Keep Britain Working Gains Momentum Nationwide
Employers and regions across the UK step up support, accelerating efforts to boost workforce participation.
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The campaign to stem Britain’s rising tide of economic inactivity is gathering pace. Since the publication of the Keep Britain Working Review in November 2025, the number of employers and regional authorities committing to action has more than doubled, signalling an emerging consensus between government and business on one of the labour market’s most pressing challenges.
Around 150 organisations – together employing 1.5m people across 24 sectors – have joined the initiative’s “Vanguard” phase. They are joined by 10 mayoral and strategic authorities spanning all nations of the UK. The mix is deliberately broad: from large public bodies such as Transport for London to multinationals like Siemens, alongside smaller firms and workplace health providers. The aim is to ensure solutions are both practical and scalable.
At the heart of the effort lies a simple economic problem with complex roots. Some 2.8m people are currently out of work due to long-term sickness—roughly one in five of those of working age who are not in the labour force. That is 800,000 more than in 2019. The consequences are felt not just in lost output, but in strained public finances and weaker living standards.
The Vanguard group is testing interventions across what policymakers term the “healthy working lifecycle”: preventing ill-health from worsening, improving disability inclusion, supporting returns to work, and sharpening the measurement of outcomes. The results will inform the creation of a national employer standard, developed with the British Standards Institution, intended to embed best practice across the economy. Policy support is following. A £3.5bn employment package aims to bring more people with health conditions back into work. Programmes such as WorkWell and Connect to Work promise tailored support for hundreds of thousands, while an expanded cadre of Pathways to Work advisers seeks to bridge the gap between welfare and employment.
An independent advisory group – drawing on employers, unions, health experts and disability advocates – will guide the next phase. Its challenge is to turn early momentum into durable change. Whether this employer-led model can reverse Britain’s post-pandemic rise in inactivity remains uncertain. But the scale of engagement suggests that both government and business now see the issue not as a marginal social concern, but as central to the country’s economic prospects.
Susan Taylor Martin, Chief Executive, BSI said: “The Keep Britain Working review rightly identified the immense challenge we are facing around workplace absence and low productivity. Supporting people to lead healthy, productive and fulfilled lives at work, and in doing so giving businesses access to the pool of talent they need, is a critical goal. The Keep Britain Working review rightly identified the immense challenge we are facing around workplace absence and low productivity. Supporting people to lead healthy, productive and fulfilled lives at work, and in doing so giving businesses access to the pool of talent they need, is a critical goal.
BSI has extensive experience developing standards to help employers improve employee wellbeing, manage ill-health in the workplace, and nurture inclusive working environments. BSI is proud to support this vital mission to help individuals and organizations to thrive, contribute to economic growth and enable more people to flourish at work.”
Dr Sarah Jackson, Chief Executive at EDF said: “EDF is committed to championing employee health and wellbeing at every stage of working life. National recognition of this mission creates a rare opportunity to help transform the future of work in Britain. We’re proud to join the Vanguard and fully committed to helping this important initiative deliver its bold vision.”
Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum said: “We are pleased to be working with many of our Members to support the Vanguard scheme and to have led the workshops to help inform the disability inclusion part of this work. We hope the work will lead to solutions that will move forward the Keep Britain Working agenda and, crucially, help to close the disability employment gap.”
The campaign to stem Britain’s rising tide of economic inactivity is gathering pace. Since the publication of the Keep Britain Working Review in November 2025, the number of employers and regional authorities committing to action has more than doubled, signalling an emerging consensus between government and business on one of the labour market’s most pressing challenges.
Around 150 organisations – together employing 1.5m people across 24 sectors – have joined the initiative’s “Vanguard” phase. They are joined by 10 mayoral and strategic authorities spanning all nations of the UK. The mix is deliberately broad: from large public bodies such as Transport for London to multinationals like Siemens, alongside smaller firms and workplace health providers. The aim is to ensure solutions are both practical and scalable.
At the heart of the effort lies a simple economic problem with complex roots. Some 2.8m people are currently out of work due to long-term sickness—roughly one in five of those of working age who are not in the labour force. That is 800,000 more than in 2019. The consequences are felt not just in lost output, but in strained public finances and weaker living standards.
