health and work information
Information for healthcare professionals about DWP and how it works with them to administer benefits and allowances.
Healthcare Professionals’ Consensus Statement
A ground-breaking agreement signed in 2008 at the Royal College of General Practitioners in London by senior representatives of more than 30 healthcare professional bodies. The statement pledges signatories to do all they can to help people enter, stay in or return to work, where appropriate, because it is often in the patients’ best interests.
Health Challenge Wales
Health Challenge Wales signposts members of the public to information or activity to help them improve their own health. It also engages with organisations to look after the health of their staff and customers.
- Health Challenge Wales (Welsh Assembly Government)
Healthy People = Healthy Profits
Healthy People = Healthy Profits provides case study examples of UK best practice, documenting business benefits which followed the introduction of health and well-being interventions in their workplaces.
- Healthy People = Healthy Profits (2.4MB)
Healthy universities
Supporting a whole-university approach to health and wellbeing and facilitates national networking.
Healthy Working Lives
Information, advice and guidance on Health, Work and Well-being in Scotland – part of NHS Health Scotland.
Healthy Working UK
Information, training and decision aids for GPs and other primary healthcare professionals – to support the management of health and work. Provided by Royal College of General Practitioners, the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and Society of Occupational Medicine.
Healthy Working Wales
Healthy Working Wales supports employers, employees and health professionals to improve health at work, prevent ill health and to support return to work following ill health.
Is work good for your health and well-being?
Is work good for your health and well-being? – G Waddell and K Burton. The ground-breaking 2006 evidence review which collates and evaluates evidence on this question.
- Is work good for your health and well-being? (1.2MB)
- Executive summary – Is work good for your health and well-being? (316KB)
Health and safety leadership – Institute of Directors guide
This guidance sets out an agenda for the effective leadership of health and safety. Written by directors for directors, it offers straightforward practical advice on how to plan, deliver, monitor and review health and safety in the workplace.
- Leading health and safety at work – Institute of Directors guide (456KB)
- Welsh – Leading health and safety at work – Institute of Directors guide (328KB)
Local Government Employers
LGE works with local authorities, regional employers and other bodies to lead and create solutions on pay, pensions and the employment contract.
Long-term sickness and incapacity for work – managing it
2009 guidance from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) for all those who manage long-term (or recurring short-term or long-term) sickness absence and incapacity, including employers and people working in the NHS. This guidance is also useful for workplace representatives and trades unions, employees and people claiming long-term sickness benefits or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
Marmot Review
Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010 by Professor Sir Michael Marmot for the Department of Health.
Medical Research Council – Research Programme
Research Programme informing the management of occupational and environmental risks to health.
- Work and Health Research Programme (MRC) (Medical Research Council)
Mental Health (Centre for)
The Centre for Mental Health (formerly the Sainsbury Centre) works to improve the quality of life for people with mental health problems by influencing policy and practice in mental health and related services. The Centre focuses on criminal justice and employment, with supporting work on broader mental health and public policy
Mental health problems – supporting school staff
Advice, strategies and solutions for governing bodies, employers, line managers, teachers and school staff on how to deal positively with common mental health problems among teachers.
- Common mental health problems: Supporting school staff by taking positive action (Department for Education)
MINDFUL EMPLOYER Line Managers' Resource
This resource has contributions from line managers in a range of businesses and organisations, a Foreword by Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health & Work and David Frost, Director General British Chamber of Commerce and comments from Dr Steve Boorman and others. It was published in 2011 by mindfulemployer.net.
New horizons: a shared vision for mental health, 2009
New Horizons: a shared vision for mental health – Department of Health.
- New Horizons: a shared vision for mental health (Department of Health)
NHS Choices
NHS Choices is the official NHS website for the public.
- Alcohol
- Depression
- Emotional health
- Exercise and fitness
- Fit notes
- Food and diet
- Mental health
- Talking therapy
- Workplace health
- Workplace health video
NHS Employers
The employers' organisation for the NHS in England – supporting and promoting the largest employer in Europe across key work areas.
The NHS Health and Safety Essential Guide covers health, safety and welfare at work. Formerly known as the healthy workplaces handbook.
NHS Health and Well-being Review – the Boorman Review
The independent review commissioned by the Department of Health of the health and well being of NHS staff, which reported in November 2009.
NHS – Improving Working Lives in the NHS
Improving Working Lives in the NHS – a framework for all healthcare organisations including examples of good practice and checklists on returning to work, working longer and working healthier in the NHS.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence – NICE
NICE guidance and your workplace focuses on the NHS, but applies equally to local government and all small, medium and large businesses and their providers of occupational health services.
Occupational Health Adviceline for small businesses
Free Adviceline providing small business managers with the expert advice and support they need to help team members experiencing ill health.
Occupational Health toolkit
A free online resource published by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). It offers information, guidance, factsheets, case studies, training materials, presentations and more to help Health and Safety professionals tackle Occupational Health problems.
Perkins Review – mental health and employment
Realising ambitions: Better employment support for people with a mental health condition is an independent report on mental health and employment by Rachel Perkins, Paul Farmer and Paul Litchfield and the policy response (2009). A framework for action was published at the same time.
Rehabilitation – a delivery framework for adult rehabilitation in Scotland
To help develop a strategic and local co-ordination of rehabilitation services
- Delivery framework for adult rehabilitation in Scotland (The Scottish Government)
Scottish Government
Strategy, policy and research on health and work in Scotland.
- Health and Work (Scotland) (The Scottish Government)
Smoking cessation – workplace interventions
Guidance from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) for all those involved in providing employees with help to stop smoking (2007).
Society of Occupational Medicine
The Society of Occupational Medicine works for the protection of the health of people in the workplace, the prevention of occupational injuries and disease and related environmental issues.
Sound advice – noise at work in music and entertainment
The Health and Safety Executive and industry provide guidance on noise at work legislation. It includes practical examples to help the industry control the risks from noise at work.
Stress – promoting positive management behaviour
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have developed a free online tool to help prevent stress in teams.
Stress – Management Standards for work related stress
The Health and Safety Executive Management Standards for work related stress help employers, employees and their representatives manage the issue and minimise the impact of work-related stress.
Welsh Assembly Government
The Welsh Assembly Government is working to develop and support healthy workplaces.
- Health at work (Wales) (Welsh Assembly Government)
Welsh Backs
Welsh Backs aims to reduce the physical burden faced by over two thirds of the population of Wales who will at some time suffer from back pain
What Works at Work
The What Works at Work report (November 2007) gathers together international evidence to show the importance of the workplace in preventing and managing common health problems.
- What Works at Work (Institute for employment studies)
Working age strategy – Health, work and well-being
The 2005 strategy on Health and Work to improve the health and well-being of working age people
Work & Health
Work & Health is an eight-page leaflet for use by professionals and managers in and around the workplace to assist with the return to work process. It is endorsed by private and public sectors.
- Work & Health (617KB)
Workplace Well-being Tool
The Workplace Well-being Tool is Health Work and Well-being’s free resource to help you understand the specific health and well-being issues within your organisation.
- Workplace Well-being Tool (Business Link)
YourWorkHealth.com
YourWorkHealth.com gives advice about long-term fluctuating health conditions for employees, employers and healthcare professionals.