THE EZHR WEEKLY UPDATE 7th August 2023

In this week's EZHR weekly update, we talk about all things potential Occupational Health obligations and updated Apprenticeship requirements for employers.

Occupational health consultation

The Government has launched two linked consultations, one seeking views on increasing employer use of occupational health (OH) services and the other inviting comments on the role of tax incentives in boosting OH provision by employers.

Both open to 12th October they aim to explore how employers could be rewarded for the quality of their occupational health provision, as part of government proposals to enable disabled workers and the long-term sick to stay in and return to work.

Led by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health and Social Care, it is supported by a paper titled Occupational Health: Working Better, which calls for employer input on proposals to improve the provision of occupational health.

Proposals currently being considered by the government, and which could impact businesses, include:

·       Legislating for OH provision

·       Launching a baseline for its quality

·       Looking at tax incentives to encourage SMEs to provide OH services for workers

·       Exploring the use of a multi-tier accreditation scheme

·       Building provision into corporate reporting

·       Automatic enrolment for employees into OH services

This focus on occupational health follows a growth in the number of people economically inactive because of long-term sickness. Government figures from February to April 2023 show that the number of those who are long-term sick is rising, up by 580,000 to 2.55 million in total. It is estimated to cost the economy £150bn.

Separately, the cost of getting one extra disabled person into work is estimated to save the government about £18,000 a year.

Apprenticeship funding rules

From the 1st August 2023 new apprenticeship funding rules take setting out the rules that employers and training providers must follow to access funding for training and assessing apprentices in England.

Covering both on and off-the-job requirements, employers need to take note of the following points:

• The Apprenticeship Agreement must cover the actual duration of the apprenticeship.

• The training provider must verify that the Apprenticeship Agreement is complete and correct and that it has been signed by both parties; the employer and the apprentice. There cannot be duplicate signatures to avoid marking your own homework.

• Apprentices must receive off-the-job training for at least 20% of their employed time. This is being strictly applied.

Off-the-job training is defined as learning which is undertaken outside of the normal day-to-day working environment and leads towards the achievement of an apprenticeship. It must teach new knowledge, skills and/or behaviours that will contribute to the successful achievement of an apprenticeship. Though ‘revision’ has been added to the list of what can be included as off-the-job training, it must be specifically required for the achievement of the apprenticeship.

Examinations and other testing have been added to the list of activities that must not be included as off-the-job training.

If you have any questions on these please don't hesitate to contact us at info@ezhr.uk or 0161 843 5678.