Overview
The independent NHS Health and Well-being Review was announced by Secretary of State Alan Johnson MP on 25 November 2008 as part of the Government's response to Dame Carol Black's report on the health of the UK's working age population. In January 2009, Dr Steve Boorman agreed to lead the review. Dr Boorman is an expert on occupational health and currently Director of Corporate Responsibility and Chief Medical Adviser to the Royal Mail.
The NHS, as Europe's largest employer, is committed to ensuring the best health and well-being for its entire staff. However, inconsistencies across the service mean there is a strong case for change and improvement across all parts of the NHS, to foster current successes and ultimately to support the Next Stage Review goal of providing high quality care for all.
The review recognises that in order to provide high quality care, the NHS needs healthy staff and high quality workplaces. It builds on the clear commitments in the NHS Constitution to the health and well-being of all NHS staff. The constitution contains a direct pledge to provide support and opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety.
The review will take account of existing evidence and good practice on the health and well-being of working age people, including any evidence on the NHS workforce specifically. This will be supported by responses from both outside and within the NHS to the review's Call for Evidence (April-May 2009), and with new research on staff perceptions of their current health and well-being support in the NHS.
The aims of the review are to:
- gather evidence on the health of NHS staff, their health and well-being provision at work, and any barriers to effective human resource and management practices and occupational health service provision;
- build a comprehensive evidence base of possible measures to improve health and well-being; and
- make practical recommendations this will allow effective improvements across the NHS.
Dr Steve Boorman is leading on the review of health and well-being within the NHS and thinks that it is "a great opportunity to build on the good work already done and to help it maintain and improve the health of its diverse workforce..and how vital it is to care for the health and well-being of people to help them to achieve the high expectations of the public service they provide."
David Nicholson, NHS Chief Executive, believes that Dr Steve Boorman's Review is an "important step in both understanding where we are now and what we can do to improve staff health and well-being in the future. I would really like to encourage people to engage with Steve's Review and take the opportunity to have your say."
Review milestones
- August 2009: the Boorman review has published its Interim Report. To download a copy, go to the NHS Health and Wellbeing site
- By end of 2009: Publication of Final Report
Evidence gathering
The first phase of evidence gathering for the Review has been very successful. In addition to desk-based research of existing data, the Review received over 200 responses to a Call for Evidence which ran from 21 April to 30 June, and over 11,000 responses to an online staff survey of health and well-being which ran from 27 April to 5 June.
Many individual staff have taken the time to supply vital feedback on the things that impact their working life, their health and sense of well-being via the online survey. The views submitted will be extremely valuable in building a comprehensive picture of the health and well-being of the NHS workforce.
Equally, there has been a great response from all parts of the NHS and beyond to the Call for Evidence. We have received relevant information and intelligence on health and well-being provision within the NHS workforce, as well as evidence on which, policies, approaches, and practices have been effective so far, and which have failed and why.
The findings from this work will sit alongside all relevant and pre-existing evidence collected by the Review Team, and will be critical in ensuring the strength of our final recommendations to the Department of Health.
Events
There will be SHA roadshow events throughout the UK regions in Aug-Sept 2009. For more information on each event, go to NHS Health and Well-being
For further information about how to best respond to the NHS Health and Well-being Review, please email NHSHWBReview@dh.gsi.gov.uk
or alternatively write to:
NHS Health and Well-being Review
Room 2W09
Quarry House
LEEDS
LS2 7UE
For communications/media enquiries regarding the Review, call 020 7618 9101 or email boorman@luther.co.uk
Useful NHS Links