Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2023 to Question 5438, if he will make an estimate of the number of people that are waiting for (a) trauma and (b) orthopaedic treatment and are unable to work until they receive treatment as of 12 December 2023; and what steps he is taking to help these people re-enter the workforce.

The Department has not made such an assessment.

The Government is taking several steps to help support people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. In the Spring Budget, the government set out a package of measures to tackle the leading health-related causes keeping people out of work, including people with MSK conditions:

• Introducing employment advisors within MSK services, including to support people with MSK conditions to thrive in work;
• Developing and scaling up MSK hubs in the Community, building on the example of delivering physical activity interventions in local leisure and community centre venues.
• Making best use of digital health technologies to support people with MSK conditions to better manage symptoms and remain in the workforce. This will include providing access to digital therapeutics for MSK problems.

As announced in the Autumn Statement, to tackle rising economic inactivity, government is investing £2.5 billion over the next five years, building on the existing package of support that helps disabled people and individuals with health conditions, including MSK, to work. This includes:

• a WorkWell service that will join up employment and health support at the local level to help keep people in work. WorkWell services will be in place from Autumn 2024 and will be delivered in approximately 15 pilot areas.
• Doubling of Universal Support, a new, voluntary employment programme for inactive disabled people and those with health conditions and additional barriers to employment, from 50,000 people a year announced in Spring Budget to 100,000 people a year once fully rolled out.
• Improving the quality of occupational health for employers through the development of new voluntary national baseline for employers to help them retain and recruit disabled workers.
• An expansion of access to mental health services, increasing the number of people accessing NHS Talking Therapies to benefit an additional 384,000 people over the next five years and helping an additional 100,000 people with severe mental illness to find and keep jobs in that same period through Individual Placement and Support (IPS)