31st March 2026: A new standard designed to keep Britain working will be produced by BSI, as part of the Government’s plans to take forwards the recommendations of the Mayfield review.
The UK’s national standards body will take a key role in the development of an employer-facing standard focused on a healthy working lifecycle.
The standard was recommended in the Mayfield Review by former John Lewis chairman Charlie Mayfield, published last November. The review, designed to identify strategies to reduce sickness absence, improve return-to-work rates, and increase disability employment rates, announced the creation of employer-led Vanguards, a group of businesses tasked with developing and refining workplace health approaches to build an evidence base for what works.
The report called on government to work towards developing into a voluntary standard by 2029. BSI has now been commissioned to undertake this work and oversee the development of a robust and recognised standard across the Healthy Working Lifecycle.
This work will follow BSI’s process for standards development, including the formation of a drafting panel and the creation of a draft for public comment, expected to be available in early 2027.
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.
“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.”
BSI led the development of the global standard on psychological health and safety at work (ISO 45003), building on earlier work to create the world’s first international OH&S management system standard (ISO 45001). Numerous organizations such as London Luton Airport are now certified to ISO 45003. By following its recommendations, the airport recorded significant improvements in the psychological health and wellbeing of employees. This included a 41% drop in mental health days lost and a 50% reduction in average days lost.
In 2023, BSI published the world’s first standard on menopause and menstruation support in the workplace, which has now been downloaded over 12,000 times across 139 countries. Last year BSI also published a pioneering standard on suicide and the workplace, which has already been downloaded 10500 times in under six months.
The Government’s report stated: “We will partner with BSI to integrate our approach to the Vanguard Phase with their robust methodology across this year and we believe that this approach to engaging stakeholders and developing the standard will be crucial in ensuring that feedback and insights from the broadest range of stakeholders are effectively incorporated and widely embraced.”
Find out more here.
About BSI:
BSI is a business improvement and standards company that partners with more than 77,500 clients globally across multiple industry sectors. BSI provides organizations with the confidence to grow by working with them to tackle society’s critical issues – from climate change to building trust in AI and everything in between - to accelerate progress towards a fair society and a sustainable world.
For over a century BSI has been recognized for having a positive impact on organizations and society, building trust and enhancing lives. Today BSI engages with a 15,000 strong global community of experts, industry and consumer groups, organizations and governments to deliver on its purpose by helping its clients fulfil theirs.
BSI is appointed by the UK Government as the National Standards Body and represents UK interests at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the European Standards Organizations (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI).
