Occupational Health Service
The Occupational Health Service provides pre-employment health screening, night worker assessments, management referrals and health surveillance.
The service will also work on the promotion and improvement of employee health and wellbeing. Other services such as counselling, physiotherapy and specialist medical referrals will be carried out by partner organisations.
Initial contact will usually be made by managers via the Occupational Health Portal. Please click on the tabs below for instructions.
The Occupational Health Service will then contact the manager/employee either via the portal, by phone or with a face to face appointment. Face to face appointments may be with an occupational health nurse or doctor and will be held at various clinics around the County.
The Occupational Health service is available to advise managers at any time about how best to support an employee who is off sick. Managers are encouraged to contact the service as soon as possible where an employee's medical condition is causing concern.
If you would like advice, please contact the Occupational Health Service via the portal link below and a member of the team will be in contact with you as soon as possible.
You will need to log into the Occupational Health managers portal. The Managers Portal Guidance below provides a step by step guide to the new system.
Link to: Occupational Health Portal Guidance (DOC 6MB)
Link to: Occupational Health Portal
Pre-employment Health Screening
Medical clearance must be obtained before the preferred candidate can take up their employment. Preferred candidates must complete a pre-employment health questionnaire. They will be sent details of how to log onto the Occupational Health portal and access the questionnaire, by the HR, Payroll and Recruitment Admin Team with their offer of employment letter.
Their completed questionnaire will then be triaged by an Occupational Health nurse. If there are any concerns then the Occupational Health nurse will contact the preferred candidate to obtain further information. The results regarding medical clearance will be sent to the HR, Payroll and Recruitment Admin Team who will inform the recruiting manager.
If a candidate has not completed the questionnaire within 10 working days the HR, Payroll and Recruitment Admin Team who will inform the recruiting manager.
Need Advice?
If you would like advice, please contact the Occupational Health Service via the portal link below and a member of the team will be in contact with you as soon as possible.
You will need to log into the Occupational Health managers portal. The Managers Portal guidance below provides a step by step guide to the new system.
Link to: Occupational Health Portal
Managers may wish to consider referring employees to the Occupational Health Service if any of the following apply:
When an employee has been absent for 3 weeks
When an employee is absent for any period with stress or a stress-related illness
For a work-related injury that may lead or has led to absence from work
Managers will need to discuss the referral with the employee concerned.
Then complete a questionnaire on the Occupational Health portal.
You will need to log into the Occupational Health managers portal. The Managers Portal Guidance below provides a step by step guide to the new system.
Link to: Occupational Health Portal Guidance (DOC 6MB)
Link to: Occupational Health Portal
Link to: Fitness for work - Guidance for Managers (DOC 232KB)
Link to: Fitness for work - Guidance for Employees (DOC 221KB)
If a manager is considering ill health retirement for the employee then they must first contact HR.
Link to: People Management Portal
The criteria for ill health retirement are:-
That the employee is permanently incapable of their current employment and either:-
Tier One - are unlikely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment before their normal pension age.
or
Tier Two - are unlikely to be capable of undertaking any gainful employment within 3 years of leaving but are likely to be capable before their normal pension age
or
Tier Three - provides a reviewable pension for a member whose Scheme employer terminates their employment because they are permanently incapable of their current job but are likely to be capable of undertaking gainful employment within 3 years or before their normal pension age, if earlier. These tiers are for the Local Government Pension scheme, however similar tiers are used for other pensions schemes e.g Fire and Teachers
An Independent Registered Medical Practitioner (IRMP) will assess if the employee meets one of the above tiers. In the Occupational Health Service this role is the Occupational Health Physician.
If the employee does not meet one of the above tiers them ill health retirement will not be granted. Their absence will be managed through the absence management process.
Managers should ask the individual to complete the consent form below and then complete the ill health retirement questionnaire on the Occupational Health portal and attach the completed consent form to the ticket. They will then be referred to the Independent Medical officer for a medical assessment.
You will need to log into the Occupational Health Portal managers portal. The Managers Portal Guidance below provides a step by step guide to the new system.
