Standards of performance for occupational health services have been developed by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in partnership with a multidisciplinary, multi-agency stakeholder group. They are being launched by Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work, on 13th January 2010.

The Faculty will then, in conjunction with the stakeholder partners, be encouraging all occupational health services – in both the NHS and the private sector – to familiarise  themselves with the standards, and to work towards complying with them during 2010.

Over the next twelve months, the Faculty will be developing a UK voluntary accreditation system to underpin the standards.  The plan is for accreditation to be piloted later in 2010 and operational in early 2011.

The scheme wil provide occupational health services with a framework for quality assurance, organised in six categories: Business probity; Information governance; People; Facilities and equipment; Relationships with purchasers; and Relationships with workers.

‘This is an important development for occupational health,’ said Faculty President, Professor David Coggon.  ‘We have worked hard to make sure the standards are practical and proportionate and we believe that they have the potential to improve occupational health services significantly in the UK.’


The standards are available at: http://www.facoccmed.ac.uk/library/docs/standardsjan2010.pdf