Future workforce: Workwell programme expanded

What’s happening?

Following a successful pilot, the government has announced expansion of the WorkWell programme. This will now be rolled out to all parts of England, with £259m funding over 3 years.

WorkWell is a government scheme which is intended to help people with health conditions to stay in or return to the workplace.

It forms part of the wider Pathways To Work plan and it is health-led, using a range of resources to move people off welfare and into work and then to support them when in the workplace.

Participants get a personal work and health coach and are able to secure support such as mental health interventions, physiotherapy or workplace adjustments.

What the data says

The latest ONS data shows around 3.0m people are economically inactive (due to illness or disability — meaning they are not working and not seeking work. The vast majority of this group (94%) are long‑term sick, with the remaining 6% temporarily ill.

This means that those inactive because of ill health significantly outnumber the unemployed, who total 1.8 million (people not in work but actively looking for a job).

This pool of potential workers offers promise for a government that is looking for ways to boost economic performance and to manage welfare expenditure.  

There are, however, many challenges involved, especially since this broad category of “inactive due to illness” is extremely diverse.

For young adults, mental disorders are the leading cause of illness whereas, for older adults, musculo-skeletal issues are most common.

IGD viewpoint

The expansion of the WorkWell programme appears to be a positive step for people, government and employers alike. The pilot has already helped 25,000 people either move into work or remain in employment — an impressive achievement, particularly given the complexity of the needs involved. Full evaluation data is still to come, but delivering impact at this scale suggests clear potential.

However, challenges remain.

It is not yet fully understood how many people currently in work are managing long‑term illness, but 2024 Health Foundation research indicates that around 3.9 million workers have a health condition. If accurate, this means the number of “working ill” could exceed the number of people who are out of work due to long‑term sickness, raising the risk that some may transition from the former group to the latter without the right support.

Against this backdrop, the extension of WorkWell is timely. Demand for labour is currently subdued, reflecting wider economic weakness, yet many vacancies persist and businesses continue to struggle to fill roles.

Some of these shortages are within the food and drink sector. This gives employers in the industry a clear opportunity to engage with WorkWell to access potential recruits, generating both business benefits and wider social value.

That said, this is not straightforward. Persistent barriers to employment in food and drink remain, as highlighted in earlier reviews. Pay is a notable constraint: data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) shows that many roles in the sector are low paid relative to the national average. This affects both recruitment and retention. A long term fix to workforce shortages will require food and drink businesses to continue investing in pay and conditions, to stay competitive.

IGD will work with industry in 2026 on future workforce planning to attract more talent to the food sector through collective action programmes.