LTB 025/17 Occupational Health Service from April 2017

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB 025/17 - Occupational Health Service from April 2017

No. 025/2017

18 January 2017

Occupational Health Service from April 2017

Dear Colleagues,

The union has been advised that Royal Mail has revised its contract with OH Assist (formerly Atos) and will be reshaping the OH Service from April 2017.

I attach a letter from Dr Shaun Davis, the Global Director of Safety, Health, Wellbeing & Sustainability, Royal Mail Group, which outlines in brief the changes planned:


• Royal Mail will continue to work with OH Assist (formerly Atos) but with a reduced portfolio of services


• The key issues for Royal Mail are:

o The way in which Occupational Health Services are accessed and the workload this creates for operational managers

o Value for money and controls over spend levels


• The new approach has two major themes:

o Royal Mail will insource some of the service lines (Bullying and Harassment Helpline and the Rowland Hill Fund) into the HR Services team in Sheffield

o Access to other service lines will be controlled by using the HR Services team as the interface to OH Assist

• Case management for musculoskeletal and mental health related absence will cease. Physiotherapy (on a “capped and controlled basis”) and face to face counselling will continue to be provided but via HR Services referral


The union is seeking further detail of the planned changes and their implications for members but we have expressed our view that this looks like an opportunity missed. Treating Operational Manager workload and “value for money and control over spending” as the key issues – rather than provision of a high quality occupational health service for employees – seems to be a further step in making OH support even more remote and faceless, driven by short term cost cutting imperatives.

Royal Mail has confirmed that medical referrals will continue to take place “where we have legal or RMG policy reasons for doing so. This includes driver medical assessments, Night Workers/Airside

Health Questionnaires and Risk Assessments, Pre-Employment Health Checks, Medico-Legal Reports, Workstation and Workplace Assessments (all legal requirements), and Leaving The Business Due to Ill Health, Deferred Pension Policy support and Attendance Policy/Consideration of Dismissal support (all RMG policy requirements).”

Branches and representatives should remain vigilant in ensuring that health & safety, attendance procedure and long term ill health referrals take place in line with the relevant procedures and legal requirements.

All enquiries regarding the content of this LTB should be addressed to the PTCS Department, quoting reference 415. Email address: djeffery@cwu.org

Yours Sincerely,



Ray Ellis
Assistant Secretary

[TrueBlueTerrier]

13th January 2017

Ray Ellis
Assistant Secretary
Communication Workers Union
150 The Broadway
Wimbledon
LONDON
SW19 1RX


Dear Ray,

Occupational Health (OH) Service from April 2017

Thank you for your time last week on the phone. I thought I would follow up our conversation with a formal update on the new OH Service - which will take effect from April 2017.

• As I explained we have been working for about a year now on reshaping our Occupational Health service, including the extent to which we want to use an external provider and who that provider should be.

• When we spoke I updated you on the proposals and I am now in a position to let you know that we have completed our design work, selected a provider and that our proposals have been agreed by our Chief Executive.

• The headline summary is that we will continue to work with OH Assist (formerly Atos) but with a reduced portfolio of services.

• The key issues we have been focussed on are (i) the way in which Occupational Health Services are accessed and the workload this creates for operational managers, and (ii) value for money and the controls we have over spend levels.

• Our new solution therefore has two main themes:
i. We intend to insource some of the service lines (Bullying and Harassment (B&H) Helpline, and the Rowland Hill Fund (RHF) administrative function) into our HR Services team in Sheffield.
ii. We intend to control access to other service lines by using our HR Services team as the interface to OH Assist, to give us greater transparency and control over volumes and reduce managers’ workload by making it simpler to raise a referral. This is positive for both the manager and the recipient of the service.

• OH Assist will provide the following services:
a) The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) also known as “Feeling First Class”.
b) Referrals where we have legal or RMG policy reasons for doing so. This includes Driver Medical Assessments, Night Workers/Airside Health Questionnaires and Risk Assessments, Pre-Employment Health Checks, Medico-Legal Reports, Workstation and Workplace Assessments (all legal requirements), and Leaving The Business Due to Ill Health (LTBIH),Deferred Pension Policy support and Attendance Policy/Consideration of Dismissal support (all RMG policy requirements). All of these referrals will be made via our HR Services team.
c) We will also continue to provide Physiotherapy (on a capped and controlled basis) and ‘face to face’ Counselling (similarly controlled) but also through a referral from our HR Services team rather than direct from the manager, and as a transactional referral, not using case management.

• This means that the main change from the previous provision is the cessation of the case management service. Otherwise our service lines will continue as we had proposed previously but delivered either directly from HR Services on an insourced basis or through HR Services
acting as our supplier manager.

• We are still aiming to transition to these arrangements by April 2017 and are working with OH Assist on the transitional arrangements and any contingencies which might be necessary. As explained I have a dedicated Project Manager support on this (Nigel Smith) and he can be
contacted on 07802 924993 and should you like him to come and brief you or your teams in more detail I am happy to support in this regard.
I am equally happy to continue the discussion personally or over the phone if that would be helpful.


Kind regards,
Dr Shaun Davis
MA, MBA, MA, MSc
Chartered FIOSH, FIIRSM, Chartered FCIPD, MIoD
Global Director of Safety, Health, Wellbeing & Sustainability
Royal Mail Group

[oypostie]

Must confess i did wonder why we needed ATOS when DOMS have so much medical knowledge themselves

[hans solo]

only a means to bully and harass sick keeping it internally btw

[k979aaa]

Must confess i did wonder why we needed ATOS when DOMS have so much medical knowledge themselves

Don't worry our new professionals with full medical knowledge will fully determine your fate and they are fully committed too your well being and should you have any issues see your Manager/Health-Professional.

[General Mannerheim]

HR services?
Are they f***ing nuts?
If you thought the Bullying and Harassment process was shite wait until this lot(it's a grievance not a B+H) gets going.

[jetblack]

RM are taking back control of sickness due to stress and bad backs.

[Sir Henry]

"A new contract has been agreed with ATOS. They will no longer handle with case management musculoskeletal and mental health related absence without first going through HR Services. These are currently number one and two absence cause in Royal Mail." And therefore the most expensive

So how will this affect us?

[spen]

Are hr medically trained nowadays ?

[k979aaa]

Are hr medically trained nowadays ?

Must be on doctors pay rate just like our managers on delivery are!

[aiden01]

Are hr medically trained nowadays ?

Must be on doctors pay rate just like our managers on delivery are!

Same in mc,s all managers fully qualfied professors in treatment of patients ( yep work them to death)

[Creditshampoo]

So if I need to be referred to occupational health is it OH assist?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

So if I need to be referred to occupational health is it OH assist?

Yes.

[k979aaa]

EPA treating our employees to a first class disposal this is like the third rich instant switch to terminate your employment next they will send us to treblinka so they don't pay the pitiful payoff what a master class this Canadian bitch is!

[1972]

Hello,
I have been off sick for four months, and in March OH Assist closed my case and sent it to HR with a recommendation for medical retirement. I was told by my DOM that the process changed on the first of April and that I had been referred again and the process restarted within the new process. The DOM said they had sent the new referral to HR by email on the first of April, but I have not had any contact from anyone since. Has anyone any experience or understanding of how long it takes in this new process please?