Employers and policymakers are being urged to rethink workplace duty of care as 2.8 million working-age adults remain economically inactive because of ill health and almost one million young people are outside work, education or training. New UK Duty of Care Guidelines argue that better job design, leadership, autonomy, flexibility and psychological safety could improve workforce health while supporting productivity and economic growth.
Employers and policymakers are being urged to rethink how work itself affects people’s health. The new UK Duty of Care Guidelines warn that poor job design, excessive workloads, weak management, low autonomy and harmful workplace cultures are contributing to wider workforce and economic challenges.
The new Good Work, Good Health, Good Growth: UK Duty of Care Guidelines for Policymakers and Parliamentarians, developed by the Policy Liaison Group (PLG) on Workplace Wellbeing, were launched in Parliament on 1 September after being delivered to 10 Downing Street earlier in the day. The guidelines argue that workplace wellbeing needs to move beyond reacting to employees once they become unwell towards preventing harmful working conditions from contributing to ill health in the first place.
That means looking beyond traditional wellbeing benefits to examine how work is actually designed and managed. That includes workload, staffing, management capability, autonomy, flexibility, fairness, psychological safety and workplace relationships. The publication comes as Britain grapples with significant labour-market challenges. Some 2.8 million working-age adults are economically inactive because of health conditions, while the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Gethin Nadin, Chair of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing and principal author of the guidelines, said the issues should not be viewed in isolation. “Good work is not a luxury, but an essential component of national infrastructure,” stated Nadin. “Rising economic inactivity linked to ill health proves we cannot solve our greatest economic challenges without improving the conditions of work, yet debates in Westminster too often treat economic growth, healthcare, and job quality as separate problems. By focusing on prevention rather than treatment, these Guidelines provide a practical framework to fix job design, protect workforce health, and unlock national performance.”
2.8 MILLION OUT OF WORK BECAUSE OF ILL HEALTH
The scale of Britain’s workplace-health challenge has become increasingly difficult for employers and policymakers to ignore. The government-backed Keep Britain Working Review, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, found that 2.8 million working-age people are economically inactive because of health conditions – 800,000 more than in 2019, representing a 40% increase.
Without intervention, projections suggest another 600,000 people could leave the workforce by 2030. Employers are also paying a substantial price. The review estimates sickness and workforce exit linked to ill health cost employers around £85 billion annually. Sickness absence is at a 15-year high, while the review estimates employers lose around £120 per day per sick employee and can face recruitment costs exceeding £11,000 when replacing someone who has left because of ill health.
The challenge is not confined to people who have already left employment. More people are working with work-limiting health conditions or disabilities than ever before. The review argues that employers are particularly well placed to intervene earlier – through workplace adjustments, flexibility, prevention and support – rather than waiting until health problems result in prolonged absence or workforce exit. The new Duty of Care Guidelines build on that principle by asking policymakers to look further upstream at the conditions under which people work.
NEARLY ONE MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE REMAIN OUTSIDE WORK AND EDUCATION
The launch also comes amid continuing concern about the number of young people struggling to enter and remain connected to the labour market. The latest ONS figures show an estimated 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 were NEET between April and June 2026, equivalent to 13% of the age group. The figure is down by 30,000 compared with the previous quarter, but remains 30,000 higher than a year earlier. That represents an improvement from earlier this year, when the number exceeded one million, but the longer-term challenge remains significant.
Earlier this year, Fair Play Talks examined warnings that Britain risks creating a “lost generation” as more than one million young people became locked out of work, education or training. The independent Young People and Work review, led by Sir Alan Milburn, has warned that without intervention the NEET rate could eventually exceed 16%, leaving more than 1.25 million young people outside employment, education or training within five years.
The challenge is not simply getting young people to want to work. Recent Fair Play Talks coverage of the UK youth employment crisis highlighted how rising business costs are squeezing entry-level jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities, while the government’s independent review found that 84% of NEET young people surveyed want a job, education or training.
Some employers are attempting to create new routes in. Sainsbury’s recently announced 10,000 work experience opportunities as businesses face growing pressure to help address the UK youth jobs crisis.
The Duty of Care Guidelines add another dimension to that debate. Creating opportunities matters, but so does ensuring that the work people enter is healthy and sustainable enough for them to remain in it.
