Guest blog by Dr Vandita Upadhyaya-Kissoon and Janet O'Neill The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, helping people live safer and healthier working lives. Their 10-year strategy reflects HSE’s role of protecting people and places…
Guest blog by Janet O'Neill The recently published feasibility study paper Feasibility Study: Establishing a National Dataset of Occupational Health Assessments (McElvenny, D et al, 2026) should be on every clinician’s radar. Occupational health (OH) in the UK is at a pivotal moment. Despite decades…
Guest blog by Amy McKeown, Workplace Health Strategy Consultant The RSM and SOM conference, Women’s health at work: Policy, progress and public perception, took place in May at a significant moment for women’s health policy and workplace practice. Designed primarily for occupational health…
Guest blog by Dr Lara Shemtob I caught up with SOM President Prof Neil Greenberg at the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine conference in Chicago in April. We compared notes on learning points from the conference, and our conversation turned to what UK occupational health has…
By Dr Shriti Pattani OBE, SOM Past President I never set out to be a leader. In fact, when I was first asked to speak at a leadership event, my instinctive response was: “But I don’t have any formal leadership qualifications.” The reply I got back stayed with me: “You have several leadership roles…
By Amanda Hinkley, FOHN Chair In 2025, FOHN and SOM entered into a collaborative strategic partnership with the aim to integrate their approaches to workplace health and wellbeing and support the multiprofessional occupational health (OH) workforce. Twelve months on, I am proud of the progress we…
Guest blog by Tracy Turner The construction industry is seeing a significant rise in workers undergoing Safety‑Critical Medicals (SCMs), driven by an ageing workforce, increasing numbers of workers managing long‑term health conditions, and stricter site entry requirements by contractors*. These…
Guest blog by Hannah Strawbridge If you asked most employers whether they understand their duty to make reasonable adjustments, most would say yes. But in my experience advising on tribunal claims and negotiating exits, the issue is rarely a lack of awareness. It is how that duty is applied in real…
Guest blog by Dr Martin Tohill My career began in general practice and has evolved through curiosity, a desire to support colleagues, and a belief that strong occupational health (OH) systems can change working lives for the better. Looking back, the most significant opportunities emerged not from…
Guest blog by Tracy Turner They say the path to your dreams is rarely a straight line, but mine looked more like a mountain range I was not equipped to climb. If you had told me, as I left school with zero qualifications, that I would one day lead an award-winning occupational health firm, I would…
Guest blog by Dr Mary Obele The health of the UK workforce is a major policy concern. But, less attention has been given to a more basic question: do our health data systems actually record what people do for work? Work is one of the most powerful influences on adult health, but it remains largely…
Guest blog by Janet O'Neill Undertaking an MSc in Workplace Health and Wellbeing enabled me to align wellbeing with OH practice. As a contributing member of the Educating OH Public Health England Framework (2016), I was given the opportunity to share and reinforce my insights. These standards are…