NEWS
PROGRAMME SUPPORTING WOMEN IN H&S WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD
The Women in Safety Leadership programme has triumphed in the Most Innovative Institute Approved Programme category of The Institute of Leadership Awards 2025.
Developed by L’Oreal, and delivered in partnership with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), Nike, Inc. and Leaderlike Ltd, the Women in Safety Leadership (WiSL) programme empowers women to take leadership roles in health and safety, promotes diversity and inclusion through addressing the longstanding gender imbalance in an OSH workforce where only 30% of professionals are women, and ultimately makes workplaces and wider society safer.
Based around three core themes – Leadership by Design, Leadership in Action and Leadership as a Strategy
– the training element was updated by Leaderlike Ltd and L’Oréal in 2023 and is delivered by global safety leadership specialist and Leaderlike Ltd founder Karen J Hewitt.
WiSL provides a safe, collaborative space where women from diverse industries can explore their leadership potential and develop their ability to influence across organisations.
Following the initial training session, participants are matched with a mentor to support their continued leadership journey. Participants also become part of the WiSL Alumni Network, enabling them to share advice, develop new skills and work together to inspire the next generation of female health and safety leaders.
Over 100 women have progressed through WiSL since it was launched in 2023, with participants drawn from over 20 countries and a wide range of sectors including construction, utilities and shipping. The Leadership Award
crowns a particularly successful year for WiSL which, alongside attracting more applications than ever before, also appointed RoSPA Vice-President and consumer safety champion Baroness Crawley of Edgbaston as figurehead.
Baroness Crawley said: “This prestigious award represents well- deserved recognition for everyone at L’Oréal, RoSPA, Nike, Inc. and Leaderlike Limited, who have all come together to share their passion and expertise to empower women to lead in health and safety – at work, at home, and beyond. Most importantly, it is a testament to the dedication and energy of all of the inspiring women who have participated in the Women in Safety Leadership, and their commitment to developing skills not just for the benefit of their own careers, but to ensure others can work and live their lives free from the risk of accidental harm.
www.rospa.com/health-and-safety-courses/women-in-safety-leadership-programme
www.rospa.com
UK’S SICK DAY EPIDEMIC: THE INDUSTRIES PUTTING WORKERS AT RISK
New research has revealed the industries taking the most sick days, with transport workers topping the list, and healthcare staff not far behind.
People working in the transport and storage sector recorded a collective 10.6m sick days in 2025 – the equivalent of 6.5 days off per employee.
Coming in a narrow second are health and social workers, who registered 29.4 million sick days, the most of any sector, equating to six days per employee. Given their frontline status at hospitals, care homes and clinics across the UK, health and social workers continue to feel the strain, suffering from stress, exhaustion and burnout.
Workers from the mining, energy and water sector came in third, requesting an average of 5.5 days off per employee, and amassing 3.1m days off across the past 12 months.
Richard Stockley, Managing Director at RRC International, said: “These figures really highlight just how relentless the past year has been for people in demanding roles, particularly those within the transport and healthcare sectors.
“These are essential jobs that come with long hours, high stress, and immense responsibility. It’s vital
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that employers step up to support their staff ’s health and wellbeing, especially in sectors where burnout and exhaustion are all too common.”
At the other end of the scale, some industries saw very little time off. Agriculture, forestry and fishing had the joint fewest sick days taken, at 2.4 days, with just 700,000 sick days taken. This was tied with real estate workers who clocked up 1m requests at 2.4 days per worker too.
Richard continued: “The roles that record the least sick days tend to be lone workers or people who are part
of dispersed teams. There tends to be less human to human interaction or have the majority of operations outside. Of course, this is not a luxury that the majority of UK workers can afford, so employers need to fully address this issue, with mental and physical health training and policy changes ranking highly.”
In total, 148.3m working days were lost across all industries in the last year, a reminder that sickness absence continues to hit UK businesses hard.
https://www.rrc.co.uk
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