Lancashire picked as guinea pigs for controversial government scheme to help long-term sick back to work

Lancashire has been chosen as one of 15 areas in England to pilot a £64 million government scheme to help sick employees back to work.

It was announced today that the programme, called ‘WorkWell’, will be implemented in 14 other locations and aims to deliver health support and joined-up work.

WorkWell’s goal is to tackle inactivity by integrating a ‘fit note’ process into the benefits system which the government is trying to reform.

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This comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke about plans to stop GPs giving people ‘sick notes’ to sign off work and instead introduce ‘fit notes’ issued by health professionals which are harder to obtain.

However, during the pilot schemes, sign ups will be initially voluntary for those who have been off work long term.

The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board area is one of 15 out of the 42 across England to take part in the pilot and in 2023 saw 455,436 fit notes issued across its footprint.

Data recently published by the NHS shows almost 11 million fit notes were issued across England last year with 94 percent signed ‘not fit for work’.

A large proportion of these were repeats issued without any advice.

As part of the WorkWell pilots, 59,000 people will be connected to local support services such as counselling and physiotherapy.

The scheme, which was launched by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Health and Social Care, aims to identify workplace adjustments or support that would enable workers to stay in work or return sooner.

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Participants do not need to be claiming any government benefits and will receive personalised support from a ‘Work and Health Coach’.

Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said: “Too many today are falling out of work in a spiral of sickness that harms their finances, their prospects and ultimately their health, where with the right workplace adjustments and help, this needn’t be the case.

“And so we have designed WorkWell, a ground-breaking new service, that will for the first time integrate health and work advice at the local level, as part of our plan to stem the flow into economic inactivity, grow the economy, and change lives for the better.”