Link to: Occupational Health Portal guidance (DOC 3.5MB)
Link to: Occupational Health Portal
Link to: Medical Consent Form (DOC 179KB)
Link to: YPS Employer Ill Health Certificate Active Member
Link to: IHR What to Expect (DOC 240KB)
For further information on the pension schemes please follow this link
Under the Working Time Regulations any employee who works at least 3 hours between 2300 and 0600 on a regular basis is a night worker.
Certain health conditions may be affected by night work. For this reason the regulations require employers to make health assessments available to all night workers prior to undertaking night work and thereafter at 12 monthly intervals.
The initial health assessment is undertaken with the pre-employment medical screening when you joined the organisation. Future assessments are facilitated by completion of an online questionnaire. The online questionnaire can be accessed using a work or personal computer using the link on the next page.
You will be asked to complete a series of questions and depending on your responses you will either be cleared straightaway or referred to the occupational health advisor to discuss your responses in more detail. Your line manager will be notified of the overall result but not informed of your medical information without your consent.
Please note, the council provides counselling as an interim measure of support while you seek longer term treatment and support. A self referral can be made to one of the following services:
NORTH CUMBRIA - 0300 123 9122
North Cumbria Talking Therapies
SOUTH CUMBRIA - 0300 555 0345
South Cumbria and Lancashire Talking Therapies
A self referal can also be made for up to nine months' support via the following organisations:
Able Futures
https://able-futures.co.uk/individuals. Able Futures can help you manage your mental health at work so you can enjoy more good days. They provide nine months of advice and guidance from a mental health specialist who can help you learn coping mechanisms, build resilience, access therapy or work with your employer to make adjustments to help your mental health at work. Able Futures can be contacted free on 0800 321 3137 from 8am to 10.30pm, Monday to Friday to find out more about our online mental health support.
Maximus
Access to Work Mental Health Support Services (maximusuk.co.uk)
Once your referral has been triaged then you will be referred to a counsellor initially for up to four sessions.
Link to: Self Referral for Counselling Portal Guidance (DOC 3.5MB)
Hepatitis B - risk assessment
The Council is introducing a Hepatitis B vaccination programme for those staff identified as being potentially at risk of occupational exposure to the virus. Staff who have been identified as at risk of exposure will be contacted and offered the vaccination. For all other staff a local risk assessment should be undertaken to determine if they would be classed as "High risk".
"High risk" would be working with service users with severe learning disabilities and also dealing with the high risk group of bodily fluids :
- Blood
- semen
- vaginal secretions
- breast milk
The Manager should complete the risk assessment. They may need to discuss it with their Health and Safety Advisor if they need further advice on the risk assessment. A risk assessment template for completion can be found here. Link to Risk Assessment (DOC 31KB)
If the member of staff is deemed at risk then, the manager should email the Occupational Health Service to arrange a vaccination programme. A copy of the completed risk assessment should be attached along with the individuals contact information. The Occupational health service will then arrange appointments (vaccinations are given at 0, 1, 6 months followed by a blood test to check that the immunisation programme has been effective).
The Occupational Health service can be emailed at occupational.health@cumbria.gov.uk
Health surveillance is a legal requirement under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. In addition to this, some assessments, which cover driving standards set out by the DLVA. There are a number of occupations in the Council that are classed as a safety critical roles and national medical standards are in place to ensure the safety of the employee, other workers and the public.
If a post has been identified as 'safety critical', these employees will receive 3 yearly health surveillance appointments (or every year if they are over 55). The health surveillance will be identified through risk assessment and may include:
- General health questions
- Hearing test
- Vision test
- Lung Function test
- HAVS assessment
Employees are notified of their appointment by the Occupational Health team and it is vital that they attend the appointment otherwise Occupational Health will be unable to confirm them "Fit" to undertake their work.
For Highways, Fleet, Ferry and the Port staff prior to the appointment both the manager and the individual should complete a Health Surveillance Questionnaire. This can be done on line by following the portal guidance below and completing the questionnaire on the portal:-
Link to: portal
Link to: Health Surveillance Guidance (DOC 3MB)
Unfortunately the appointment cannot go ahead if the questionnaires have not been received.
If you have any compliments, comments or concerns about the Occupational Health Service please contact the HR Service by telephoning 0300 373 2755 or via the portal on the link below.
Link to: People Management Portal
