In a collaboration with the CBI, Business for Health has been engaging with industry to create a Business Framework for Health. The core purpose of the Framework is to measure business contribution to health and promote the role of business in creating a healthier nation - recognising that health is the foundation for wellbeing and economic growth. The proposed Framework and Business Index aim to showcase what good business-led health intervention looks like, detailing the benefits to both workforce health and business growth.

Click here to download the full Framework report launched in October 2020.

Click here for the press release.

A Business Coalition for a Healthier Nation was one of the key recommendations of The Health of the Nation Strategy published in February 2020. 

‘Business for Health’ -as it is now called- has been set up as a community interest company and was launched on 11 November 2020 in collaboration with MADWorld as part of Longevity Week.  It is supported with funding from Legal & General, Phoenix Group, AXA Health, UK Research & Innovation, Centre for Ageing Better and Health Foundation. More details are on the website here.

It is a business-led coalition of socially responsible employers, purchasers, investors and innovators.  Its aim is to enhance the health and economic resilience of the UK, catalysing and facilitating business contributions to reduce health inequalities and add five years to healthy life expectancy.

Matt Hancock, (former) Secretary of State for Health and Care, said:   “I am delighted that a Business Coalition for a Healthier Nation is being formed – as employers, investors and innovators, business will make vital contributions to reduce future pandemic risks through prevention, improve healthy life expectancy and build economic resilience in communities across our nation. If this pandemic has taught us anything it's that our health and prosperity are completely interlinked. I look forward to working with them in the future.”

Business for Health CIC is seen as valuable by two related government initiatives - the UK Longevity Council and the Government’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge with its £300m investment fund to maximise business contributions to HLE+5.

The coalition is supported by a growing number of business and academic leaders:

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever who has since co -founded Imagine, a business collective for global systems change, supports the Coalition and says: “Absolutely crucial what you are starting”.

Professor Baron Peter Piot KCMG, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine;  Founding Executive Director of UNAIDS;  Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission on research and innovation for Covid-19, supports our work too. He says: ”Covid-19  illustrates how important it is to prevent the development of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease through healthy lifestyles. We live in a completely obesogenic environment. In order to have a better future for everybody, we need to not only work on our own health but also respect the health of the planet.  A risk management framework for health like we have in place for climate change seems essential.”

How to get involved

We are keen to hear from organisations who’d like to get involved in furthering the mission of ‘Business for Health’.  Please join our Register of Interest here and we will get in touch.

To inform Business for Health we held a series of online round tables on 5th, 11th, 14th and 19th May 2020 in collaboration with our strategic partner Longevity Leaders.

The Wrap-Up Summary on the final day of Longevity Leaders Virtual Conference on the 22nd May communicated core themes, ideas and areas of consensus from these Round Tables and outlined ‘What Next’. The full report of the four round tables and summary can be accessed here.