Employers, health providers and disabled people in Scotland are helping develop a new Workplace Health System designed to prevent people with health conditions from unnecessarily falling out of employment.

The initiative forms part of the Keep Britain Working programme and is intended to bring employers, health services, local leaders and support organisations together so workers can receive help earlier when health problems begin affecting their ability to work.

The scale of the challenge is considerable, with 265,300 people in Scotland reported to be out of work because of long term sickness.

Across Britain, around 2.8 million working age people are economically inactive because of ill health or disability, while many more remain in employment while managing health conditions or other barriers affecting what they can do.

Health related economic inactivity is estimated to cost the UK economy around £212 billion every year through lost output, benefits, additional NHS costs and the impact of unpaid caring.

Around 300,000 people with a health condition leave work across Britain each year, putting greater emphasis on intervening before somebody becomes permanently detached from employment.

The Workplace Health System is intended to change that approach by placing greater emphasis on prevention, early intervention, workplace support and helping people return successfully following periods of absence.

A new employer standard is being developed with the British Standards Institution, while work is also underway to make workplace health support more affordable for smaller businesses through pooled purchasing and insurance arrangements.

That could have particular relevance in Scotland, where smaller businesses form an important part of the economy and many rural and island communities rely heavily upon small and seasonal employers.

The programme is also looking at how employers measure their success in retaining workers with health conditions, including whether people who return following an absence remain in employment six months later.

Sir Charlie Mayfield, former John Lewis boss and Co Chair of the Keep Britain Working programme, said:

“Britain has spent too long treating economic inactivity as a welfare problem.

“It is not.

“Instead, it’s one of the largest and most attainable growth opportunities this country has.

“We’ve had a National Health Service for almost 80 years.

“We’ve never had a Workplace Health System.

“That is why the same people keep appearing on the welfare bill, on NHS waiting lists and in the productivity figures without anyone being able to join them up.

“It’s also why we are missing the best moment to help people.

“The new Workplace Health System would change that.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“Too many people fall out of work because of a health problem that could have been caught earlier, and too many employers have no way of knowing whether they are getting this right.

“This programme is working hand in hand with employers, mayors and local leaders, including in Scotland, to change that, so that good workplace health support is not just for big companies and delivers growth across every postcode.”

The next year will see the employer standard and workplace health support model tested with organisations involved in the programme, including partners in Scotland.

The work sits alongside a £3.5 billion employment support package, with more than 1,000 full time Pathways to Work advisers already operating across Britain.

The central ambition is to move intervention much earlier, supporting people while they remain connected to their workplace rather than waiting until poor health has already pushed them out of employment.

For Scotland’s employers and workers, particularly in smaller businesses where occupational health support can be difficult or expensive to access, whether that ambition translates into practical help will be the important test.