Lindsey,
Please may I have a copy of your paper. I have been conducting some
research into this area around sickness absence. the sample was small but
some benefits were noted.
Can you send it via e-mail?
Sue Manthorpe
-----Original Message-----
From: Occupational Health mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Lindsey Hall
Sent: 06 July 2003 13:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Physiotherapy Business Proposal
We are in the process of doing this having just run a years trial in part of
the organisation. You will need good data to start with particularly
relating to Musculo skeletal absence and the length of time people are off.
Then you will need the costs of providing the service from whoever you
choose to provide it. Then the cost of time of your workforce. If you do
not do this you will need to base your business case on time saved, days
made available to the business etc. You will need to have a good estimate
of the time saved by providing the physiotherapy, but remember to cost in
the time of employees being away from work while they have treatment. A lot
of business cases leave this out.
Finally you will need to consider the tax implications. Physiotherapy for
non work related conditions is a taxable benefit, even though it is cost
effective to provide and bring people back to work sooner - or prevent
absence in the first place. If your organisation decides to pay the tax,
then that in itself is a taxable benefit and subject to more tax. - potty I
know, especially given the Governments drive on OH issues but you would do
well to sort this out first. Some organisations seem to get away with this
if they have an understanding tax office. We have had problems. Perhaps it
is being a Govt organisation that needs to be seen to be whiter than white!
If you differentiate between paying the tax for work related problems and
asking employees with non work related problems to pay their own, then the
inevitable happens and you will end up with many claiming their problem is
work related when it was not which may give you all sorts of liabilities you
do not want!
In the end we found that providing physio to everyone regardless of cause of
injury was cost neutral. Good feelgood factor though. We are still sorting
out the details in relation to the tax and liability issues. The cost
benefits seem to come from being reactive i.e. providing physio to employees
already off and bringing them back to work sooner. Providing to all means
that you provide to many employees with minor conditions and twinges that
would have got better without any form of intervention. This is our
experience anyway. I can provide the full paper if you wish.
Lindsey Hall
National OH Manager
Environment Agency
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue Mclaren" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 11:03 AM
Subject: Physiotherapy Business Proposal
> I am attempting to formulate a business proposal for the introduction of a
> physiotherapy service into the OH services section of the company I work
> for. If list members could guide me as to what I need to consider or point
> me in the right direction towards useful links, I would be extremly
> grateful. Kind regards, Sue Mclaren
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