A new capital fund of ?10 million to improve the provision of occupational health services to NHS staff and in turn increase the availability of NHS Plus, the network of NHS occupational health departments that provide occupational health services to small and medium sized enterprises, was announced by health minister Rosie Winterton today.
NHS Plus aims to increase the availability of occupational health (OH) services for small and medium sized employers (SME) in England and uses any surplus to improve the provision of OH services for the NHS workforce. The ?10m of capital funding will be used support between 10 and 12 pilot sites of good practice in occupational health care which could then be rolled out to other companies to learn from.
An example of how the funding could be used to improve occupational health services would be to use the capital money to move OH services closer to the workforces using them. NHS OH services are usually sited in acute Trusts and often their potential customers are in business parks or in the centre of towns. An investment of ?500,000 to ?750,000 could build a fully fitted out building to house OH services in a business park, where they can be better accessed by the workforces they are serving.
Health minister Rosie Winterton said
“NHS Plus provides valuable occupational health services to small and medium sized businesses. Such services make good business sense for all responsible employers, regardless of size. If your staff are off sick because of back pain, stress or any other work related problem, your business suffers. A healthy workplace makes for good business.
“Providing this ?10m funding to support pilot sites pioneering good practice in occupational health can reap huge rewards in supporting a healthy and productive workforce.”
Welcoming the announcement of the fund Dr Kit Harling, Director of NHS Plus, said
“This fund offers the opportunity to develop high quality, customer focused, innovative occupational health services with a clear mission to help small and medium size enterprises. These demonstration sites will help spread excellent practice in the NHS and beyond”.
1. The ?10m fund will support between 10 and 12 pilot sites. NHS Plus units (and NHS OH units that meet the quality and other criteria for membership of the NHS Plus network) in England will be invited to make bids to this fund to access capital monies to support the creation of a demonstration site showing changes in occupational health services that will improve quality and customer focus. The aim will specifically be to generate good practice models from which others can learn. Bids will be particularly welcome from groups or consortia of OH services which wish to combine to improve services in a particular geographical area.
2. NHS Plus was launched in November 2001 with the aim of increasing the availability of occupational health (OH) services for small and medium sized employers (SME) in England and using any surplus to improve the provision of OH services for the NHS workforce. It comprises about 100 OH departments from within the NHS and growth has been estimated at about 17% per annum.
3. The purpose of the NHS Plus Project is to improve the provision of occupational health services to NHS staff as a model employer and in turn increase the availability of NHS Plus services to small and medium enterprises in particular.
4. The Health, Work and Well Being (HWWB) strategy gives added impetus to this project. NHS Plus increases the supply of OH services and support to non NHS employers, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, a key feature of HWWB. In addition, by showing leadership in the field, especially in terms of quality of advice, it encourages others in the commercial and charitable sectors to develop further.