SMALL and medium-sized enterprises in Cumbria are being offered an 80 percent discount on workplace health assessments. 

Choose Occupational Health, in Carlisle, is offering the discount as part of the workplace health assessment discount scheme being run by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Under the scheme, SMEs pay 20 percent of the cost of the assessment with the DWP paying the remainder to the provider.

Carlisle nurse Sandra Holliday, founder of Choose Occupational Health, says the scheme is intended to help get people back to work, with research showing that one in five who are off sick for more than four weeks will not return.

“The scheme is being offered because SMEs are hit the hardest, picking up 76% of the 2023 long-term sick bill, and are also less likely to use occupational health services than larger employers due to the concern about costs,” said Sandra.

The scheme is open to SMEs registered in Cumbria and Lancashire which have 250 employees or less.

SMEs with 1 to 49 employees can use the service if their yearly turnover is £10.2 million or less or their yearly balance sheet is £5.1 million or less.