Solutions
Fitness to Return to Work
A digital assessment of whether someone is ready to return, physically and psychosocially.
What this is
Fitness to Return to Work is a digital assessment of physical readiness to return, and of psychosocial readiness to return. Both are assessed, because a return that is physically viable may still be premature for other reasons.
Because the assessment is digital, it reduces the need for occupational health assessments. Where an occupational health assessment is necessary, the person is referred for one.
Illustrative. The areas shown carry no proportion and no figure is implied.
Absence is recorded. The productivity lost by someone back at work but not yet at capacity is not. A return decision has to account for both.
Who this is for
What it assesses
- Physical readiness to return to work.
- Psychosocial readiness to return to work.
- Whether a referral for occupational health assessment is necessary.
When employers use it
- When someone is preparing to return to work following absence.
- Where an employer wants a consistent digital assessment before deciding on a return.
- Where the volume of occupational health referrals needs to be reduced without removing referral where it is needed.
What you receive
- A digital assessment of readiness to return, covering the physical and the psychosocial.
- A referral to occupational health where that is necessary.
- Fewer occupational health assessments where they are not necessary.
The obstacles to a return are not only clinical.
The flags framework separates kinds of obstacle. They are categories rather than degrees of severity, and an assessment that looks only at the first will miss the other two entirely.
Yellow flags
Beliefs and behaviour
What the individual believes about their condition, their recovery and their work.
Severity within this flag
Blue flags
Perceptions of work
How the individual perceives the job, the demands placed on them and the support available.
Severity within this flag
Black flags
Context and system
Policy, contractual and organisational obstacles that sit outside the individual entirely.
Severity within this flag
Categories of obstacle rather than levels of severity. The bands carry no ranking between them. Severity runs within each band, from someone receptive to change to someone unwilling to change, and each end calls for a different approach.
References
- Burton and Main (2000)
- Burton, Kendall, Pearce, Birrell and Bainbridge (2008)
- Kendall, Linton and Main (1997)
- Kendall, Burton, Main and Watson (2009)
Talk to us about Fitness to Return to Work.
Tell us what you already hold and what you need to understand, and we will explain how this service would apply.
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