Business Framework for Health: a system change approach to improve health through work and workplaces

Background: Addressing the complex issues presented by the rising number of people leaving the workforce due to ill health is a local and national priority.

Our ambition is to understand the lived experience of employee journeys and the diversity of health intervention pathways in order to deliver integrated and resilient care by investing in workforce health sustainably.

Research Questions: Work Stream 1 (WS1) What are the requirements to provide the know-how guidance for business leaders to invest sustainably in a culture of health?

Work Stream 2 (WS2) - How might we validate a whole-systems measurement methodology to make it easier for large and small businesses to use and report on business activity?

Cross Stream 3 (CS3) - How does a whole-systems approach of research and evaluation support the business case, the commercial opportunity for business and investors, to address the intersectionality of inequalities and the UK economy?

Aims: In order to recommend innovative solutions to improve the health and wealth of the UK, this proposal brings together a leading team of experts in systems design, health economics, social impact, evidence evaluation, workplace health service provision with employers and employees to: WS1 – Develop and refine innovative methods to health improvement in the workplace ( think tank ) Co-design approaches that link quantitative and qualitative techniques in the definition of a robust journey/pathway model; Understand the requirements for a refined Business Framework & Improving Improvement Toolkit ; Co-develop training and mentoring of whole-systems design for business and ICS leadership WS2 – Supporting application of findings ( do tank ) Understand the whole-systems lived experiences of employees and key stakeholders; Understand the relationship between employee/workforce journeys and specific health intervention pathways; Identify actionable insights and prioritise targets for system improvement.

WS3 – Delivering the business case and narrative for value creation Co-develop guidance to improve health and economic growth through addressing health inequalities in the workplace; Establish a robust EDI, employee and stakeholder engagement processes; Define clear business involvement criteria to achieve optimal diversity for planned outputs and impact.

The development work will focus on 3 ICS regions purposefully selected for diversity of infrastructure and challenges in supporting improved health outcomes.

Timelines for Delivery: Three cycles of iterative cross-streams ( think , do ) activities over 10 months across 3 ICS regions sequentially, feeding outputs and learnings to the next location.

The final 3 months to focus on a full research proposal with input from the Employee and Public Advisory Group and Management Team.

Anticipated Impact & Dissemination: Our consortium partners will be instrumental in disseminating our findings, including policy briefs with an associated communications and sector engagement plan co-designed with What Works Centre for Wellbeing and includes: A proposed methodological framework that contributes to the health prevention agenda Increased focus on workforce and community health and wellbeing through case studies of transformation and evidence of improvement Evaluation of the utility of the Improving Improvement Toolkit & Business Framework for Health Training and mentoring in systems leadership; Dissemination in network channels with involvement of the EPAG and What Works Centre