7 million pounds to boost research on ill health and worklessness

The National Institute for Health and Care Research has awarded a total of PS7m to four research projects aimed at reducing health-related inactivity and ill health worklessness.

This funding comes via the NIHR Work and Health Research Initiative as long-term illness is estimated to now account for 30 percent of total inactivity.

The government has also set a goal to reduce the number of people who are unable to work due ill health, as part of its Keep Britain Working review on workplace health.

According to the NIHR this funding represents “another substantial contribution” in the UK for work and health-related research. This follows the PS1.5m that the Institute invested between 2023 and 2023 into 13 projects. The latest funding round will fund four projects:

Professor Adam Whitworth is the professor of work and employment at University of Strathclyde.

The UK is currently investigating whether job-crafting can improve employment and health, particularly for disabled workers. When employees can reshape the job, they are said to be doing “job crafting”. This can include changes to work tasks, goals, and relationships.

2) “SHINE: supply chain health INitiative evaluation”. The project is led by Professor Jo Yarker of Affinity Health At Work and Dr Vaughan Parsons from Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

This study examines how health and wellness services (HWS) help prevent illness and provide support for people to remain at work. It focuses on ways to increase access to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Recognising the fact that three quarters of SMEs are involved in supply chains, providing goods and/or services to large enterprises.

The research will investigate how providing support through familiar and trusted supply chain could increase accessibility and effectiveness of HWS to the SME workforce.

The project is led by Rowena Jacobs from the Centre of Health Economics, University of York, but it’s for the Tees, Esk, and Wear Valleys NHS Trust Foundation.

This project will evaluate the impact of NHS Talking Therapies Employment Advisers on mental health, employment, inequalities and costs (Support2Work).

Of course, employment advisers work with therapists in order to help people get started, stay at work, or return to work. Researchers will investigate whether advisers improve mental health, the way that people perform their jobs and how they can help to reduce healthcare costs.

The fourth project, ‘Creating Health Jobs’, is led by Professor Chris Warhurst of the Institute for Employment Research of the University of Warwick.

Recognizing that certain jobs can lead to workers suffering from poor mental and/or physical health. This project was developed in collaboration between a variety of health organizations, businesses, trade unions, workers and organisations that support vulnerable workers.

This information will be used to develop new methods of analysing the relationship between health and job quality.

Professor Lucy Chappell is the chief scientific advisor at the Department of Health and Social Care and the chief executive officer of NIHR. She said, “Investing in the research that supports employees to remain healthy and in the workplace is crucial for our future economy.” It can deliver significant economic and social benefits to individuals, employers, and the wider society.

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