ASK THE EXPERT:
INVESTING IN HEALTH CHECKS by Paul Blythin
Project lead, Business Health Matters
The Business Health Matters programme was created to help improve the overall health and wellbeing of employees throughout the county.
Businesses tell us that the health and wellbeing conversation can be overwhelming and even conflicting at times and that knowing where to start is notoriously difficult.
So, in this regular column, we answer your workplace health questions and help you find the support you need within your own organisation.
EDEN PROJECT CASH DECISION AWAITED
An announcement on whether Lancashire’s major levelling up scheme Eden Project North will receive £50m of vital government support is imminent.
The government had planned to reveal the successful bidders for round two of its Levelling Up Fund by the end of 2022.
However, in a letter to MPs sent before the Christmas break, levelling up minister Dehenna Davison said: “Having received such a high number of quality applications, the announcement has been delayed until the New Year to allow us to allocate additional funds - meaning up to £2.1bn will be granted to successful bids in this round.”
Lancaster City Council is looking to secure £50m from the fund which would cover half of the projected building cost of the ‘game-changing’ eco-attraction planned for Morecambe’s seafront. The cash is crucial to Eden moving forward.
Around 300 high-quality green jobs are forecast to be directly created, plus more than 1,000 additional new jobs supported in the region.
It will transform the local
economy and have a transformative effect, not just on Morecambe, but the whole region
Annual visitor numbers are projected to be 740,000 and additional revenue brought into local businesses by Eden North is set to exceed the hoped for £50m government investment within months of the project opening its doors to visitors.
Alongside the city council, the other partners working with the Eden Project to turn this vision into economic reality are Lancashire County Council, the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and Lancaster University.
The other £50m of development costs would be sourced from private and philanthropic sources. Planning permission for the attraction was given last February.
City council leader Caroline Jackson has stressed the project is crucial for the area, saying: “It will transform the local economy and have a transformative effect, not just on Morecambe, but the whole region.”
LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK
In this edition, we look at whether businesses on tight budgets should be investing in health checks for their employees.
Q: As budgets get tighter, why should I offer my team a health check?
A: In a period of uncertainty, we know many businesses in Lancashire are looking at ways to save money.
At the same time, we also know that employers are relying on their strong, healthy and resilient workforce to pull together and achieve business goals.
So, what happens when colleagues become unwell or struggle with their mental health? How can you as an employer help to prevent this happening?
In the UK, over 30 million days are lost to work-related ill health. Of this, 17 million are lost to stress, depression or anxiety and 7.3 million days are lost due to musculoskeletal disorders, such as back pain or arthritis. That means that, on average, a person with one of the above will take anywhere up to 19 days off work.
By offering your team a workplace health check, early warning signs of poor health are identified before they become a larger, costly problem.
If left too long, both mental and physical health issues can get increasingly worse and lead to growing levels of presenteeism, where employees come to work but are too unwell to do their job, or long-term absenteeism.
There is a range of options on offer to employers when it comes to health checks, including those that just focus on physical health or those conducted online.
However, our programme has been part-funded by Innovate UK to offer Lancashire businesses an affordable and comprehensive health check that covers both physical and mental health elements.
Created by Lancashire Mind and the University of Central Lancashire’s School of Medicine, the in-person checks cover: cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose, a ten-year cardiovascular score, peak flow, pulse oximetry, atrial fibrillation, pulse rate, height, weight and BMI, and a lifestyle questionnaire and mental health assessment.
At just £60 per person, the health checks give employers the opportunity to make a difference to their employees’ health.
Each member of staff receives a personalised health plan following the assessment, with an anonymised report provided to employers who book ten or more checks.
With similar services costing hundreds of pounds when purchased from large, national organisations, this opportunity for Lancashire businesses is too good to be missed.
If you’d like to discuss your team’s wellbeing with us, please call 01772 299838 or get in touch via
businesshealthmatters.org.uk.
15
IN VIEW
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
