"What Covid-19 has done is put the challenges of health and wellbeing into sharp focus – for employers and employees."
Legal & General Group Protection has announced the formation of its new Wellbeing Advisory Board; a body of experts across a range of clinical, occupational, vocational rehabilitation and business consulting fields.
The team of experts will work together to share cross-sector insights and will seek to help companies navigate through the increasingly complex healthcare landscape impacting their employees, in terms of the myriad of crossovers between the mental, physical, social and financial aspects of health and wellbeing. A guiding principle for the Board is the concept that work and health are inextricably linked, and in particular that “good” work impacts our overall wellbeing and should not be seen as a barrier to recovery.
The Board will initially focus on Post-Covid-19 syndrome; the terminology now being used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for Long-Covid symptoms that extend beyond 12 weeks.
An estimated 1.8 million people in the UK (83% of all those who were experiencing self-reported Post-Covid-19 symptoms) had symptoms for at least 12 weeks after the first suspected Covid-19 infection, according to the latest data.
The insurer says that the Board aims to provide accessible, simple and practical information including signposting, summaries and lived experience examples across the priority health and wellbeing issues of today. It aims to bring forward the positive role of work and working. For example, with long-term conditions there might be a tendency to focus on the medical condition, rather than the ability of the individual to engage in productive work.
As well as clinical, governance and general practitioner experts from Legal & General, the Board members include:
• Louise Aston, Wellbeing Campaign Director, Business in the Community (BITC)
• Debra Clark, Head of Specialist Consulting, Towergate
• Laura Matthews, Senior Wellbeing Consultant, Barnett Waddingham
• Antony Brown, President, Onebright
• Beverly Knops, Executive Manager, Vitality360
• Mike Tyler, Co-founder, Fruitful Insights
• Dr Julie Denning, Managing Director, Working To Wellbeing
• David Newman, Director, Form Health
• Lawrence Cramer, People & Culture Director, Inspired Villages
Vanessa Sallows, claims and governance director at Legal & General Group Protection, said: “There’s a lot of information out there about Post Covid-19 but also, arguably, a lot of confusion. Our goal is to cut through the complexity and make it easier for HR teams and anyone involved in sickness and absence management to understand the key principles of any issue or challenge and know where to go and what to do to take positive action to address it.
“What Covid-19 has done is put the challenges of health and wellbeing into sharp focus – for employers and employees. Through the work of the Wellbeing Advisory Board – an amazing team of specialists – we hope to tackle the challenges, evolving thinking to ensure that good work is therapeutic and viewed positively by intermediaries, employers and beyond; in short, establishing a wellbeing framework for today’s workplace.”
