Healthy Working Lives In Scotland - A New Approach

Healthy Working Lives In Scotland - A New Approach

"Creating an unbreakable link between health and work is fundamental to Scotland continuing to improve its record of health. This is critical when set against a landscape of an ageing and declining population. To do this, we must address the situation where the benefit of a job, stretching individual talent to the full still remains beyond the reach of too many Scots.
It is absolutely vital for business and employers that Scotland has a workforce capable of supporting a vibrant, wealth-creating economy, with quality public services that flow from this."

This is the stated underlying principle to the setting up of the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, and now, small businesses in Scotland are being supported with a new health and safety initiative, with larger companies sharing their knowledge of how to deal with fatalities, injuries and illness in the workplace. 

Steve Bell, Strategic Director for the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives: 

"By using established, higher-performing businesses and encouraging smaller companies to learn from their experience, we can show SMEs that health and safety doesn't have to be the minefield they often think it is."

HSE research reveals SMEs are more likely to listen to other businesses than to officials and regulatory bodies.

In 2006/07, nearly 200,000 people in Scotland suffered from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their current or previous employment. Over the same period in Scotland, 31 workers were killed at work and over 12,000 other employees were injured. 

Judith Hackitt, chair of the HSE said: 

"Health and safety is a major issue both for the people working in Scotland and for the companies which employ them. We want employers to recognise that protecting their health and safety is fundamental to improving business performance, as well as being a legal requirement.”

The Centre's website, healthscotland.org.uk, announced the strategy and the new policy document available:

"The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives was set up to improve the health of working age people in Scotland by ensuring healthier and safer workplaces, promote healthier lifestyles and to develop the field of employability throughout Scotland. The Centre has been tasked to take forward and implement the Scottish Executive's strategy Healthy Working Lives - a plan for action

The starting point for implementing this has been to join together and unify the successful Scotland's Health at Work (SHAW) national award scheme, Safe and Healthy Working and the business and employability strands of Scotland Against Drugs for national delivery under the overarching banner of The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives. "

Source: The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives / Workplace Law Network