GOOD WORK SHOULD BE PART OF THE SOLUTION
At the centre of the new framework is the argument that good work itself can be preventative. Rather than treating employee health, productivity and economic participation as separate issues, the guidelines encourage policymakers to consider how the design and management of work can either support or undermine them.
Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for Warrington North, who wrote the foreword to the guidelines, said: “These guidelines provide policymakers, parliamentarians and other decision-makers with an evidence-informed framework for understanding good work and how public policy can support it. Healthier workplaces can help create healthier people, a stronger economy and a more prosperous Britain.”
The guidelines establish a practical baseline around several essential components of good work, including leadership capability, job design, workload management, autonomy and psychological safety. They call for organisational values to be reflected in everyday decisions about staffing, workloads, management and fairness rather than existing primarily as corporate statements.
That distinction matters because workplace stress remains a significant challenge. Fair Play Talks’ coverage for Stress Awareness Month highlighted a continuing burnout crisis, with one in five UK workers reporting time off during the previous year because of poor mental health caused by stress.
WELLBEING SUPPORT CANNOT FIX BADLY DESIGNED WORK
One of the most significant principles within the guidelines is the distinction between supporting an employee who is struggling and addressing what may be causing the problem in the first place. The framework calls for accessible and trusted wellbeing support, but warns against allowing those services to become a substitute for tackling underlying problems in the design and management of work.
In practice, an organisation could offer an employee assistance programme, counselling, wellbeing apps or resilience training while leaving excessive workloads, poor management, low autonomy, unfair treatment or dysfunctional workplace relationships untouched. The guidelines instead call on organisations and policymakers to identify mental-health risks including excessive workloads, low autonomy, unclear roles, poor change management and harmful workplace relationships. That approach reflects a theme the PLG has been developing throughout its work.
At a parliamentary roundtable earlier this year, employers, policymakers and wellbeing experts urged organisations to put wellbeing, trust and culture at the heart of workplace AI adoption. Participants argued that technology should be approached as a people transformation rather than simply an IT rollout, with job design, autonomy, leadership capability and psychological safety central to whether technological change improves or undermines people’s experience of work. The message running through both pieces of work is similar – wellbeing cannot simply be added on after decisions about how work is designed have already been made.
HEALTHY WORKPLACES ‘FUNDAMENTAL’ TO HEALTHY SOCIETY
Professor Dame Carol Black GBE, a leading authority on work and health whose previous work helped inform the new guidelines, said: “Healthy workplaces are fundamental to a healthy and productive society. Policymakers need a clear understanding of what good work looks like and why it matters. These guidelines provide a practical, evidence-informed framework that I hope will support better decisions for the benefit of workers, employers and the wider economy.”
Professor Sir Cary Cooper CBE similarly described the framework as a practical route forward. “These Guidelines provide a roadmap for policymakers, employers, and wider stakeholders to create a healthier workforce and more productive UK economy across small and medium-sized (SMEs), the private sector, the public sector and the third sector,” stated Cooper.
The emphasis on prevention reflects a broader shift in the UK’s work-and-health debate. Rather than focusing solely on returning people to employment after long-term sickness, policymakers are increasingly considering how employers can prevent workers falling out of employment in the first place.
WORK DOES NOT AFFECT EVERYONE IN THE SAME WAY
The guidelines also stress that workplace risks and access to support can differ considerably across the workforce. They therefore caution against a one-size-fits-all approach to employee wellbeing. An employee managing a disability or long-term health condition may need different workplace adjustments from a working parent, carer, older employee or someone experiencing poor mental health. Evidence of the impact of chronic illness on working lives illustrates why that matters.
Recent research found that seven in 10 women with autoimmune disease believed their condition had harmed their career potential. Among those surveyed, 39% had reduced their working hours, 28% had moved into less demanding roles, 13% had turned down promotions and 11% had left the workforce altogether.
More than six in 10 had not fully disclosed their diagnosis at work, with fear of judgement or being passed over for opportunities among the reasons given. Such findings demonstrate why workplace health cannot rely on a standardised model. Flexibility, job design, reasonable adjustments and psychologically safe management can influence whether people managing long-term conditions are able to remain and progress at work.
