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Westminster-based forum, the Policy Liaison Group (PLG) on Workplace Wellbeing launched its UK Duty of Care Guidelines for policymakers and parliamentarians. The new blueprint shows how inadequate job design, leadership capability, autonomy, flexibility and culture, together with overwork, have a direct bearing on national health and prosperity.
The launch of the UK Duty of Care Guidelines brought the PLG on Workplace Wellbeing’s work from Whitehall to Westminster. After the Guidelines were delivered to 10 Downing Street earlier in the day, parliamentarians, employers and workplace wellbeing leaders gathered in Parliament that evening to mark their publication and consider what better work could mean for the UK’s health, workforce and economy. Among those attending were Labour MP for Warrington North Charlotte Nichols, who authored the foreword to the Guidelines, Baroness Carmen Smith and Conservative MP Gagan Mohindra. The evening featured remarks from, government adviser and one of the country’s leading authorities on work and health, Dame Carol Black GBE alongside Gethin Nadin, Chair of the PLG and principal author of the Guidelines.
The Guidelines are a response to collective challenges facing the UK: 981,000 young people classified as NEET, 2.8 million working-age adults out of work due to long-term sickness, together with unsustainable pressure on the NHS and weak economic growth.
PLG Chair and principal author of the Guidelines, Gethin Nadin, says they are a response to the tendency in Westminster to “treat economic growth, healthcare, and job quality as separate problems.” At the heart of the solution is delivering good work, which is “not a luxury” for people in and out of employment alike.
The PLG’s roundtables have highlighted the disparity between larger businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which typically lack the awareness, knowledge and resources to shift from reacting to crises towards prevention and nurturing positive workplace cultures.
The Guidelines provide a practical baseline standard across essential pillars of good work: leadership capability, job design, workload management, autonomy, and psychological safety. As a result, they help decision-makers address root causes before harm occurs.
The Guidelines build on previous reports by Dame Carol Black GBE and Professor Sir Cary Cooper CBE, both of whom have emphasised that Guidelines are a much-needed practical roadmap for the UK economy and for policymakers (see quotes below). Mental health campaigner and Labour MP for Warrington North, Charlotte Nichols wrote the foreword, stating: “Healthier workplaces can help create healthier people, a stronger economy and a more prosperous Britain.”
The Guidelines emphasise:
Ensuring organisational values are reflected in day-to-day decisions on workload, staffing, management and fairness.
Identifying and addressing mental health risks including excessive workloads, low autonomy, unclear roles, poor change management and harmful workplace relationships.
Recognising that workplace risks and access to support are experienced differently across the workforce, and ensuring policies do not rely on a one-size-fits-all approach.
Providing accessible and trusted wellbeing support while ensuring it does not become a substitute for tackling underlying problems in the design and management of work.
Assessing employees’ real experience of work, including workload, autonomy, fairness and psychological safety, alongside traditional measures such as sickness absence and productivity.
They are a response to the Employment Rights Act awaiting secondary legislation, the Financial Inclusion Strategy, and the government-backed twin reviews, ‘Keep Britain Working Review’ and ‘Young People and Work’, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield and Sir Alan Milburn respectively. Both reviews emphasise that tackling economic inactivity requires urgent reform of workplace design.
This is the inaugural publication of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing, which formed in September 2024 to showcase the positive impacts of workplace health and wellbeing practices to parliamentarians and ministers, as well as business leaders.
QUOTATIONS
Gethin Nadin, Chair of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing, said:
“Good work is not a luxury, but an essential component of national infrastructure. Rising economic inactivity linked to ill health proves we cannot solve our greatest economic challenges without improving the conditions of work, yet debates in Westminster too often treat economic growth, healthcare, and job quality as separate problems.
“By focusing on prevention rather than treatment, these Guidelines provide a practical framework to fix job design, protect workforce health, and unlock national performance.”
Charlotte Nichols MP, Member of Parliament for Warrington North, said:
“These guidelines provide policymakers, parliamentarians and other decision-makers with an evidence-informed framework for understanding good work and how public policy can support it.
“Healthier workplaces can help create healthier people, a stronger economy and a more prosperous Britain.”
Professor Dame Carol Black GBE said:
“Healthy workplaces are fundamental to a healthy and productive society. Policymakers need a clear understanding of what good work looks like and why it matters.
“These guidelines provide a practical, evidence-informed framework that I hope will support better decisions for the benefit of workers, employers and the wider economy.”
Professor Sir Cary Cooper CBE said:
“These Guidelines provide a roadmap for policymakers, employers, and wider stakeholders to create a healthier workforce and more productive UK economy across small and medium-sized (SMEs), the private sector, the public sector and the third sector.”
Maria Paviour, Advisory Board Member of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing and CEO of Optimism Consulting, said:
“It has been an honour to work with colleagues on this important piece of work. Never have these Duty of Care Guidelines been more vital, for businesses, for the economy and, crucially, for the people who make it all possible.
“Our workplaces, communities, families and educational establishments can all benefit from taking practical steps that enable people to thrive and ensure that wellbeing is embedded in the way organisations operate.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
One-pager about the PLG on Workplace Wellbeing
PLG on Workplace Wellbeing website and monthly newsletter sign-up
Chair, Gethin Nadin’s LinkedIn page
Secretariat services are provided by College Green Group
Dame Carol Black’s 2008 report, ‘Working for a healthier tomorrow’
Contact: secretariat@
plgworkplacewellbeing.org and 07841649320
