Today was meant to be remarkable for me.
It is the day of the House of Commons Symposium on Work-Based Trauma Recovery, where I was invited as a delegate.
Due to unforeseen circumstances I could not attend in person.
But the theme of this symposium, work-related trauma, is not just timely but urgent, universal, and foundational to modern leadership.
Work today touches every part of human experience.
For many, it provides fulfilment, identity, purpose, and community.
For others, it is a source of stress, injury, breakdown, and long-term disability.
The burden of work-based trauma, physical, psychological, or systemic is large and growing.
Addressing it is not just a healthcare challenge.
It is a leadership and system-building imperative.
The Global and UK Context: Why Work Trauma Matters
Work-based trauma extends far beyond accidents on the factory floor.
It includes mental health impacts, chronic stress, musculoskeletal injuries, bullying and discrimination, burnout, and systemic exclusion, each of which has real human, social, and economic consequences.
Globally, occupational conditions remain a major source of injury and illness.
Over 270 million non-fatal workplace injuries occur each year, along with hundreds of thousands of fatalities, and countless psychological impacts arising from workplace stressors.
In the UK, the toll of work-related ill health remains significant.
Latest data show that work-related stress, depression or anxiety affected an estimated 964,000 workers in 2024/25, contributing to millions of lost working days.
Economic inactivity driven by health conditions, including work-related trauma has also risen sharply.
Nearly one in five working-age people now report a work-limiting health condition, and many more are in work while coping with chronic health challenges.
This is not just statistics on a page.
It is unfettered human loss: of income, dignity, belonging, productivity, and future potential.
Insights from the Keep Britain Working: Final Report
The independent Keep Britain Working: Final report, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield and published in 2025, was commissioned to re-imagine how the UK tackles health-related economic inactivity and workplace health.
It shines an important spotlight on work-based trauma, ill health, disability and the role employers and leaders must play.
Here are the most critical findings and recommendations relevant to leaders:
1. Workplace Health Is Everyone’s Responsibility
The report emphasises that health at work is not simply a medical issue or a “welfare add-on.”
It is foundational to organisational resilience, economic productivity and human flourishing. Employers, health systems, and workers themselves share responsibility, none can succeed in isolation.
2. The Healthy Working Lifecycle
At the heart of the report is the concept of a Healthy Working Lifecycle, a framework that spans the full employment experience: from recruitment to being well at work, navigating illness, sustainable return to work, and exit or re-employment in safe, inclusive ways.
This lifecycle approach recognises that trauma, ill health, and exclusion can occur at any stage, and that intentional, structured support at every phase can keep people well, engaged, and productive.
3. Better Workplace Health Provision (WHP)
The report recommends building comprehensive, accessible Workplace Health Provision (WHP) which are non-clinical support services that help both employees and managers navigate health at work, stay in work where possible, and return to work safely when necessary.
This is not traditional occupational health alone;
It includes early intervention, case management, rapid support for common conditions, and sustained integration with organisational systems.
4. Data, Intelligence, Evidence
A Workplace Health Intelligence Unit is proposed to aggregate and analyse workplace health data, drive continuous improvement, and provide evidence for what works in practice.
This is a vital step toward understanding the scale of trauma, its patterns, and the impact of interventions, something many industries currently lack.
5. Prevention, Inclusion and Early Support
The report emphasises shifting focus upstream, from reactive care after trauma has already manifested to prevention, inclusion, early intervention, and barrier removal.
This aligns with global evidence showing that mentally healthy workplaces reduce burnout, reduce absenteeism, and improve engagement and retention, yet too many organisations still rely on superficial wellbeing perks rather than systemic change.
A Personal Reflection: Why This Matters to Me
In my work as a healthcare leader, I have seen healthcare workers, clinicians, and support teams face trauma not just from their clinical work but from how systems treat them by ignoring workload, culture, psychosocial stressors, and chronic fatigue until they can no longer cope.
Trauma is not always catastrophic.
It is often cumulative.
I have walked corridors where excellence and exhaustion coexist.
I have sat with teams who love their work yet are depleted by the very structures meant to support them.
This is not merely operational friction.
It is trauma.
The House of Commons symposium today is an opportunity to signal this reality, to connect lived experience with policy, and to invite leaders across sectors into a deeper conversation about work, health, systems, and healing.
Work-Based Trauma Is Not Confined to Healthcare
Leaders in every sector must pay attention.
In manufacturing, physical injury and ergonomic stress combine with intense production pressures.
Workers face not only muscle and skeletal harm but also the psychological impact of relentless targets and safety anxieties.
In finance and services, stress, burnout, and mental health strains are widespread, much of it invisible yet deeply damaging.
Some sectors report burnout and disengagement at levels twice the general industry average.
Globally, work contributes extensively to poor health outcomes, with stress and psychosocial hazards affecting millions of workers every year.
These trends are not random.
They reflect structural weaknesses in how organisations view work, support, risk, and human agency.
What Leaders Can Do: A Way Forward
Here are practical levers leaders can adopt right now:
1. Normalise Health Conversations
Create safe spaces for staff to speak about stress, trauma, and health.
Train managers to recognise early signs and respond with empathy and structure, not dismissal.
2. Focus on Systems, Not Symptoms
Trauma is often systemic.
Review workflow, expectations, workload, and culture.
Small process changes can prevent burnout and reduce chronic stress drivers.
3. Embed Prevention and Early Support
Invest in early intervention services and support pathways.
Don’t wait until someone is absent or in crisis.
Early support improves outcomes and protects the organisation.
4. Use Data to Inform Action
Collect and analyse workplace health data.
Understand the patterns.
Use evidence, like the proposed Workplace Health Intelligence Unit to guide strategy.
5. Build Inclusive Policies
Recognise that trauma and ill health do not affect everyone equally.
Create policies that are equitable, inclusive and sensitive to diverse needs.
A Final Thought
Work can be a source of growth, dignity, and connection, but only when leaders treat it as a human system, not just an economic one.
The Keep Britain Working report shows us that health and work are inseparable.
The question for leaders is no longer whether to act.
It is how soon.
Prevention is not charity.
It is leadership.
Healing at work is not a luxury.
It is essential.
And trauma is not inevitable.
It can be mitigated, prevented, and addressed when we lead with intention, evidence, and care.
Useful Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_injury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_stress
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