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In 2004, Healthy Working Lives: a plan for action announced the establishment of the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives as a key partner to help the Scottish Government reduce work-related ill health. The centre was established in 2005 NHS Health Scotland as a catalyst and facilitator for the delivery of the Healthy Working Lives agenda in Scotland.

• About the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives.
• About the evaluation
• Stages in the evaluation
• Reporting the evaluation

About the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives.

The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives promotes healthier, safer workplaces by reviewing working environments, and offering Scottish employers guidance and support to implement successful health and safety, and employment, policies. The SCHWL delivers a programme of services for employers that are tailored to the needs of an organisation and its staff. This includes face to face consultancy on all aspects of Healthy Working Lives, including areas covered by the HWL Award Programme.

The HWL Award Programme supports employers and employees in the private, public, and voluntary sectors to develop health promotion and safety themes in the workplace.

Further information about the work of the Centre can be found on the Healthy Working Lives website . Details of the national health and work agenda along with the refreshed national Health Works strategy can be found at Scottish Government Health and Work.

Evaluating the Centre’s Workplace Services and Award Programme

The evaluation began in June 2009 and will continue until March 2012.
The aim of the study is to evaluate SCHWL Workplace Services and Award Programme 's contributionto the development and performance of organisations; differentiating between the role of existing organisational culture and policies, and the work of the Centre.
Emerging lessons from the study will be incorporated into future development and implementation of SCHWL activities to support employers.

The evaluation is being conducted by a team from the University of Glasgow led by Professor Alan MacGregor of the Training and Employment Research Unit and includes colleagues from the Department of Management and Department of Urban Studies.

This evaluation will also link with a programme of work aimed at developing an outcomes focussed approach to the Health and Work agenda in Scotland. Full details, and its use in outcomes-focused planning and evaluation.
are in Outcomes Framework for Scotland’s Health Works Strategy

The evaluation includes a number of stages:

• Developing the initial Theory of Change and
• Proposed Evaluation Strategy
• A light touch, comprehensive electronic survey of all currently supported employers (complete).
• A more detailed telephone survey of a representative sample of 200 supported employers (autumn/winter 2010/11).
• A series of in depth case studies with around 30 supported employers (January 2011 – February 2012).
• A two-stage analysis of the Centre’s monitoring data to look at trends over time in the delivery of services (winter 2010 and 2011).

Reporting and outputs

The evaluation is reported via a series of briefing papers and summary learning notes, to report on each element of the work with an emphasis on emergent lessons from the study.

• A Theory of Change Approach (June 2010) - This paper sets out the context for the evaluation. It does not make any assessment of impact, and a full description of the intended purpose of the Theory of Change is set out in the paper.
• Proposed Evaluation Strategy (June 2010)
• Key Findings from the E-Survey (December 2010) and the E-survey Report (January 2011).
• The Telephone Survey Report (July 2011)
• The Monitoring Briefing Paper (July 2011)
• The Phase 1 Case Study Briefing Note (November 2011)

For further information on the evaluation
please contact Jane Ford,
NHS Health Scotland
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Updated on 23rd March 2012