A successful strategy for maximising attendance and improving employees’ prospects for rehabilitation (thereby cutting down the level of unnecessary sickness absence and the number of dismissals and ill-health early retirements) depends on improved access to occupational health advice.
Also, employers who use occupational health services routinely are much more likely to meet their obligations under relevant employment law, particularly if their advisers are involved early, are asked the right questions and given the right information.
It takes time, though, to set up access to occupational health advice and many SMEs, in particular, do not have established arrangements for obtaining it. Often, advice is only sought, if at all, in the very late stages of a long-term absence when the chances of successful rehabilitation may be reduced.
In the UK, there is no national network of occupational health services and private provision is highly fragmented and of varying quality.