ADD2539 Transitioning the London Healthy Workplace Award

1.1. A priority for the Mayor and wider GLA is to support London’s recovery from the pandemic and to support this a decision has been made to provide a streamlined and single offer to employers. . The Mayor remains committed to the Good Work Standard (GWS) programme and to supporting employers to help improve and maintain the health and wellbeing of their employees, in a context where economic recovery will be dependent on a workforce that has suffered extraordinarily detrimental health impacts over the last year.

1.2. In line with the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach, a policy decision has been made to integrate the objectives and several assets from the London Healthy Workplace Award (LHWA) into the Good Work Standard (GWS).

1.3. The health and wellbeing team (currently responsible for delivering the LHWA) and GWS team have mapped the alignment of the programmes to ensure London’s businesses have a clear and consistent offer from the Mayor of London and GLA.

1.4. The Mayor of London currently offers London’s businesses and employers two voluntary accreditation schemes (Good Work Standard and the London Healthy Workplace Award) designed to support them to improve the working conditions of their employees, improve wellbeing, and overall health outcomes for Londoners.

1.5. The London Healthy Workplace Award (formerly known as the London Healthy Workplace Charter) was launched in 2012. It is a structured framework designed to recognise and support business investment in staff health and wellbeing

1.6. It was refreshed in 2019 to reflect the latest evidence on workplace health and wellbeing. In 2021 it was further refreshed to reflect the impact of COVID-19 and the resulting cultural changes to future ways of working.

1.7. The Award is centrally coordinated by the GLA, sponsored by two companies, and is delivered collaboratively with Public Health England and most London Boroughs. Throughout the Award journey, employers receive support from local borough workplace health leads who offer advice and support throughout the application process. A network of volunteer verifiers assesses the applications received from employers and offer detailed feedback following verification.

1.8. The Mayor’s Good Work Standard sets the benchmark for good employment practice that the Mayor would like to see all employers aim for and achieve. It has the London Living Wage at its heart, and this is a requirement of the accreditation. The Accreditation schemes recognises the best employers in London and this Standard is promoted through the supply chain. Members of the Good Work Standard community are encouraged to share their good practice with others.

1.9. The Good Work Standard acts as an umbrella for other GLA support and toolkits, and the team signpost employers to other resources that will help them to go further and deeper into topics, for example the London Healthy Workplace Award and Inclusive Employers Toolkit.

1.10. By completing the LHWA, business also complete significant elements of the GWS although both can currently be achieved in isolation.

1.11. The GWS currently offers London’s businesses a comprehensive framework to improve the working conditions of their employees – including on workplace wellbeing. However, there are areas on employee wellbeing, such as physical and mental health at work, that could be enhanced or embedded from the LHWA to strengthen this offer.

1.12. As part of the Mayor’s vision to integrate health into all policies of the GLA, the GWS will, over time, explore strengthening its offer on physical health and wellbeing e.g. through specific campaigns, recommended interventions, and business-to-business sharing and learning.

1.13. The LHWA has built up considerable assets including over 400 awarded businesses, case studies, and a network of volunteers. As part of the transition period and closure of the awards process, the assets have been considered on a case-by-case basis as to whether they should be incorporated into the GLA’s business programmes, such as the GWS, London’s Business Hub or programmes within the London's nine recovery missions.

• Approval is now sought (in part retrospective, April-October) for expenditure of £30,000 from the 2021-2022 Health team budget to Affinity Health at Work to assist with the delivery of this transition project, including stakeholder and change management, distillation of assets, data management and support and development of processes to enable easy and rapid adoption. The objectives for this are set out below, at section 2. The funding will cover nine months support from Affinity Health at Work (1st April – 31st December) at a cost of £3,300 per month.
  

2.1 Affinity Health at Work will be working with LHWA businesses and the GLA health and wellbeing team to ensure the following are delivered:

• Deliverable 1: Respond to requests and manage the transition for evidence-based employee wellbeing strategy advice; assessment and verification from organisations (who are close to completing) on their Award submission. This will cover Micro, Communal Space, Foundation, Achievement and Excellence Award categories.
• Deliverable 2: Manage the Volunteer Verifier Network including support, duty of care and potential transition to new roles under new Mayoral offer.
• Deliverable 3: Support for Borough Healthy Workplace Leads including employee wellbeing issues, ensuring there is a transition and change programme in place
• Deliverable 4: Support to close the awards process, including providing advice and administrative support for employers seeking accreditation and reaccreditation/transition
• Deliverable 5: Responsive client communications/front of house; client database management and analysis for the London Health Workplace Award; and client transition to new Mayoral offer (where mutually agreeable)
  

3.1. Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the GLA must have ‘due regard’ of the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

3.2. The London Health Inequalities Strategy sets out the Mayor’s vision to create a healthier, fairer city where nobody’s health suffers because of who they are or where they live. It has a strong focus on supporting Londoner’s health at work, which the London Health Workplace Award has delivered. With changes in the health team and recovery from the pandemic as a major Mayoral priority, it is a good time to streamline the Mayor’s offer on health and wellbeing at work to London’s businesses by transition elements of the LHWA into the Good Work Standard. In turn, the GWS in turn is a key vehicle for the Mayor to improve the working conditions for Londoners in targeted and specific sectors, such as those with low pay or insecure working arrangements.

3.3. COVID-19 has shown that for many Londoner’s there was no economic choice as to whether they should continue to work or not when their health and wellbeing was being compromised. By ensuring elements of the LHWA are transitioned well to the GWS, the Mayor can support London’s employers to minimise conditions that exacerbate poor health and wellbeing and instead have working conditions that protect and improve the health and wellbeing of their employees – specifically on issues such as mental health and a living wages.

3.4. By continuing the focus on health and wellbeing at work, albeit through the GWS rather than the LHWA, the Mayor will be addressing one of the core drivers of health inequalities – the impact of work and workplaces on Londoner’s health and wellbeing.

Key risks and issues

4.1. Risks are assessed and managed on a programme basis across current LHWA and GWS. Cross-cutting and major risks are reported quarterly through the GLA’s corporate performance management process. At the time of writing, the major risks are as follows:

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.2. In addition to the Mayor’s commitment to deliver the Good Work and MHWB Missions, this work directly supports delivery of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy, a statutory duty under the GLA Act 1999.

Consultations and impact assessments, including data protection (as per the GLA’s requirements under GDPR), health and safeguarding where relevant

4.3. A stakeholder engagement plan has been developed to ensure all relevant partners are notified of the Mayor’s intention to close the London Health Workplace Award and the subsequent vision to transition the offer to the Good Work Standard. The LHWA has existed as a partnership enterprise between London’s local authorities, the GLA and London’s businesses.

4.4. The LHWA holds a significant database the use of which during this transition will be compliant with GDPR and the GLA’s data protection policies.

4.5. There are no known conflicts of interest to note for any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision.

5.1. Approval is sought for expenditure totalling £30,000 for the services of Affinity Health at Work to support the transition of the LHWA assets to the GWS

5.2. The expenditure will be funded from the 2021/22 Healthy Food Retail Programme budget, held within the Health Unit.

5.3. This programme sits within the ‘Healthy Food, Healthy Weight’ mission.

6.1. This transition work will be managed by the GLA Health Team, delivered by Affinity Health at Work, with the support of the Good Work Standard team.