Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department’s wellness strategy is.

Joseph Johnson

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is committed to supporting health and wellbeing by encouraging health promotion and the adoption of healthier lifestyles for all our staff.

The Department’s wellbeing strategy is based around three key strands:

Preventing Problems

The Department runs ‘fit for work’ activities, promoting and supporting health lifestyles, and ‘healthy work’ activities, ensuring wellbeing is not threatened by negative working environments.

Reacting to Problems

As an organisation, we take action to help those experiencing poor health or wellbeing, and support them in returning to work as soon as possible.

Measuring Wellbeing in BIS

We monitor progress in the Department in improving health and wellbeing, for example through monitoring turnover, and the results from People Surveys.

The Department provides a number of facilities for staff, including but not limited to childcare vouchers to support parents and guardians, a mediation service to manage stressful situations, and flexible working options.