The Fit for Work Service 




As a result of “low referral rates”, the government has announced that its Fit for Work referral service, launched in December 2014, is to cease taking new referrals from 31 March 2018 for England and Wales and 31 May 2018 for Scotland. 


Only the referral service is to be abolished. The website: http://fitforwork.org, remains available for online and telephone advice. There are separate helplines for employers and workers. They can be used at any stage, for example by employers wanting advice about intermittent absence.



The government has commissioned research into alternative models for providing occupational health services and in its Improving lives review (see box on page 264), has promised to publish its revised strategy for reform by 2019-20.