Rising long term sickness absences affect both individual wellbeing and the economy. It’s time for innovative solutions and a fresh approach. We’ve been working with Boston Consulting Group to look at why a whole-of-government approach is key and how it can be taken forward. 🧵1/10

First, some context: since 2020, economic inactivity in the UK has risen by 900,000 people – 85% of these are long-term sick. 2/10

The UK is an outlier compared to peers. On average, OECD countries have seen economic inactivity fall by 1% and EU countries have seen a fall of 2.3%. By contrast, the UK has risen by 1.1%. 3/10

Helping between half and three quarters of those who have dropped out of the workforce due to ill health could deliver a £109-£177bn boost to the UK’s GDP and unlock £35-57bn in fiscal revenue by 2029 4/10

No single part of govt can tackle this alone – a cross govt approach is vital. With @BCG, we propose 3 actions a newly formed govt could implement to start to change this... 5/10

1️⃣ The PM should declare improving health outcomes a cross-govt priority to drive common across the public sector, with binding targets 6/10

2️⃣ Create a new Health Improvement Board to drive a cross-govt approach, with the tools to drive collaboration, not just talk about it 7/10

3️⃣ Review health related spending and amend to spend more efficiently and generate wider economic benefits from improved allocation 8/10

Our new long read surfaces fresh insights on the benefits of reducing economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, and practical steps a new government could take from day one. Read it now 9/10

This report is part of our broader of a new government on behalf of members to build the health of the nation. You can learn more in our report 10/10

@BCG Please can I respectfully suggest that you consider the enormous impact of Long Covid as you continue your work on the full version of this report. I would highly recommend reading this report from @TheEconomist: You may also find this thread useful ⬇️