• Organisations to obtain as much as £100,000 to assist with challenges small companies and self-employed face with unwell well being at work
• Projects to concentrate on analysis and improvement to extend entry and capability in Occupational Health

A £1 million fund for brand new concepts to spice up well being and welfare at work for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the self-employed was launched immediately.

Successful bidders will obtain as much as £100,000 to again their initiatives from 19 May 2023, with the Government in search of progressive options to drive higher entry for SMEs and the self-employed to Occupational Health (OH) providers. Applicants are being inspired to reveal how they might ship enhancements to OH, harnessing know-how reminiscent of synthetic intelligence or knowledge assortment, to ship higher well being outcomes for workers of SMEs.

Better well being provision for employees helps employers take care of their workforce, which means extra are more likely to keep in work. While bigger employers usually have higher entry to OH providers, for smaller companies and the self-employed the dearth of assist for folks with well being wants can doubtlessly result in extra folks changing into economically inactive.

Applications will be from those that work alone or with others from enterprise, analysis organisations, analysis and know-how organisations or the third sector, with the Government in search of proposals to:

1. Discover new and progressive methods for the OH market, which helps folks to remain properly in work, to ship providers that drive higher entry for SMEs and self-employed
2. Discover new and progressive ways in which the OH market can ship providers and higher serve the demand for OH
3. Deliver improvements that may be scaled up for companies to have an effect within the OH market by way of new providers and higher use of know-how

The competitors is a three way partnership between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), as a part of the Joint Work and Health Unit, and along with Innovate UK, an arm of UK Research and Innovation. The fund shall be open to purposes from 30 January 2023 and run till 15 March 2023.

Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Tom Pursglove MP, stated:

Good occupational well being inside workplaces is significant in supporting our total well being and way of life. We spend a lot of our lives at work, and it’s crucial that our employers may give us the assist we have to keep our bodily and psychological well being. This in flip means we may give our greatest at work.

Through the launch of our new £1 million fund, I stay up for seeing progressive, workable options to assist SMEs ship the perfect for his or her staff, creating more healthy, welfare-driven working environments that can in the end drive development and enhance folks’s working lives.

The new Fund to Stimulate Innovation in Occupational Health (OH) competitors shall be delivered within the type of a Small Business Research Initiative, a well-established, output pushed funding device run by Innovate UK.

Minister for Care, Helen Whately, stated:

This new £1 million fund will assist us discover higher methods to assist the well being of our workforce – particularly small companies and the self-employed. 

Making certain folks keep properly sufficient to work is so vital – it means a much bigger workforce, boosted productiveness, and higher high quality of residing.  

Successful bidders will have a look at progressive new methods to assist folks of their area of labor, assist them to dwell more healthy, happier lives whereas driving development in our economic system.

For extra particulars in regards to the Fund to Stimulate Innovation and learn how to apply, please go to this link.

Further Information

• Full specification of the fund will be discovered here.
• Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation – an arm’s size physique of BEIS.

Occupational Health is an space of labor in public well being to advertise and keep highest diploma of bodily, psychological and social well-being of employees in all occupations