A small Cumbrian occupational health business is celebrating after gaining national endorsement for the quality of its work.
Choose Occupational Health, based in Hartington Street Carlisle, was built up by former nurse Sandra Holliday, despite setbacks from flooding, the pandemic and tough personal challenges.
Sandra, and her team of nine staff, recently achieved the industry’s gold standard accreditation called Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service.
It is only awarded after a rigorous independent assessment process and Choose is one of only two occupational health businesses in Cumbria to be granted it.
“The team was absolutely buzzing when we found out we had been successful,” said Sandra.
“It took over a year and involved a huge amount of work. We had to submit a lot of evidence across 50 different standards.
“We did a huge piece of work on training and our staff attended around 20 courses, and our clinical lead Tracy Bland gained a first-class honours degree during the process.”
Choose Occupational Health has more than 500 clients across Cumbria ranging from some of the county’s biggest firms with 1,000 employees through to small businesses with half a dozen.
Clients include manufacturers, local authorities, primary and secondary schools, colleges, GP surgeries, dental practices and charities.
Services include help in meeting legal obligations, health screening, absence management and support services such as counselling, stress management and physiotherapy.
The accreditation is voluntary, and assessors are national independent experts in their field. The accreditation stands for five years subject to yearly monitoring.
“Currently there are about 183 businesses with this accreditation in the UK and only one other in Cumbria,” said Sandra.
“It gives businesses reassurance we are at the industry recognised standard, that we know what we are doing and the support we are going to provide will be legally robust.”
Sandra, who comes from Carlisle, began her career as a nurse working at the Cumberland Infirmary and as a district nurse.
She said: “For the last 13 years I have run and owned this business. Getting this accreditation brings a sense of achievement; after all those years of working with your head down, this is external confirmation that what I have built and the team have delivered on, is a good service.”
In 2015 the business was flooded out of its initial premises and the team were “nomads for 18 months,” said Sandra, until her father, George Brown, helped them buy their current “forever home” in the city centre away from Carlisle’s flood zone.
“It has not always been easy and during lockdown, things were really tough,” said Sandra. “My dad was diagnosed with dementia and in February 2022 he died of Covid just before I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I aimed to develop this business for Cumbria so when they said yes, we had achieved the accreditation, it felt like it validated everything.”
Choose Occupational Health began as part of a private enterprise called CueDoc Holdings Ltd which was founded by a group of local GPs. Sandra had been tasked with developing the service and she bought it out in 2011.
“What makes us special is the fact we try to get to know and understand our clients and build a working relationship. It’s all about how we can help them,” she said.
“We changed the name to Choose because we realised the most effective and satisfying work we do is with the clients who choose to engage with occupational health and wellbeing and want to make a difference to their team.”
In-demand services include help with fitness for work and absence management support.
Sandra says many businesses are facing financial pressures and finding recruitment a challenge.
Looking after employees’ occupational health and wellbeing helps recruitment and retention, and supporting staff through sickness and their return means fewer days absence, she said.
“It has a direct impact on the productivity of the business,” said Sandra. “If employees can see that managers want them to be safe and well in their work and supported when they are not well, they are more loyal.”
Choose Occupational Health draws on an extensive wider team of professionals including occupational health physicians, counsellors, physiotherapists and an educational psychologist.
“We want to celebrate the success the team have had in developing our services to the level where we have achieved this accreditation, and let people know about the high quality of our service,” said Sandra.
“If there are Cumbrian businesses which are not sure about occupational health, we are very happy to talk to them and support them.”
