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Section 1: Background
Introduction
1.1 Improving the health of the Scottish people is critical to the Scottish Executive's vision of a confident and prosperous nation. We need to both inspire and support people in efforts to improve their health and wellbeing and maximise their potential contribution to society.
1.2Improving Health in Scotland - The Challenge, sets out the Scottish Executive's determination to improve health and reduce health inequalities and identifies the workplace as a potential vehicle for activity to drive positive change. This document takes up that challenge. It sets out the long-term vision for the contribution that the workplace can make to health improvement and reducing inequalities and identifies a series of practical first steps to offer employees and potential employees the prospect of enjoying and benefiting from Healthy Working Lives.
The Challenge
1.3 Scotland has a diminishing and ageing population, with a relatively low birth rate and low level of immigration compared to the rest of the United Kingdom (UK). It is projected that the number of people of working age will fall by 8 per cent from 3.15 million in 2002 to 2.88 million in 2027; and the number of people of pensionable age will rise by 25 per cent to nearly 1.2 million in 2027. Without allowing for the change in the female pension age, which rises from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020, the number of people over pensionable age will increase by 45 per cent between 2002 and 2027. The number of Scots aged 16-29, a core group in terms of entrants to the labour market, is expected to decline by approximately 9 per cent over the next 20 years. 2 In other words, at some point in the future, the responsibility for producing our economic wealth may fall to a smaller proportion of our population.
1.4 In such circumstances, Scottish employers are likely to face increasing competition to attract and retain high quality staff. This may be further exacerbated in some sectors by the need to compete for talent in an international market against employers reacting to similar pressures in other advanced economies.
1.5 We face this challenge with the knowledge that Scotland has poor health by UK and European standards and high levels of inequality in terms of health outcomes for different socio economic groups. 3 The health of working-age people, that period of life in which men and women are considered to be available, but not necessarily involved in, paid employment is of particular concern. We have higher rates of smoking, 4 higher levels of heroin use, 5 and higher levels of problem drinking 6 than the rest of the United Kingdom. 2.2 million working days are lost every year through ill-health 7 and we know that amongst men and women aged 15-74 we have one of the worst records in Europe for both overall mortality and specific conditions such as lung cancer, oesophageal cancer and ischaemic heart disease. 8
1.6 Around 350,000 Scots currently claim sickness and/or disability benefits, of which 285,000 claim Incapacity Benefit. 45 per cent of these people have been on Incapacity Benefit for 5 years or more and the highest concentrations of claimants are found in some of our most disadvantaged communities. 9 There also exists clear evidence to support the link between low income and health. 10
1.7 The level of economic activity amongst older workers and particularly older men is significantly lower in Scotland than in England, with the lowest rates to be found in our largest cities and in former, heavy industrial areas. 11 Scotland also has the lowest employment rate for disabled people of working age of all the regions of the UK. 12
Acknowledgements
1.8 Over the past few months, a short-life working group has been meeting to develop this action plan (membership detail shown at Annex A) and begin the process of mapping what is a huge and complex agenda with the aim of creating and sustaining opportunities to enable Healthy Working Lives. The group has included Scottish employers and their representative organisations, trade unionists, specialists in public health, civil servants and key members of the voluntary sector.
1.9 We would like to thank those in the group and others who have contributed to the open and constructive debate which has resulted in a shared vision of the future which we believe is capable of uniting and appealing to all sectors of the economy.
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