Key Issues Shaping The Health, Safety And Wellbeing Agenda at Workplaces

Held at Congress Centre in London, the British Safety Council is set to host its 11th Annual Conference, ‘Health, safety and wellbeing in the modern workplace on Wednesday’, on 16 October 2019. On the agenda this year will be the latest thinking on key workplace issues as such as mental health, wellbeing leadership, new regulatory changes and the implications of the new regulatory framework for fire safety management post-Grenfell. Expert speakers will also discuss best approaches for managing wellbeing in the workplace and improving employee participation.

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, said: “Many employers are already focussing on wellbeing as means of preventing future injuries and workplace-related ill health. It has never been more important than now that UK employers have robust health and safety frameworks in place for every aspect of life and work, including the traditional risks. Safeguarding these frameworks will be a priority when Britain leaves the EU.

Our annual conference will update practitioners and influencers on the latest thinking on health, safety and wellbeing. The conference will be an occasion to review the challenges and opportunities facing organisations and to discuss them with leading experts. We are delighted that among our keynote speakers are Professor David Fishwick, Chief Medical Officer at HSE, and Professor Sir Cary Cooper CBE.

Professor Fishwick is an expert in the work environment and respiratory health. Together with his role at HSE, he holds posts with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Sheffield. He has co-authored several publications on health and wellbeing at work. At the conference, he will discuss the effective management of workplace health-related conditions with specific reference to clinical case studies.

Professor Cooper is an international expert on workplace health and wellbeing and is the author of the Future risk report commissioned by the British Safety Council from Robertson Cooper and published in 2018. He was also one of the panellists of the Roundtable debate on workplace wellbeing which the British Safety Council held in March 2019. At the conference he will discuss the costs and benefits of workplace wellbeing and presenteeism, the fundamentals of a good wellbeing strategy and the evidence of its success.