Audit of Boorman Review imminent

The Royal College of Physicians is to conduct the first national audit within the NHS of NICE public health guidance for the workplace, as recommended by the Boorman Review. Carried out over the summer and autumn by the Health and Work Development Unit (HWDU), the audit will involve all NHS trusts in England with an overall aim of improving health and wellbeing of all staff working for the health services.

The Boorman Review, published last year, called for staff health and wellbeing to be embedded in the core business of NHS organisations. Many trusts have pockets of activity relating to staff health and wellbeing, but there is no overall picture of the situation across the board.

Using an organisational audit methodology, trusts will be able to measure the extent, and quality, of their implementation of six pieces of NICE public health guidance relevant to the workplace. These are:

Managing long-term sickness absence and incapacity for work (PH19)

Promoting physical activity in the workplace (PH13)

Promoting mental wellbeing through productive and healthy working conditions (PH22)

Workplace interventions to promote smoking cessation (PH5)

Obesity: guidance on the prevention, identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in adults and children (CG43)

Promoting and creating built or natural environments that encourage and support physical activity (PH8)

All participating organisations will receive a comprehensive confidential report in March 2011 providing them with a cross-organisational view, mapped against the evidence base and the national benchmark data. This will enable trusts to identify gaps and spot opportunities to develop their staff health and wellbeing strategies.

The audit will enable trusts to improve quality of care and patient safety through the reduction in sickness absence, as well as increasing productivity in line the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) agenda. Further benefits include:

Better results in the NHS staff survey (which feeds into the Care Quality Commission registration)

Direction on how to further implement NHS guidance to maximum benefit.

Fulfilment of obligations to provide support and opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety as laid out by the NHS Constitution.

Contribution to the NHS Operating Framework 2010-11 national priority to improve patient experience and staff satisfaction and engagement

Greater equality, diversity and inclusion within the workplace.

The HWDU will be liaising directly with board members responsible for staff health and wellbeing. The audit has been funded by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine as a quality improvement initiative for NHS staff health and wellbeing.

Director of the Health and Work Development Unit, Dr Siân Williams, commented:

‘Working for the NHS is about to get tougher and staff deserve the best management practices and services to maintain their health. And evidence shows that healthy staff deliver better care to patients. The audit will help trusts improve their internal practices for keeping staff healthy and happy and also share best practice with others.’