This is an important piece of case law for VR practitioners to be aware of.  The Court of Appeal recently ruled in Gallop v Newport City Council and a brief extract is shown below.  A useful summary can also be found here.

Over a third of teams are experiencing extra stress and pressure due to staff ill health and absences.  A lack of motivation and sub-optimal health is causing workers in Britain to work well below peak productivity and is holding back potential growth, according to a new study from Bupa.

The latest Employment Tribunal statistics have been released covering the period to September 2013.  These are the first statistics since fees were introduced on 29 July 2013.  Key findings are:

Every week, nearly 650,000 UK workers phone in sick, according to new research from the British Heart Foundation’s Health at Work programme.  The Public Administration and Defence sector, which includes public sector jobs, has the highest level of absence with around 51,000 people not making it in to work in a typical week. The economic costs of sickness absence and worklessness caused by ill health are estimated to cost the UK economy £100 billion a year.

The Equality Act 2010 has had a significant impact on the practice of asking pre-employment health questions before a job has been offered, new research published in the journal Occupational Health [at Work] reveals.

VRA Chair John Pilkington provides an overview of a recent event he attended.

The Centre for Mental Health, in conjunction with the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, held a seminar on 18th November entitled "Tackling health and employment together - shared clients, common goals". The sessions were structured to give the attendees a good understanding of the current policy background, as well as an overview of the evidence supporting early intervention, and case studies of successful programmes for helping people to stay in or get back to work.

RNIB have asked us to update you on some of the interesting work they have been doing in relation to employment for blind and partially sighted people.  The toolkit really is an excellent resource and should definitely be added to the bookmarks of VR Practitioners.

Blind and partially sighted people are significantly less likely to be in paid employment than the general population or other disabled people.

This new report takes a look at this challenge when youth unemployment in the UK are at worryingly high levels. It captures the scale of the obstacles faced by young people with long - term, chronic or fluctuating conditions as they seek to make the transition from education to employment.  It considers the ways in which employment outcomes can be improved for young people living with chronic health conditions.