Increasing role of a public health culture in enhancing workplace wellbeing
Industrial and business workplaces are seen as important settings for a new public health service delivery system which enables large audiences to be catered for.
An established occupational health and safety culture is already embedded in most workplaces, especially in food production, catering and retail, and often in influential national or international companies. Local authorities through their environmental health functions are well placed to engage the business sector in wider public health ideas. High standards of workforce health mean fewer sickness absences, and wellbeing is enhanced where workforces consider employers have a positive attitude to health ideas.
Of particular significance are the more than two million small- and medium-sized enterprises that play a crucial role in economic growth and regeneration. Education and training platforms may face the need to be constructed with appropriate levels of funding and partnership arrangements to develop skills and competences across wider sections of the public health workforce. This may enable engagement in increasing workplace wellbeing and would require active involvements of employers in both the public and private sectors.
Sources or references
- Creating a healthy workplace (2006), Faculty of Public Health and Faculty of Occupational Medicine, NHS Plus DoH
- Health, work and well-being: Baseline indicators report (DWP
- For further documentation including Dame Carol Black’s review see DWP resources
- NICE public health guidance 13: Workplace health promotion: how to encourage employees to be physically active May 2008 www.nice.org.uk
- Wanless D (2004) Securing good health for the whole population. London: The Stationery Office
Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.
