What is Workplace Health Provision?

Workplace Health Provision, or WHP, is the Keep Britain Working programme's draft model of support at work. It has four functions: advice and guidance, case management, early support and treatment, and employer insight, with an impartial, non-clinical coordinator at its centre.

What does a WHP case manager do?

As drafted, an appropriately independent, non-clinical coordinator helps agree and monitor stay-in-work and return-to-work plans, connects the employee to other support and escalates clinical needs. They complement line management, HR and clinical judgement rather than replacing them.

Do small employers have to buy Workplace Health Provision?

No. WHP is a draft model and there is no requirement to buy anything. The programme is testing a minimum specification and affordable routes for small firms, including pooled buying through local authorities, shared case managers, supply chains and insurance schemes.

Is an employee assistance programme the same as Workplace Health Provision?

Not on its own. An employee assistance programme usually covers some of the advice and guidance function and some early support. WHP also expects case management to coordinate plans, and employer insight to improve the workplace.

How can a small firm afford it?

The September 2026 update names pooled buying in a place, such as Hull's Resilience Hub, shared part-time case managers in South Yorkshire, support extended through large employers' supply chains, and insurance schemes that pool risk across small employers.

Workplace Health Provision (WHP): the four functions, explained

Why a model of provision is needed

Most employers already have some support: an employee assistance programme, a cash plan, occupational health on call, a GP down the road. The September 2026 Keep Britain Working update describes the problem as fragmentation. Support is split across HR, occupational health, employee assistance, GPs, insurers and specialists; handovers between them are "weak or non-existent"; and employees and line managers are left to join the pieces together. Some employees, even with a good manager, will not feel safe raising a health issue with them at all.

WHP is the programme's answer: define support by what it does rather than who sells it, so that any employer can see what is missing.

The four functions

Function	What it should provide at a minimum, as drafted
Advice and guidance	A trusted route to impartial, practical advice and tools for employees and managers: self-management, routes to further support, and inclusive and healthy workplaces.
Case management	An appropriately independent, non-clinical coordinator, or a case manager for more complex cases, who helps agree and monitor stay-in-work and return-to-work plans, connects other support and escalates clinical needs.
Early support and treatment	Timely, evidence-based support for common work-limiting issues, including early treatment for mental health and musculoskeletal needs, and early support for non-health issues such as money, bereavement or caring.
Employer insight	Aggregate information on recurring employee needs, workplace barriers and outcomes, so the employer can improve work design and support.

Source: GOV.UK, Keep Britain Working: a national growth opportunity, September 2026, chapter four.

The update is clear that coordination on its own is not enough. Case management sits at the centre, but it only changes outcomes when it comes with advice, early treatment and the insight to improve the workplace. It also makes a point worth noticing: provision is where the most valuable intelligence in the system is generated, because it sees a problem when someone first asks for help rather than when they go off sick.

Check your provision in two minutes

Tick what you have today. Be strict: it only counts if people know it exists and can reach it without asking permission. Nothing you tick is stored or sent anywhere.

Advice and guidance Employees can get impartial advice about health and work without going through their manager (for example an employee assistance line) Managers have somewhere to get practical advice on handling a health conversation or an adjustment

Case management Someone who is not the line manager can coordinate a stay-in-work or return-to-work plan when a case is complex Plans are written down with named actions, owners and a review date

Early support and treatment People can get fast access to talking therapy or physiotherapy without waiting for NHS lists There is support for non-health pressures such as money worries, bereavement or caring

Employer insight You see anonymous, aggregate information on how people are doing, not just absence counts You know whether people who came back from absence are still in work six months later

How employers are expected to put it together

Because WHP is defined by function, there is no single way to provide it. The update describes three broad routes:

Large employers build on the occupational health, early treatment and other services they already have, adding stronger coordination and case management.
Small and micro businesses may buy the functions from a single external provider.
Others mix the two, providing some functions internally and buying the rest.

Where the market does not reach, public provision may fill the gap for now, for example through WorkWell services.

How small firms are meant to afford it

The update calls affordability for small and micro businesses "the critical test", and names the routes being explored:

Pooled buying in a place. In Hull, the Resilience Hub is a partnership between Hull City Council and a Vanguard provider testing a buyer's pool so local small firms can reach occupational health services at the same prices as large corporates. The programme wants to replicate it elsewhere, including West Yorkshire and the North East.
Shared case managers. South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority plans to trial independent case managers sitting part-time inside businesses.
Supply chains. West Midlands Combined Authority is working with large employers in construction and social care to extend workplace health support to their smaller suppliers.
Insurance. Schemes that pool risk and support across many small employers, building on products such as group income protection, where workplace health support is already a prominent benefit. The update notes this would need to address pricing, adverse risk selection and appropriate brokerage.

In Scotland, Working Health Services Scotland already offers case-managed support focused on return to work for employees of small firms and the self-employed.

What a small employer can do now

Run the check above and fix the cheapest gap first. For most small firms that is not a new contract, it is making the support you already pay for visible, and writing plans down. The employer insight function is the one small firms most often have nothing for: without it you only find out someone was struggling when the fit note arrives.

See the free wellbeing pulse

The Intelligent Wellbeing Engine is our free, non-clinical wellbeing pulse. It gives an employer anonymous, aggregate insight and never shows an individual's answers. It covers part of the employer insight function only: it is not case management, advice or treatment, and it is independent of the Keep Britain Working programme.

What it does not require today

WHP is a draft model. There is no minimum specification yet, no requirement to buy anything and no approved provider list. The programme's next step is to settle the minimum specification and test it against real costs, alongside the routes for small firms. Treat the four functions as a way to see your gaps, not a checklist you will be audited against.

Workplace Health Provision, explained.