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Legal & General Group Protection launches Wellbeing Advisory Board
Insurer brings together cross-sector wellbeing experts to provide simple, accessible and practical health and wellbeing guidance, with Post-COVID-19 syndrome first area of focus.
28 Nov 2022
Legal & General Group Protection today announces the formation of its new Wellbeing Advisory Board; a body of experts across a range of clinical, occupational, vocational rehabilitation and business consulting fields.
The team of experts will work together to share cross-sector insights and will seek to help companies navigate through the increasingly complex healthcare landscape impacting their employees, in terms of the myriad of crossovers between the mental, physical, social and financial aspects of health and wellbeing. A guiding principle for the Board is the concept that work and health are inextricably linked, and in particular that “good” work impacts our overall wellbeing and should not be seen as a barrier to recovery.
The Board will initially focus on Post-COVID-19 syndrome; the terminology now being used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for Long-Covid symptoms that extend beyond 12 weeks.
An estimated 1.8 million people in the UK (83% of all those who were experiencing self-reported Post COVID-19 symptoms) had symptoms for at least 12 weeks after the first suspected COVID-19 infection, according to the latest data.2
The insurer says that the Board aims to provide accessible, simple and practical information including signposting, summaries and lived experience examples across the priority health and wellbeing issues of today. It aims to bring forward the positive role of work and working. For example, with long-term conditions there might be a tendency to focus on the medical condition, rather than the ability of the individual to engage in productive work.
As well as clinical, governance and general practitioner experts from Legal & General, the Board members include:
- Louise Aston, Wellbeing Campaign Director, Business in the Community (BITC)
- Debra Clark, Head of Specialist Consulting, Towergate
- Laura Matthews, Senior Wellbeing Consultant, Barnett Waddingham
- Antony Brown, President, Onebright
- Beverly Knops, Executive Manager, Vitality360
- Mike Tyler, Co-founder, Fruitful Insights
- Dr Julie Denning, Managing Director, Working To Wellbeing
- David Newman, Director, Form Health
- Lawrence Cramer, People & Culture Director, Inspired Villages
The Wellbeing Advisory Board says that their information and guidance will be aligned and integrated with relevant government initiatives, such as the NICE COVID-19 guidelines and the government’s - and group risk industry’s - response to the ‘Health is everyone’s business’ consultation.3, 4
Vanessa Sallows, Claims & Governance Director, Legal & General Group Protection: “There’s a lot of information out there about Post COVID-19 but also, arguably, a lot of confusion. Our goal is to cut through the complexity and make it easier for HR teams and anyone involved in sickness and absence management to understand the key principles of any issue or challenge and know where to go and what to do to take positive action to address it.“What COVID-19 has done is put the challenges of health and wellbeing into sharp focus – for employers and employees. Through the work of the Wellbeing Advisory Board – an amazing team of specialists – we hope to tackle the challenges, evolving thinking to ensure that good work is therapeutic and viewed positively by intermediaries, employers and beyond; in short, establishing a wellbeing framework for today’s workplace.”
Get #winter-ready – managing the impacts of Post-COVID on businesses: Register for webinar
Legal & General Group Protection is hosting a webinar with some of its Wellbeing Advisory Board members on 7 December, 2pm – 3pm, entitled ‘Get #winter-ready – managing the impacts of Post-COVID on businesses’.
For more information and to register, please click here: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/18451/565295?utm_source=LegalGeneralGroupProtection&utm_medium=brighttalk&utm_campaign=565295
References
1 Post-COVID-19 syndrome is defined as signs and symptoms of infection consistent with COVID-19 lasting longer than 12 weeks.
Long COVID is defined as signs and symptoms that continue or develop after acute COVID-19. It includes both ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 (from 4 – 12 weeks) and post-COVID-19 syndrome (12 weeks or more).
2 Office for National Statistics, Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: 3 Nov 2022 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/prevalenceofongoingsymptomsfollowingcoronaviruscovid19infectionintheuk/3november2022
3 NICE, COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing the long-term effects of COVID-19, March 2022 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng188/resources/covid19-rapid-guideline-managing-the-longterm-effects-of-covid19-pdf-51035515742
4 Department for Work & Pensions and Department of Health & Social Care, Government response: Health is everyone’s business https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/health-is-everyones-business-proposals-to-reduce-ill-health-related-job-loss/outcome/government-response-health-is-everyones-business#fnref:15
Further information
Notes to editors
Established in 1836, Legal & General is one of the UK's leading financial services groups and a major global investor, with £1.2 trillion in total assets under management (as at HY24) of which c40% (circa £0.5 trillion) is international.
We have a highly synergistic business model, which continues to drive strong returns. We are a leading international player in Institutional Retirement, in Retail Savings and Protection, and in both public and private markets through our Asset Management division. Across the Group, we are committed to responsible investing and dedicated to serving the long-term savings and investment needs of customers and society.
As at 11 December 2024, Legal & General has a market capitalisation of 13.7 billion.
Legal & General Retail helps create brighter financial futures for all our customers. The division covers the savings, protection and retirement needs of our c.14 million retail policyholders and workplace members.
In 2023, we had total individual annuity sales of £1,431 million, and issued £299 million of Lifetime Mortgages and Retirement Interest Only Mortgages. Our Workplace pension platform served 5.2 million members, while our Protection businesses gave peace of mind to several million direct, group and US customers, taking in £1,991 million of UK and $1,584 million of US gross written premiums.