Review of the Effectiveness & Cost Effectiveness of Interventions, Strategies, Programmes & Policies to reduce the number of employees who move from short-term to long-term sickness absence & to help employees on long-term sickness absence return to work

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) was asked bythe Department of Health to develop guidance for primary care services andemployers on the management of long-term sickness and incapacity. The guidanceprovides recommendations for good practice that are based on the best available evidence of effectiveness and cost effectiveness.

This report is one in a series of reviews of the literature covering interventions,strategies, programmes and policies to reduce the number of employees who takelong-term sickness absence and to help those who have been on long-term absence to return to work.

As such, the report aims to inform the guidance on managing long-term sickness absence through two linked systematic reviews of the literature on the effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness of interventions to reduce the length of long-term sickness absence and the risk of employees moving from short-term to long-term sickness absence.

Specifically, this review addresses two research questions:

• What work or primary care-based interventions, programmes, policies or strategies are effective and cost-effective in preventing or reducing the number of employees moving from short- to long-term sickness absence? This includes activities to prevent or reduce the reoccurrence of short-term sickness absence episodes?
• What work or primary care-based interventions, programmes, policies or strategies are effective and cost-effective in helping employees who have been on long-term sickness absence to return to work?