Occupational Health advice to Colleges and individuals

Governing strategies

  • Professional Occupational Health standards
  • Statutory provisions on disability equality and health and safety at work
  • University policies and procedures
  • University Terms and Conditions of Employment

Level of service

Human Resources will:

  • Undertake a pre-employment medical check, via a medical questionnaire, on all new proposed appointments.
  • Notify the appropriate manager in the College where there are concerns about the proposed appointment’s ability to undertake the role.
  • Provide advice on adjustments and/or support which may be necessary to enable new and current employees with declared health issues to undertake their role effectively.
  • Provide confidential individual advice and support to staff to enable them to undertake their role effectively.
  • Provide Occupational Health advice to managers via HR Business Partners/Advisors where there are concerns about an employee’s health.
  • Undertake risk assessments for pregnant workers and provide appropriate advice to employees and their managers.
  • Undertake DSE workplace assessments where there is an underlying medical condition.
  • Undertake health surveillance as required by the COSHH Regulations.
  • Provide access to a confidential staff counselling service.

Key indicators

Key indicators for this activity are:

  • Employees return to work after prolonged sickness absence.
  • Employees with disabilities and/or health issues are retained in the workforce.

Performance targets

Subject to the Dependencies below:

  • Pre-employment medical questionnaires are undertaken for 100% of new appointments.
  • Any relevant health concerns identified by the Occupational Health Service through pre-employment medical questionnaires are drawn to the attention of managers within 5 working days of receipt of the questionnaire.
  • Action is taken in respect of referrals to the service within 5 working days.

Key contacts

  • HR Business Partners
  • Occupational Health Advisers

Redress

Complaints about aspects of the service should be made to your College HR Business Partner in the first instance. In the event that the customer/client remains dissatisfied following informal discussion with the HR Business Partner, the issue should be raised in writing with the Director of Human Resources who will normally respond within 5 working days.

Dependencies (Colleges)

To operate effectively in this service area, Human Resources requires:

  • Colleges to provide, in good time, full details and supporting information/documentation.
  • Colleges release employees from their normal duties to attend appointments with the Occupational Health Service or Counselling Service.
  • Colleges to implement adjustments and/or provide support/equipment as recommended by the Occupational Health Service.

Dependencies (external and other Professional Services)

Human Resources goals in this area may be affected by:

  • the availability of resources from other services (including Access to Work, other outside agencies, the employee’s GP, other health professionals) to support individual cases.
  • Individual employee’s willingness to engage in the process and to permit the disclosure of information about their health to the University.