In response to Health Secretary Alan Johnsonís plans to change Britain's sick note culture into a well note culture, Paul White, head of Risk Benefits and part of the Occupational Health Consulting team at Aon Consulting, issued the following comment highlighting the vital role employers must play in conjunction with GPs.
Whilst we welcome Health Secretary Alan Johnson's announcement that GPs should play a pivotal role in encouraging a fit for work culture, it is important to balance this with the employerís role in shaping a ëwell noteí work culture and providing the necessary support that employees need to get back to work.
ìThere is a strong economic argument for employers to get skilled people back in to work as they will not be faced with the costs of providing sickness benefits or need to go through the costly process of replacing talent which is still on the payroll but not contributing in the workplace.
Evidence shows that returning to work is often in a patient's best interests and challenging GPs to take a more proactive role in assessing an individualís capability to perform their job on a case by case basis will reduce the number of long term absentees. However, it is also essential that hand in hand with this, employers should adopt a flexible approach that allows employees back to work even if they are not capable of performing all the tasks they would be able to if they were fully fit.
ìAccording to official figures 90 per cent of those who come on to incapacity benefit want to return to work, so government, GPs and employers alike should be doing everything they can to encourage them back into the workplace. Many ailments do not make long-term unemployment inevitable and with sound Occupational Health advice, employers can play a key role helping people back to work.
ìHowever, the scale of the ìsick noteî problem facing working Britain should not be underestimated and finding a solution will be complex. Despite todayís plans, GPs will continue to perform their duty as patient advocate and they will come under pressure to continue to sign them off work. Moreover, in many cases this may be the least risky option for the GP. Furthermore, arguably GPs do not have the necessary skill sets to identify the extent to which an ailment reduces a patientís capacity to perform general work tasks, let alone their specific job role.
ìSuccessive welfare reforms such as the Disability Discrimination Act have been framed to encourage disabled people back into the workforce and employers already have a duty of care, but increasingly employers will have to put in place practicable schemes to accommodate individuals who return to work while unable to perform all the functions of a fully fit employee.
ìThis will lead to employers reviewing their sickness reporting programmes and return-to-work strategies. Employers will need to ensure they have access to Occupational Health expertise to ensure that they can bring people back into the workplace and make necessary adjustments.î
Employers can help cure Britainís ësick noteí culture
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