A new website to promote healthy working practices has been launched by the Welsh Assembly Government.
Launched on 4 July, Healthy Working Wales brings together several initiatives, including Workboost Wales, Welsh Backs, and the Corporate Health Standard quality mark, to provide easy access to information, advice and support on a broad range of workplace health issues. It will also host a new pilot programme to provide online support for GPs to access occupational health advice for their patients.
According to the HSE, 30 million working days are lost each year due to work-related ill health. Latest estimates put the UK’s annual cost of work-related sickness absence at £100 billion.
Chief medical officer for Wales, Dr Tony Jewell, said: “Ensuring that we are able to lead healthy working lives is as much our responsibility as our employers. Unfortunately, not all ill health can be prevented but we can better support people to help them stay in work.”
Professor Dame Carol Black, national director of health and work, added: “The human cost of worklessness blights communities and effects future generations. Workplaces offer great scope for targeting messages and initiatives, which can flow through to families. A lot of good work has already been done in Wales.”
The website combines resources from the HSE and the National Public Health Service for Wales.
