| Start Well | Stay Well | Age Well |
|---|---|---|
| Parental leave policies, providing safe and healthy working conditions for those who are pregnant | Providing safe and healthy working conditions which protect and promote health and wellbeing. | Providing the means for people to pay into pensions for later life. |
| Providing a source of income to families to pay for housing and good nutrition | Providing income to enable people to access the means for good health. | Providing age friendly and carer friendly policies for older workers. |
| Family friendly policies that allow flexibility for parents to raise young children well | ||
| Providing work experience and training to help young people to get the best opportunities in employment. |
Chapter 1: Why focus on work and health?
Chapter 1: Why focus on work and health?
Employment and access to good work are key building blocks for the health and wellbeing of communities in Derbyshire. Good work benefits not only the health of those who are employed. It can make a difference to health across the whole life course, including the families, dependents and communities of those who are working, as illustrated in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2: How work improves health across the whole life course1
This year’s report brings attention to the economic and social benefits of a healthy working age population, the major public health and societal challenge of ill health, which threatens future prosperity, and the opportunities that exist for employers, business leaders, health leaders and political leaders to address it.
This report directly supports Derbyshire’s Public Health Strategic Plan and addresses the key areas of focus for improving the health of Derbyshire’s population, outlined in Table 1 below.2 It also addresses economic inactivity, long-term conditions, and mental health, which are key drivers of poor health for the working-age population.
Table 1: How work and health fits with Derbyshire’s Public Health Strategic Plan3
| Tackle the four main risk factors that lead to poor health | Workplaces can promote physical activity and active travel and create strategies to promote smoking cessation. Safe working environments and practices prevent injuries which limit physical activity. |
|---|---|
| Enable good mental health | Employers can support good management practices, signpost to support and reduce stigma around mental ill health in the workplace. |
| Enable the best start in life | Employers can support the health of children and young people through providing income to enable families to access means to living a healthy life, through family friendly policies, through safe working conditions for those who are pregnant and through training opportunities for young people who are starting their working life. |
| Reduce poverty and encourage good financial wellbeing | Employers can provide fair pay and job security, promote financial wellbeing programmes which encourage saving and pension schemes to support financial wellbeing in later life. |
| Protect and enable people of all ages to live safe and healthy lives | Disability confident employers can support those with disabilities or long-term health conditions to remain in work or access work. Employers can support those with caring responsibilities to continue to work. Tackling modern slavery and exploitation will enable people to lead safe and healthy lives. |
The report’s theme of work and health also supports the ambitions outlined within the NHS Long Term Plan.4 The Long Term Plan seeks to shifts focus from treating illness to preventing it, by embedding health into everyday working life and this report provides recommendations about how this might be achieved locally. Ensuring good work and good health also supports the NHS ambition to reduce inequalities and improve population health through place-based action.
The report will take you on a journey through Derbyshire to show how good work can improve the health of people of all ages, how the barriers can be removed which prevent some people entering work and how investing in a healthy workforce is makes good business sense.
You can see, hear and read the stories of local people, including employers and those who live and work in Derbyshire about why work matters for health by clicking below.
LISTENING TO DERBYSHIRE VOICES
Explore lived experiences from across Derbyshire. Discover how tailored support, persistence, and opportunity change lives.