Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working review has highlighted the potential to introduce Work and Health checks when employees join an organisation and at key trigger points, such as after a period of absence.
The aim is simple enough: spot health risks earlier, support people sooner and stop employees drifting out of work altogether.
As The Independent reported this week, poor workplace health is already costing UK employers around £85 billion a year. That is exactly the kind of workplace health gap Santé Care was built to help employers address.
What the Keep Britain Working Review Is Actually Proposing
Mayfield, former Chair of John Lewis, has been leading a government commissioned review into why so many people are leaving work through ill health, and why it’s proving so difficult to help them return.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he pointed to Finland and Japan, where health checks linked to starting a new job or returning after a period of absence are already more established. His recommendation is a phased rollout of similar staff health checks in the UK, potentially starting with large employers or specific regions as a pilot, overseen by government and supported by proper safeguards around personal health data.
The bigger idea underneath all this is that employers need to stop waiting until someone has already left work before doing anything.
Mayfield’s review has put a clear focus on stay-in-work plans, so instead of only reacting once someone is off sick, employers are encouraged to have earlier conversations, make reasonable adjustments and support people while they recover.
The figures behind it are hard to ignore. There are around 2.8 million people currently out of work due to long-term sickness. The review also points out that retaining or returning around 330,000 more people to work would add economic capacity equivalent to a large city such as Cardiff.
Mayfield has called it “growth hiding in plain sight”. His original report put the wider cost of poor workplace health at around 7% of the country’s economic output, alongside a culture where many workers are still worried about admitting to ill health in the first place.
Why Most Small and Medium Businesses Are not Set Up For This
Full private medical insurance is a great benefit, but it isn’t cheap, and for many businesses it only ever reaches a handful of senior staff.
RSPH research, referenced around the launch of Santé Care, found that 47% of UK workers lack access to basic health support at work, including routine checks and vaccinations, with gaps particularly visible in sectors such as hospitality, retail and agriculture.
That leaves a lot of employers caught in the middle.
Mayfield’s review is clear that responsibility for workplace health should be shared between employers, employees and health services, rather than left entirely to individuals and the NHS. It also highlights the importance of trusted intermediaries where sensitive health information is involved, rather than expecting employers to manage that directly.
Santé Care reflects the same principle. Employees need a trusted, clinically led route for support, not a situation where line managers or business owners are left trying to handle sensitive health conversations they are not equipped to manage.
For many small and medium-sized businesses, that kind of structure simply does not exist yet. Doing nothing is starting to look increasingly out of step with where workplace health is heading.
Where Santé Care Fits In
Santé Care gives every employee, not just a select few, access to nurse-led support, specialist referrals and ongoing case management for both short-term issues and longer-term conditions. It also includes access to digital GP services, counselling support and physiotherapy through the app.
Because a qualified nurse case manager sits between the employee and the employer, Santé Care reflects the trusted, clinically led approach Mayfield says will be needed if employers are going to support staff health properly.
It also fits the stay-in-work approach now being pushed up the agenda.
Rather than an employee disappearing off sick with little or no contact for months, a nurse case manager can help coordinate care, support them through NHS waiting times, and, where appropriate and with the employee’s consent, help employers understand what practical adjustments may be needed.
Employee benefits are moving away from static, reactive perks and towards proactive, ongoing support that employers can measure and employees will actually use. Mayfield’s review has put government weight behind a trend that was already well under way.
It is the same thinking behind the wider range of employee benefits Santé Group works on with clients, whether that is a small business putting its first scheme in place, or a larger employer looking to formalise a more joined-up approach.
What This Means for Your Business Right Now
You do not need to wait for staff health checks to become a formal national scheme before doing something about this.
The businesses that come out ahead over the next few years will be the ones that supported their people early, not the ones scrambling to catch up if today’s pilots develop into formal standards, incentives or wider expectations.
Given the scale of the issue, with poor workplace health costing employers around £85 billion a year through absence, presenteeism, turnover and other related costs, this is not a problem that fixes itself.
If you are a business owner wondering whether your current setup would hold up under the kind of scrutiny Mayfield’s review is putting on workplace health, it is worth a proper conversation.
Santé Care was built for precisely this: giving your whole team access to early, practical health support and a genuine stay-in-work partner, without the cost of a full insurance scheme.
Get in touch with the team at Santé Group to find out how it could work for your business.
