We intend for this pledge to go live on the Responsibility Deal website in early 2015 but have decided against a formal launch.
Instead, we will be writing to Responsibility Deal partners to seek a commitment from them, to sign up by the end of 2014 so that when it does go live, we can show that a large number of organisations have already committed, encouraging more to do so.
The agreed wording is: “We pledge to promote alcohol awareness among our staff, with the aim of increasing their health and well-being, and thereby delivering associated improvements in efficiency and productivity.”
There are four key actions to achieving this:
• embedding a workplace alcohol policy drawn up with the engagement of employee representatives
• promoting alcohol awareness among employees by highlighting the risks of drinking above the lower risk guidelines and by providing information to help those employees who choose to drink to do so within the guidelines
• ensuring that employees with alcohol problems receive appropriate help if they want it and that managers know what they need to do to support them to find help
• where it is felt appropriate to provide alcohol at company events, to ensure that it is served responsibly and that people are helped to drink within the guidelines – for example, by making sure that non-alcoholic alternatives are always available and making it clear that irresponsible alcohol consumption/behaviour is not acceptable.
Meanwhile, I have attended a number of events in recent months to try to garner more support for the Responsibility Deal.
It was a great pleasure to participate in the Association of Chief Police Officers national conference in June. I hope that this may lead to our police forces joining the network, though a sector-specific pledge, as for construction, may be appropriate.
And just a few weeks ago, I was invited to speak to the human resources directors of the Russell Group of Universities. I feel that the higher education sector is an important one for us to engage with, and I will seek other opportunities to spread the message.
We are also gradually extending our reach within the NHS, and I have spent a day each at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton and the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The visit to Sheffield was to hear about their journey so far and to help them think through their plans to enhance staff engagement.
Staff engagement is indeed very topical, and to encourage further sign-up by the NHS trusts, I have recently written to the directors of human resources and organisational development. The result to date is that 13 trusts have signed up to the Responsibility Deal and a further 24 are considering joining. This is very encouraging.