The same challenge applies to serious illnesses such as cancer. As Fair Play Talks highlighted following the WHO’s latest global cancer report, employers will increasingly need to create workplaces capable of supporting employees through cancer diagnosis, treatment, recovery and longer-term survivorship.
That can require flexible working, phased returns, appropriate workload adjustments, manager training, occupational-health support and psychologically safe workplace conversations. The wider point is that preventing workforce exit sometimes depends less on persuading somebody to return after they have left than on creating conditions that enable them to stay in work while their circumstances change.
CARERS ALSO NEED WORK DESIGNED AROUND REAL LIFE
Health is not the only factor affecting people’s ability to remain in work. Caregiving provides another example of why job design matters. Fair Play Talks has highlighted growing evidence that sandwich-generation employees are experiencing severe mental overload, financial pressure and career disruption while simultaneously caring for children and ageing parents.
The Duty of Care Guidelines’ focus on autonomy, flexibility and people’s real experience of work is therefore particularly significant for a workforce whose circumstances increasingly do not fit a single traditional model. The guidelines encourage decision-makers to examine employees’ workload, autonomy, fairness and psychological safety, alongside traditional measures such as sickness absence and productivity.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AND FAIRNESS MATTER TOO
The framework’s inclusion of psychological safety and fairness also broadens the definition of workplace health. Poor health at work does not arise only from workload. Workplace relationships, discrimination, harassment, fear and whether employees believe they can speak openly can all influence people’s experience of work.
Recent research revealed that fewer than half of UK frontline workers believe employers take meaningful action when customer abuse is reported, despite substantial effects on stress, anxiety, confidence and retention. Similarly, rising racist abuse against NHS workers has prompted questions about employer accountability, psychological safety and whether workplace policies translate into meaningful protection.
Together, these issues underline why duty of care needs to extend beyond providing benefits or responding to sickness absence. It also involves examining whether the organisation has created conditions in which people can work safely, fairly and sustainably.
SMES FACE DIFFERENT WELLBEING CHALLENGES
The PLG’s roundtables also identified an important divide between larger organisations and small and medium-sized businesses. Large employers may have dedicated HR teams, occupational health provision, employee assistance programmes and wellbeing budgets. Smaller businesses frequently have fewer resources and less specialist knowledge available to them.
According to the PLG, that can make it more difficult for SMEs to move from responding to workplace-health crises towards preventing them and developing healthier organisational cultures. The challenge for policymakers is therefore not simply establishing what good work should look like, but ensuring that smaller organisations have practical and affordable ways of delivering it.
“It has been an honour to work with colleagues on this important piece of work. Never have these Duty of Care Guidelines been more vital, for businesses, for the economy and, crucially, for the people who make it all possible,” stated Maria Paviour, Advisory Board Member of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing and CEO of Optimism Consulting. “Our workplaces, communities, families and educational establishments can all benefit from taking practical steps that enable people to thrive and ensure that wellbeing is embedded in the way organisations operate.”
FROM WORKPLACE WELLBEING TO ECONOMIC POLICY
The significance of the guidelines is that they position workplace wellbeing not simply as an HR concern, but as part of Britain’s wider economic and public-health infrastructure. They have been developed against the backdrop of major changes and reviews affecting employment and workplace health. This includes the government’s Keep Britain Working Review and Young People and Work Review, alongside the evolving employment-rights and financial-inclusion policy landscape. Both major work reviews have placed greater emphasis on preventing economic inactivity and improving the relationship between health and employment.
The Keep Britain Working review is particularly explicit about employers’ role. It argues that organisations are uniquely positioned to identify problems early, make adjustments, offer flexibility and prevent health conditions escalating to the point where people leave work. For employers, that makes workplace health increasingly difficult to separate from questions of productivity, retention, talent and organisational resilience.
WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO NEXT
Although the new Duty of Care Guidelines are primarily aimed at policymakers and parliamentarians, their principles provide a useful framework for employers reviewing their own approach to workplace wellbeing.
Examine the work, not just the worker
When stress, burnout or sickness absence rises, employers should examine the conditions surrounding the problem rather than assuming the solution lies solely in helping individuals become more resilient. That means reviewing workload, staffing, job demands, working hours, autonomy, role clarity, management practices and organisational change.
