B&CE, the construction industry pensions and benefits organisation, has been developing People鈥檚 Health, a new occupational health system for the construction industry.
People鈥檚 Health is intended to replace Constructing Better Health (CBH), which is also owned by B&CE. The CBH scheme has continued to run, despite its perceived flaws, while B&CE has worked on building a replacement occupational health scheme.
B&CE says: 鈥淭he aims and principles of CBH were right, but it didn鈥檛 achieve what the industry required. We also recognise that the fee structure wasn鈥檛 representing good value for money.鈥�
By contrast, People鈥檚 Health is intended to be 鈥渁 simple, cost-effective, digital end-to-end solution for managing occupational health in construction,鈥� B&CE says. 鈥淭his will mean that employers will be able to comply with legislation and manage their workers鈥� health-at-work more easily. So work-related ill health effects can be detected earlier.鈥�
But it has been revealed that B&CE has now suspended the development of the People鈥檚 Health toolbox.
A statement released by Build UK, the industry trade association that counts B&CE among its members, said: 鈥淏uild UK Partner B&CE has been developing People鈥檚 Health, a new occupational health system for the construction industry, taking learnings from key stakeholders on what they would find useful in such a system.
鈥淗owever, fulfilling the occupational health needs of the industry is challenging. As the project has progressed, there has been added complexity as the system鈥檚 functionality has been improved which, in turn, has led to delays and has increased delivery costs.
鈥淭he build has therefore been paused while B&CE review the information they鈥檝e gathered so far. There is a responsibility to ensure that what is built will be successful, so the priority is to find the best way to address these complexities and make the system more efficient.
鈥淭he aim remains the same as it ever was 鈥� to build a successful and commercially viable occupational health system that can do exactly what the construction industry needs it to do.鈥�
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
