"Currently, whether an individual benefits depends not on clinical need, but on whether they happen to work for the right employer, hold the right insurance policy, or find themselves on the right health pathway."
- Dr Julie Denning - Working To Wellbeing
56% of line managers feel confident in providing workplace support for colleagues with a long-term health condition, Working To Wellbeing’s Window to the Workplace research has found.
This is a 14-percentage-point drop compared to when the research was last carried out in 2022, when 70% of line managers reported feeling confident in this regard.
The research also reports a 12-percentage-point drop in line manager confidence in terms of understanding the return-to-work process for employees with a long-term health condition, falling from 65% in 2022 to 53% in 2026.
Similarly, confidence in knowing how to make reasonable adjustments to support an employee returning to work decreased from 71% to 63% over the same period.
This decline in confidence is felt by the wider workforce too. 48% of employees felt confident their line manager would support them with a return-to-work process, in comparison to 66% in 2022.
This comes almost a year into the Keep Britain Working Vanguard review phase, which emphasises partnership working between employers, employees and providers of health services to help reduce absence and economic inactivity.
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"It’s worrying that at a time when more onus is being placed on employers than ever before, in terms of supporting those with long-term conditions to get work, stay in work and thrive, confidence to do so is dropping," Dr Julie Denning, chartered health psychologist and managing director at Working To Wellbeing, said.
"Arguably though, line managers need to be left to get on with their jobs, instead of having to become pseudo health specialists. Instead, they need ready access to vocational rehabilitation expertise, working alongside them and their team members where needed to provide very personalised, one-to-one, clinically proven support.
"Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working report highlights the vital role of vocational rehabilitation in helping those with a long-term condition stay in work and thrive, plus return to work after absence in a way that’s sustainable. To achieve this, access to vocational rehabilitation for companies of all sizes needs to be widened.
"Currently, whether an individual benefits depends not on clinical need, but on whether they happen to work for the right employer, hold the right insurance policy, or find themselves on the right health pathway. We’re trying to change that and, crucially, in a way that retains everything that makes vocational rehabilitation effective: human-to-human and personalised, with behaviour change at the core."