Wellbeing support remains valuable, but an EAP or counselling service cannot compensate indefinitely for an unsustainable workload or badly designed role. The question employers should ask is not only “How do we support this employee?” but also “Is something about the work contributing to the problem?”
Equip managers to manage people well
Line managers have considerable influence over employees’ everyday experience of work, yet organisations do not always give them the skills required to manage people effectively. As Fair Play Talks highlighted during Mental Health Awareness Week, managers are frequently on the frontline of workplace mental health but many still lack confidence in recognising when someone may be struggling and responding appropriately. Managers do not need to become therapists. But they do need to know how to notice changes, listen without judgement, create psychological safety, discuss adjustments and direct employees towards appropriate support.
Training should therefore extend beyond operational performance to include workload management, psychologically safe conversations, reasonable adjustments, conflict, inclusion, flexibility and early intervention. Employers should also examine managers’ own workloads. Expecting overstretched managers to protect the wellbeing of overstretched teams is unlikely to produce sustainable change.
Give employees meaningful autonomy
The guidelines identify low autonomy as a workplace mental-health risk. Where roles allow, employers should examine whether workers have reasonable control over how, when or where work is completed and whether unnecessary processes or management practices are removing flexibility without improving performance. Flexibility should also recognise different workforce realities, including disability, long-term health conditions, cancer and other serious illnesses, caring responsibilities and fluctuating health needs.
Measure people’s real experience of work
Sickness absence and productivity figures tell employers what has happened. They do not necessarily explain why. Organisations should therefore measure employee experience alongside traditional business indicators, examining areas such as workload, autonomy, fairness, trust, psychological safety, management quality and confidence in speaking up. The important question is not simply whether a wellbeing programme exists, but whether employees actually experience their work as healthy and sustainable.
Identify who may be falling through the gaps
Workplace-health policies should recognise that different groups may experience work differently. Employers should examine whether support is genuinely accessible to disabled workers, people with long-term or fluctuating health conditions, employees undergoing cancer treatment or recovery, younger and older workers, carers, parents and others whose needs may not fit a standard workplace model. Where appropriate and with suitable privacy safeguards, workforce data can also help organisations identify whether particular groups experience higher absence, burnout, turnover or poorer employee experience.
Intervene before people leave
Perhaps the most important shift is from reaction to prevention. Employers should not wait for prolonged sickness absence or resignation before responding. Early conversations, temporary adjustments, flexible working, workload changes, occupational-health input and phased support can potentially help employees remain in work while managing health or personal challenges.
That is also the central argument emerging from Keep Britain Working: employers are often in a unique position to spot problems and intervene before somebody becomes disconnected from employment altogether.
Hold leaders accountable for workplace health
Finally, workplace wellbeing should not sit solely with HR or a wellbeing team. Boards and senior leaders should understand trends in sickness absence, employee experience, burnout, psychological safety, workload and turnover – and how those experiences differ across the workforce.
Leadership accountability also means examining whether organisational decisions on staffing, restructuring, targets, technology and workloads are consistent with public commitments to employee wellbeing. Duty of care becomes meaningful when it influences how work is actually run.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
The launch of the UK Duty of Care Guidelines reflects a broader change in how workplace wellbeing is being discussed. The question is moving beyond what benefits an employer offers towards what kind of work an employer creates. That distinction matters. An organisation can offer counselling while maintaining excessive workloads. It can provide a wellbeing app while employees lack autonomy. It can encourage people to speak up while managers lack the skills or capacity to respond. And it can promote flexibility while workplace culture quietly penalises those who use it.
The new guidelines argue for a more preventative approach: address the conditions that contribute to ill health before people reach crisis point. With 2.8 million working-age people economically inactive because of health conditions and 981,000 young people outside employment, education or training, the consequences extend well beyond individual organisations.
Professor Dame Carol Black’s argument that healthy workplaces are fundamental to a healthy and productive society therefore goes to the heart of the issue. If Britain wants to reduce economic inactivity, ease pressure on public services and improve productivity, getting people into work is only part of the challenge. The work itself also needs to be good enough – and healthy enough – for people to stay.
Click here to read the full Good Work, Good Health, Good Growth: UK Duty of Care Guidelines for Policymakers and Parliamentarians report.
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