This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Promotion of a healthy workforce
26/08/2004
A new organisation is to be established to improve the health of Scotland's working age population.
In Aberdeen today, Deputy Health Minister Tom McCabe announced "Healthy Working Lives" - a strategy which sets out a number of initiatives to improve health in the workplace.
The Minister said:
"Improving the health of Scotland's working age population is vital to the country's economic prosperity.
"It is estimated that the number of Scots aged between 24 and 34 will fall by a quarter over the next 20 years while the numbers of those at pensionable age is due to rise from 18 per cent in 1999 to 23 per cent by 2019.
"That means that a smaller proportion of working people will be responsible for producing the economic wealth to sustain an increasing non-working population. Looking after the health of our workforce is therefore vital.
"That is why I am announcing today a new organisation that will provide a single focus for promoting health in the workplace.
"It will integrate two existing strands of Executive policy: the national health promotion award scheme Scotland's Health at Work; and the Executive funded Safe and Healthy Working initiative aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises.
"The new organisation will operate within a single strategic framework bringing together discreet professional disciplines and will offer employers, employees and potential employees a range of services according to need that will be delivered by the partner organisations who have developed this approach.
"Last year we identified the workplace as a key area in improving the health of the nation and since then we have been working with trade unions, business, voluntary groups, the Health and Safety Executive and medical professionals to develop a strategy that meets that aim.
"Our new initiative "Healthy Working Lives" sets out how we intend to deliver that strategy."
Deputy Enterprise Minister Lewis Macdonald said:
"A healthy well-motivated workforce is an essential element in delivering the Executive's priority of growing Scotland's economy.
"We recognise that many employers, working in highly competitive markets under continual pressure to cut costs, may not instantly identify with Healthy Working Lives as a critical business activity. But Scotland's poor health record and ageing population carry costs to business and risks to competitiveness.
"I firmly believe there is a clear business case to support Healthy Working Lives."
Healthy Working Lives - A Plan for Action sets out a number of initiatives including:
- Securing the support of employers across all sectors so that investment in the workplace in increased
- Delivering beyond the traditional health agenda by supporting efforts to help people into formal employment
- Adding value to health improvement activities in key areas such as smoking, alcohol and drug misuse
- Establishing closer working relationships with local government and the department for Work and Pensions and the Health and Safety executive
- Providing a focus for researching the evidence base in supporting actions aimed at promoting healthy working lives
The partners who developed the Healthy Working Lives initiative are: Federation of Small Businesses
- Scottish Chamber of Commerce
- UNISON
- Voluntary Health Scotland
- Scottish Social Enterprise CoalitionBEMIS
- Scottish Business in the Community
- Health and Safety Executive
- Scotland's Health at Work
- Health Scotland
- SALUS
- ASH Scotland
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- Royal College of Nursing
- STUC
- CBI
- Scottish Partnership Forum
- Boots plc
- COSLA
- Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health
- University of Glasgow