Rehabilitation
This section outlines the elements of best
practice in rehabilitation and provides guidance for managing
sickness absence.
Background
HSE guidance
More guidance
Professional health
associations
Financial help and
advice
Background
On occasions, in spite of our best efforts, some employees will
have time off work due to work-related or other stress. Wherever
possible, employees should be encouraged to stay at work, rather
than take time off. However, if a period of absence is necessary,
it’s important to manage the return to work with the individual.
Rehabilitating someone into the workplace is sometimes called
‘vocational rehabilitation’.
In 2003, the Institute for Employment Studies produced an
HSE-commissioned report on Best practice in
rehabilitating employees following absence due to work-related
stress.
The key findings from this work were that the following elements
should be present when dealing with absence due to work-related
stress:
- written policies or guidelines
- effective procedures for overseeing the rehabilitation
process
- trained line managers
- early contact with the employee
- early health assessment
- having a rehabilitation plan agreed by all stakeholders,
particularly the employee
- providing flexible return-to-work options
Find out
more…
You can get more helpful advice in the leaflet Work and
health: changing how we think about common health problems.
HSE guidance
The HSE has developed tools and documents to help with absence
management and rehabilitation. These include:
More guidance
- Fit notes – information on the
fit note from Department for Work and Pensions, which replaced the
sick note in the UK in April 2010
- Working for a
healthier tomorrow – Dame Carol Black’s review of the health of
working age people, including a section on early intervention and
rehabilitation
- An
absence management tool – designed by the CIPD, ACAS and
HSE
- The Return to Work: Knowledge
Base – a resource designed to help people overcome injury and
get back to work
- Managing
attendance and employee turnover – advice from ACAS
- A CIPD
factsheet on rehabilitation, with lots of helpful tips
- Rehabilitation
and you – a guide to rehabilitation services in Scotland
-
Returning to work after long term sickness – advice for
employees from the government’s Careers Service
- Mental health
and work – a report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists,
including advice on rehabilitation and return to work
- BOHRF’s Systematic review of
workplace interventions for people with common mental health
problems advises that, for people who have common mental health
problems at work, the most effective approach is brief individual
therapy (up to eight weeks), especially cognitive behavioural
therapy
- A Peninsula Medical School report, Avoiding
long-term incapacity for work: developing an early intervention in
primary care, considers the evidence base for early
intervention in sickness absence
- Concepts of
rehabilitation for the management of common health problems is
a paper commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions that
attempts to develop an intellectual framework for policy-making,
research and development.
Professional health associations
British Association of Occupational
Therapists and College of Occupational Therapists
British Psychological Society
British Society of Rehabilitation
Medicine
Case Management Society UK
Commercial Occupational Health Providers
Association
Faculty of Occupational
Medicine
Institue of Occupational
Medicine
Society of Occupational Medicine
Financial help and advice
Under certain circumstances, employees may
qualify for government funding for the adjustments required to
enable them to work.
Directgov explains…
'If you feel that the type of work you do is affected by a
disability or health condition that is likely to last for 12 months
or more, ask the Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) at your local
Jobcentre Plus office about Access to Work. They can put you in
touch with your closest Access to Work Business Centre to check
whether you're eligible for help.’
HM Revenue and Customs has a range of advice, including a
calculator for statutory sick pay.
Back to the
top
Developed in partnership with:
Stress | Musculoskeletal disorders | Skin disorders | Inhalation disorders