The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked by the Department of Health (DH) to develop a public health guideline on Workplace policies and approaches to promote and protect the health of older employees.

A series of evidence reviews and an economic analysis are to be conducted to address the questions that are set out in the scope.

• Final scope

Please note that the guidance will cover employees in micro, small, medium and large organisations. This includes volunteers. People who are self-employed but who have a line manager within one of the organisations they work for, are also covered.

We are interested in a range of evidence relevant to this guidance including:

• Effectiveness of interventions (including workplace policies)
• Cost effectiveness, resource use and outcomes
• Barriers and facilitators to effective and equitable intervention

More specifically, we seek evidence to help address the questions outlined below.

1.  What are the most effective and cost-effective methods of protecting and promoting the health and wellbeing of older workers at both an individual and organisational level? What supports, or prevents, implementation of these methods?

2.  What are the most effective and cost-effective methods of supporting workers who wish to continue in employment up to and beyond the state pension age? What supports, or prevents, implementation of these methods?

What are the most effective and cost-effective ways of helping older workers plan and prepare for retirement? What supports, or prevents, implementation of these methods?

Related to each of the questions outlined above, we welcome relevant evidence related to awareness raising and prevention of conditions that are more common or may be associated with older age. These could include sensory abilities of sight and hearing or musculoskeletal function.   

Equalities

We are particularly interested in evidence that may help to better promote equality of opportunity relating to age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or socio-economic status. Subgroups that may be missed by conventional services are of particular interest.

NICE cannot accept

Please note that the following material is not eligible for consideration:

• Promotional material.
• Unsubstantiated or non-evidence-based assertions of effectiveness.
• Opinion pieces.
• Electronic attachments or hard copies of published material.

Published material

Please send either full reference details (including author/s, title, date and journal and volume and issue number and page numbers, if available) using the published material submission form by 5:00 pm 10 July 2014 to WorkplaceOlderEmployees@nice.org.uk.

Please note – NICE can only accept references to published material - do not attach or provide hard copies of published material.

Unpublished material

We realise that you may wish to submit relevant unpublished data or studies.

We can accept links, electronic attachments or hard copies of unpublished ‘grey’ literature such as service evaluations or descriptions of practice.

Please refer to summary below or section 4.4 of the Process Manual for development of public health guidance for information on submissions of confidential material.

Ongoing research

If you are aware of studies/ongoing research relevant to our questions which are in progress please could you help us to identify that information by providing relevant information such as a link to the protocol for the ongoing research.

Confidential information

If you wish to submit material that is ‘academic in confidence’ (such as a pre-publication manuscript) or ‘commercial in confidence’ (such as documentation for an internal audience), you must highlight which sections of your submission are confidential by using a highlighter pen on hard copy or the highlighter function of your text editor/viewer application for electronic submissions.

Please send details of relevant unpublished evidence using the unpublished material submission form by 5:00 pm 10 July 2014 to WorkplaceOlderEmployees@nice.org.uk.

Alternatively, send completed forms (with hard copy of unpublished evidence, if applicable) to:

Denise Jarrett
Project Coordinator - Centre for Public Health
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Level 1A
City Tower
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester
M1 4BT
United Kingdom

We look forward to receiving your response to this call for evidence.

Thank you in advance for your important contribution to this guidance.