From 15 December 2017, Fit for Work will no longer be running its referral and assessment service in England and Wales. It is also reported that the assessment service will cease in Scotland from 31 May 2018.
The closure of the occupational health assessment has been attributed to the very low take-up of the service. However, although the assessment part of the service will be removed, all of the advice and guidance elements of Fit for Work will remain in place.
The move follows the announcement that the government intends to reform the fit note after figures from GPs surgeries in England from April to June 2017 revealed that just 6.6 per cent of the fit notes issued used the ‘may be fit for work’ option.
In its report Improving Lives: the future of work, health and disability the government has set out its plans for improving the fit note. These include:
extending fit note certification powers to other medical professionals and developing a set of competencies for those completing fit notes; investigating whether employers could use the Advisory Fitness for Work report (which can be completed by some Allied Health Professionals) as an alternative to the fit note; integrating fit note training into GP undergraduate and postgraduate education;commissioning the feasibility of clinical guidelines for workplace adjustments for the top five clinical reasons people are off work sick or are on health-related benefits; and exploring whether changes to the way GPs complete fit notes could support better return to work conversations.The government hopes that, by improving the fit note, it will become an enabler for conversations about health and work, focussing on what people can do, not what they cannot do. It should also facilitate returns to work and help people stay in work where appropriate, by providing information to the employer about what support might enable that to happen.
