About the Award

For too long, the North East has had a reputation for being of being an ‘unhealthy’ place to live and work; unfortunately borne out by our fairly shocking life expectancy rate and high long-term sickness and disability figures.

To help combat this, a partnership project unique to the North East was created and the Better Health at Work Award was established to take health and wellbeing into the workplace.

This partnership has now been taken forward by the Northern TUC, with the support and endorsement from Public Health England.

Workplace Health is an important and integral part of the regional public health strategy and is even more relevant in these challenging times, when companies need to use every tool available to ensure their productivity and competitiveness.

With more than 400 regional employers participating in the scheme so far, as well as the very favourable findings of at least two independent evaluations, both the need for and effectiveness of the Award for all concerned is clear.

Individuals benefit from increased access to health information and interventions where they wouldn't normally - in more than one instance, workplace activity generated by the Award has potentially saved lives - identifying dangerously high cholesterol levels and early stage cancers.

At the same time, employers benefit from improved morale, dramatically lower levels of absenteeism and increased productivity. There are few more apparent win-win situations.

You can download and view the Better Health at Work Award Employer Guide below, to read more on the award process, the structure of the award and find out about the role of health advocates.

Employer Guide

Firstly, and most importantly, we recognise the benefits of supporting the wellbeing of our staff and secondly, as a charity it’s great to get some recognition for what we do.

The process is strong as it leads the organisation through a series of logical steps to the award. Staff have really engaged in the process and it’s a great motivator for staff.

- Willow Burn Hospice, Durham

The award is beneficial to the organisation as it prompts us to think outside the box, extend our health and wellbeing support into new and important areas that we might not necessarily touch upon usually; and it also holds us to account for conducting high quality, meaningful campaigns.

We joined the Award to ensure that our health and wellbeing work goes above and beyond the requirements outlined by the NHS health and wellbeing framework, helping to ensure that we support our colleagues across a variety of areas and that we can demonstrate excellence in doing so.

- Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Bronze 2021

The BHAW network provides an excellent forum to engage with other local businesses and organisations sharing best practices, knowledge and resources to improve colleague wellbeing.

Access to knowledgeable workplace support advisors and supportive community of members is hugely beneficial, assessment framework helps us measure our progress, and enjoy learning from other businesses and services as we support each other.

- Durham Constabulary, Durham

We wanted to engage with our employees and provide a platform for everyone to improve their health and wellbeing at work but also support their families at home.

It has provided a focus for our Health & Wellbeing activities in the workplace and the support / information we receive from our workplace health leads has been invaluable in helping shape different campaigns rolled out across the business.

- Gardner Aerospace, Consett

We participated to provide a further structure, focus and sustainable framework to our wellbeing programme.

The Award offers full support in terms of co-ordinator and resource information including best practice ideas and structured targets to aim for – it feels like we’re working together rather than in a silo!

- Northern Housing Consortium Limited, Sunderland

As we work in an office, we wanted to take part in the award to help our staff become more healthy and to live a healthier lifestyle, with the hope that it would improve staff morale and productivity.

We’ve received fantastic feedback from staff about how much they’re enjoying the campaigns we are running for the award and noticed that staff are more motivated and there’s a positive atmosphere in the office. We are also enjoying being creative with our campaigns, learning more information about health and wellbeing!

- TyneRede Accountancy Ltd, Northumberland