ADD377 Media & comms support for London Healthy Workplace Charter

1.1 The London Healthy Workplace Charter (LHWC) was launched in 2012 and is a structured framework designed to recognise and support business investment in staff health and wellbeing. Approval was given to upscale the programme under MD1495 which approved an investment of £250,000 in the programme over two years from 2015-2017.

1.2 The Charter is centrally coordinated by the GLA and delivered in collaboration with PHE England - London. Borough workplace health leads in 25 boroughs support organisations through the Charter journey and a team of expert volunteer verifiers take each organisation through the verification process.

1.3 The following targets were agreed by IPB:

• 250 employers accredited against the Charter standards by March 2017.
• 1000 employers signed up to the Charter by March 2017.

1.4 The LHWC is currently promoted via a number of means:

• Workplace health leads’ marketing activities in 25 London boroughs
• The Charter advisory group’s business contacts
• Business contacts in internal GLA teams including EPBU, Team London
• Employer champions
• The Charter’s business sponsors
• Our own network of business contacts and business influencers

1.5 We now need to intensify and broaden our marketing activities in order to reach businesses that are outside our current network. We are particularly interested in businesses employing large numbers of low paid workers, in order to help address health inequalities issues. We are also interested in better targeting of SMEs, who have limited time and resource in comparison to larger organisations to commit to the Charter.

1.6 We are therefore proposing to spend up to £40,000 between January and November 2016 on the following activities:

• Those recommended by the GLA press team – for example, using case studies to generate interest across regional news and looking to tie in any announcements on health from the Mayor to the Charter.
• Those recommended through the GLA marketing team – for a concentrated piece of work targeting businesses through email and LinkedIn. There would be an associated cost.

• Through external media consultancy support. Theywould:

- review our current marketing activities and the programme’s assets

- make costed recommendations for effective and innovative solutions to engage with our audience

- deliver some of these solutions directly

- provide training to borough workplace health leads to enable them to fulfil their role in promoting the charter more effectively

The cost of this external media consultancy support would be up to £20,000 of the £40,000 total.

• Through innovative marketing solutions proposed by the media consultancy

• Increase brand recognition of the LHWC brand across London’s businesses.
• Raise awareness across press including trade press of the LHWC.
• Ensure the LHWC is making the best use of its assets (including sponsors, workplace health leads, the Mayor)
• Increase the number of sign-ups and accreditations to meet IPB targets.

3.1 The LHWC is an important tool in delivery of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy, specifically Objective 4: Health, work and wellbeing, which commits the Mayor to:

• “invest in health at work, promoting equalities and building both organisational and employee capacity for mental and physical well-being”
• “promote effective ways to improve retention and in-work support for carers and people living with illness or impairments”.

3.2 By definition, the LHWC is targeted at people in work. However, by promoting flexible, secure working conditions and good quality jobs, the Charter framework contributes to supporting more people to stay in, or return to, work (including carers and people with long-term health conditions i.e. disabled people).

3.3 A Health Inequalities Impact Assessment was carried out on the programme in 2013. This looked at the likely potential impacts on those with protected characteristics and concluded that the programme has beneficial impacts. However it recommended that a number of considerations need to be taken forward, including adequate resourcing of the programme in addition to putting monitoring and evaluation in place.

3.4 By focusing on low paid workers, this part of the project will disproportionally benefit BAME people, disabled people, lone parents (usually women), all of whom are named in the Act.

a) Risks

a) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

This work will contribute to the delivery of:
- The Mayor’s statutory responsibility to have regard for health and health inequalities
- The Mayor’s response to the London Health Commission
- Priorities in the 2020 vision document around health, economic development and transport.
- Support a range of priorities in relation to sustainable employment, food, schools, sport, volunteering and air quality through the encouragement of active travel.

b) Impact assessments and consultations

As stated above, a Health Inequalities Impact Assessment was carried out on the programme in 2013.

The development of the LHWC has been based on extensive stakeholder consultation, involving boroughs’ public health and environmental health teams; employers and employer representative networks, expert advisors, the GLA and Public Health England. This has shaped the delivery model and helped to establish the necessary delivery networks. This stakeholder engagement will continue as an integral part of the programme throughout delivery.

5.1 Approval is being sought for the GLA to contribute £40,000 to assist with increasing the effectiveness of engagement of the London Healthy Workplace Charter in order to achieve the targets detailed within the main body of this report.

5.2 The cost of this project is to be funded from the existing London Healthy Workplace Charter budget of £125,000 (MD1495), which has been funded from the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Communities & Intelligence Directorate Minor Programme Budget within the Health and Communities Unit.

5.3 Any changes to this proposal, including budgetary implications will be subject to the Authority’s decision-making process. All appropriate budget adjustments will be made.