The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has unveiled a new initiative to “tackle workplace sickness“. It is offering free occupational health training to 5,000 line managers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across England. The programme will be backed with up to £800,000 in government funding. The DWP says it will take place between January and March 2026. Overall, it is framed as support for employers to “recognise early signs” of ill health and better manage staff wellbeing.
But a closer look at this policy exposes a troubling pattern.
The scheme does not address the systemic failures in healthcare and society at the heart of Britain’s rising sickness crisis. Instead, it places yet more burden on employers. They will be expected to act as de facto health professionals. Yet the root causes of chronic illness and disability are not a lack of employer training. They are gaps in the NHS’s capacity and chronic underfunding of public health services.
The DWP now thinks employers are health professionals
The DWP’s pitch suggests that equipping line managers with a few days of occupational health training will meaningfully “support employee health” and reduce sickness absence. Yet expecting business owners and supervisors, many of whom lack basic HR infrastructure, to act as gatekeepers of wellbeing is both unrealistic and dangerous.
Medical conditions require clinical assessment, ongoing care, and robust support systems. These are far beyond the reach of a short training module.
Any suggestion that employers can meaningfully diagnose or manage health issues not only overstates what the training can achieve, it also risks blurring boundaries that exist for good reason: healthcare is the domain of the NHS and licensed professionals, not unqualified bosses.
This shift of responsibility reflects a broader government trend of outsourcing welfare to workplaces without fixing the services people actually need.
A distraction from NHS failure
Meanwhile, the current state of the NHS is dire.
Patients face record waiting times, understaffed departments, and delays for basic diagnostics and specialist care. Meanwhile, the DWP is positioning employers to act as early warning systems for health concerns.
This approach diverts attention from the elephant in the room: Britain’s public health infrastructure cannot keep up with demand, leaving millions without timely care. Societal health problems aren’t created in workplaces alone. They emerge when the NHS fails to treat long-term conditions effectively, forcing people to struggle to stay in or return to work without adequate medical support.
By placing the onus on employers — particularly small firms with limited HR resources — the government is effectively privatising early health intervention. Instead of sufficiently funding the NHS to reduce the backlog of diagnoses and treatment, this initiative expects businesses to step in. That is a policy choice, not a solution.
The DWP: forcing chronically ill people “back to work”
The DWP’s framing is also concerning when viewed alongside broader welfare and employment policy.
Government rhetoric increasingly emphasises keeping people “in work” or helping them “return to work,” even when they may not be well enough. The official announcement notes the UK has 800,000 more working-age adults out of work due to sickness than in 2019. But encouraging employers to “identify health issues early” can too easily be abused. It can justify pushing chronically ill and disabled workers into employment – or keep them there – before they are ready.
For people with long-term conditions, returning to work prematurely can:
- Worsen health outcomes.
- Reduce quality of life.
- Increase long-term costs to both individuals and the state.
NHS professionals typically assess readiness for work based on clinical criteria. That expertise should not be supplanted by managerial checklists.
Nonsense
Yet this policy subtly shifts the narrative.
If employers are trained to spot symptoms, then employees must do something about them. This is a slippery slope toward coercive labour expectations. Being unwell is seen as a workplace problem to be managed, rather than a health condition requiring care.
Meanwhile, the scale of the training is inadequate. With millions of workers suffering from sickness absence and disability, funding training for just 5,000 line managers represents a token gesture rather than a systemic intervention. In reality, the scheme is little more than spin, with the funding equating to mere pennies per employee.
In truth, if the DWP’s real aim is tackling workplace sickness, this requires it to:
- Invest in the NHS and mental health services.
- Put into place a genuine welfare system that does not treat chronically ill and disabled people as cheats and frauds.
It does not need the DWP moving health responsibilities onto employers who are neither equipped nor qualified for the task.
Superficial nudging
Naturally, the majority of the corporate media has bought into this latest policy – claiming it to be a “lifeline” for chronically ill people. It’s almost as if they just copied the government’s press release.
In reality, the DWP’s occupational health training initiative is symptomatic of a deeper policy failure.
By encouraging employers to interfere in employees’ health, the government risks undermining both public health and worker wellbeing. Worse still, it feeds into an agenda that pressures chronically ill and disabled people back into work, regardless of whether they are medically ready.
True support for workers with health challenges begins with a functioning and free healthcare system. It does not involve managerial checklists and voluntary training sessions.
Featured image via the Canary
By Steve Topple
From Canary via This RSS Feed.