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Budget 2026: What the Budget Does Not Solve for You

A practical guide for employers, employees and workforce decision-makers.

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Keep Britain Working and the questions boards should ask now

SWS Workforce Risk Briefing · Week commencing 26 October 2026

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An absence total tells a board how much working time has been lost. It cannot, on its own, explain whether employees received timely support or whether a return to work lasted.

That distinction should shape how leaders read the September Keep Britain Working update. For SWS, the practical question is whether workforce reporting gives decision-makers enough information to improve support before problems become prolonged. This briefing follows our October Topical Brief, Workforce health: what boards should measure next.

What the government update says

Published on 23 September 2026 by the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade and the Department of Health and Social Care, the update describes a proposed Workplace Health System with three connected elements: better, more inclusive workplaces; accessible workplace health provision; and trusted intelligence. Vanguard employers, providers and places are developing and testing the approach. It is a programme under development, rather than evidence of a completed national rollout. [1, 2]

The report places emphasis on keeping people in work, coordinating support and assessing sustained return, which it proposes to measure at six months rather than on the first day back. Its national economic estimates should not be treated as a forecast of savings for an individual employer. [2]

The SWS perspective

Our recommendation is to begin with the decisions a board needs to make, then examine whether existing reporting can support those decisions.

A useful review would follow an employee's route through support. How is a concern raised? Who responds? Can a manager arrange appropriate help? When several services are involved, who checks that the handovers work?

An employer may have an occupational health service, an employee assistance programme and a wellbeing calendar, yet still be unable to answer those questions. Reviewing the connections between services is a practical starting point.

Five questions for the next leadership meeting

1. Can employees raise health-related barriers with confidence that the response will be supportive?
2. How long does it take to move from a concern to appropriate support?
3. Who coordinates agreed adjustments and checks whether they are helping?
4. Do we know whether people remain successfully in work after returning?
5. What action has changed because of the information we collect?

These are SWS recommendations for discussion. They are not a new statutory checklist.

Where biological measurement fits

SWS combines structured self-reporting with selected biological measurements to support informed review and ongoing monitoring. The purpose is to support informed questions and proportionate action, alongside attention to workload, management practice and workplace adjustments. Any measurement must have a clear purpose, appropriate consent and evidence that supports its interpretation.

Individual health information remains confidential; organisations may receive appropriately anonymised or aggregated workforce-level insights, subject to suitable privacy safeguards. Those safeguards include care to avoid identifying individuals in small teams.

The government update does not mention biological measurement. It does not validate SWS tools, establish a government partnership or demonstrate that biological testing predicts absence or burnout. Any proposed pilot should test what additional value the approach delivers against current practice.

A practical next step

Choose one existing support pathway and review it from the employee's perspective. Identify the delays, unclear responsibilities and information gaps. Agree what improvement would look like before adding another service or measure.

For a discussion about your organisation's workforce reporting, book a 45-minute discovery call with SWS: https://calendly.com/jay-strategic-wellness/45min or email contact@strategic-wellness.net

Sources

[1] Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Business and Trade and Department of Health and Social Care. Keep Britain Working review update: a national growth opportunity, September 2026. Published 23 September 2026; last updated 9 October 2026 (English audio, BSL and Easy Read versions added). Government publication

[2] Keep Britain Working: a national growth opportunity, September 2026. Full report (HTML). Full report

Sources checked 27 October 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This briefing is an independent SWS interpretation of a public government document. Analysis and recommendations are SWS's own. It does not imply government endorsement of SWS, and policy alignment does not validate SWS methodology. It is not medical, legal or HR advice.

Workforce Health: What Boards Should Measure Next

A board-level SWS perspective on Keep Britain Working, the questions employers should ask about workforce health, and how measurement can inform better decisions.