What the Workplace Health System is
The phrase comes from Sir Charlie Mayfield's September 2026 update to the Keep Britain Working review, published on GOV.UK on 23 September 2026. The update puts it simply: Britain has a National Health Service, but it has never had a Workplace Health System. The same people show up on the welfare bill, on NHS waiting lists and in the productivity figures, and nothing joins those pictures up.
The proposed system has three practical components, held together by what the update calls shared responsibility:
- Better, more inclusive workplaces. Clear expectations of employers and employees across the working lifecycle, set out in a new employer standard being developed with the British Standards Institution. The standard, explained.
- Better workplace health provision. A defined model of support at work, built around an impartial coordinator or case manager, that small firms can afford as well as large ones. Workplace Health Provision, explained.
- Better intelligence on workplace health and inclusion. Common measures, confidential benchmarks and a permanent home for the data, the Workplace Health Intelligence Unit. The update calls intelligence "the engine" of the whole system.
Why the government wants one
The case in the update rests on timing. Most people with a health condition are still in work, and the moment to help is before they drop out, not after.
Around 300,000 people with a health condition leave work each year, and health-related economic inactivity is estimated to cost the country around £212 billion a year. The update's conclusion is that "the cheapest intervention is always the earliest one", which is why the system is aimed at retention inside the workplace rather than recovery after someone has left it.
Who does what
The update gives each party a core responsibility. This is the plainest summary of how the system is meant to work:
| Who | Core responsibility, as proposed |
|---|---|
| Employers | Design healthier and more inclusive work, act early, make timely adjustments and support practical stay-in-work and return-to-work plans. |
| Employees | Where circumstances allow, take part in conversations about work and health, discuss barriers, keep agreed contact and engage with agreed plans. |
| Providers | Offer accessible, coordinated, work-focused support with clear accountability and measurable outcomes. |
| Places | Convene employers and providers, connect health and employment support, and organise shared access where useful. |
| Government | Set the framework, establish trusted intelligence, remove barriers to access and progressively align incentives. |
Source: GOV.UK, Keep Britain Working: a national growth opportunity, September 2026, chapter two.
The update is careful on the employee side: none of this is a condition of sick pay, of employment or of access to support, and nobody should be expected to disclose unnecessary personal information.
What is confirmed, and what is still being tested
Confirmed
- The three-part model and the shared-responsibility principle.
- BSI has appointed a drafting panel for an employer-facing standard.
- An employer data project starts in autumn 2026, using data employers already hold and no named employee data.
- A prototype Work and Health Toolkit is being developed with the University of Liverpool.
- A phased roll-out plan will be prepared ahead of the 2027 Spending Review.
Still being tested
- The specific employer commitments and their timelines, described by the update as "early examples" rather than firm proposals.
- The minimum specification for Workplace Health Provision, and what it costs.
- How small employers get access: pooled buying, sector bodies, supply chains or insurance.
- The organisational model for the Workplace Health Intelligence Unit.
- Which incentives follow, once there is evidence to pay for outcomes.
What it means for a small employer
The update names the small employer as "the acid test": if a firm without HR or occupational health cannot meet the expectations, the expectations are wrong. That matters, because most of what the system asks of employers is behaviour rather than spending. Talk to people about work and health early. Agree practical plans. Keep in touch during absence. Measure what happens six months later, not just on the first day back.
The part small firms usually cannot do alone is the intelligence. A firm of 30 cannot tell whether its absence or retention is normal, because it has nothing to compare with. That is exactly the gap the system's intelligence work is aimed at.
What you can do now
- Put the early conversation in place. The tested commitment is a conversation within five working days of an issue being raised, and a written stay-in-work plan. Build a stay-in-work plan on our free on-page tool.
- Map the support you already have. Check it against the four functions of Workplace Health Provision and see where the gaps are. Check your provision.
- Start measuring, lightly. A short, regular, non-clinical wellbeing pulse gives you signal about workload and support long before a fit note arrives.
The Intelligent Wellbeing Engine is our free, non-clinical wellbeing pulse. It is independent of the Keep Britain Working programme and is not the government's Work and Health Toolkit. It measures wellbeing; it does not provide medical assessment or treatment.
What it does not require today
No law has changed. The standard is not published, the commitments are being tested, and there is no reporting duty on employers. The update describes the programme as "not a spending programme" and the next twelve months as the time for building evidence. The direction, though, is set: employers who already have early conversations, written plans and a light habit of measurement will find whatever comes next easy.
Read next
Workplace Health Provision, explained · The Work and Health Toolkit · The workplace health standard · Stay-in-work plans