Last week I attended the Work Foundation event featuring Dame Carol Black and Prof Cary Cooper. It was both enjoyable and disappointing, don't get me wrong WF always put on excellent events. Stephen Bevan is one of the most knowledgeable people in the health industry. What I felt was that Dame Carol trotted out the same stuff that we have seen for some time, nothing new. She did mention that there was going to be a focus on SME's. I really cant see how the well-being agenda is going to be easily swallowed by this sector. What was really disappointing was that when I asked Dame Carol about incentives for employers she waffled back, and had no idea about the taxation treatment of EAP's. Considering she did talk about the "non medicalisation" of life events and worry/stress you would think that she would know about the role EAP's play in this area, and indeed the management of absence. It seems we have a long way to go to promote EAP in certain circles. At least Cary Cooper knew about EAP and its positive role. I did like his view that we don't need any more research into the causes of stress! and that managers are a significant cause of stress for subordinates.
