Latest / The SOM Podcast / SOM NEWS UPDATE - JULY 2026

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SOM NEWS UPDATE - JULY 2026 · The SOM Podcast

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  Speaker 1: This podcast is sponsored by orchid Live. Find out more
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  at orchidlive dot com. Here's your SOM news update for
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  July twenty twenty six. I'm Steve Randall. Some recently published
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  new guidance on supporting employees at work during fertility treatment
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  and pregnancy loss. Increasingly relevant workplace issues, Rising female workforce participation,
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  later parenthood and assisted conception mean more employees will experience
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  these events during employment. Both fertility treatment and pregnancy loss
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  can significantly affect physical health, mental state, attendance, performance, and retention.
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  While specific legal protections are limited, employers have health and
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  safety duties as well as obligations under the Equality Act
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  twenty ten. You can check the link in the show
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  notes for the guidance. The Key Britten Working Program says
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  it's building momentum to transform workplace health across the UK.
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  More than two hundred and fifty employers, healthcare providers and
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  other organizations have helped shape proposals for a new national
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  approach aimed at preventing ill health, supporting people to stay
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  in work, and improving return to work support. The program
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  is also developing a new workplace health standard exploring better
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  use of data to drive earlier intervention and working on
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  a national Workplace Health Intelligence Unit. The next phase will
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  focus on testing the proposals and building consensus with employers, employees,
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  government and health providers before wider implementation. There's a link
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  to the update in the show notes. Some has launched
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  a new project to improve the health of artisanal and
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  small scale miners with a research and training project in Karnataka, India.
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  Supported by Kniebosch's Social Purpose Fund, the initiative will train
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  healthcare professionals in occupational health while carrying out research with
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  miners and their communities. The project aims to improve diagnosis
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  of mining related illnesses such as respiratory disease, while gathering
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  much needed evidence to inform future policy and workplace health interventions.
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  The world. Work will be delivered in partnership with Saint
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  John's Medical College in Bengaluru, helping to improve health outcomes
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  in one of India's largest informal mining sectors. No some
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  events in August, but there are plenty of opportunities to
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  boost your CPD thanks to some podcasts mini CPD episodes.
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  Recent topics include Hearing Loss and Tenatus with Claire Foreshaw.
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  Speaker 2: Hearing Loss allegedly doesn't kill people. You know, a lot
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  of people find tintus so intrusive and so impactful on
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  their lives that then in extreme cases, people have resulted
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  in taking their own life because it's such an invasive
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  issue for them to deal with. Most we shouldn't have
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  to struggle with these things, you know, if we can
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  prevent them, if we can educate these health issues, you know,
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  we can take them more seriously and look to protect
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  ourselves rather than putting up with these things.
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  Speaker 1: Going independent As an OH practitioner with doctor Lanray Ogenyemi.
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  Speaker 3: Being independent gives you an unusual amount of flexibility and autonomy,
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  which a bras in occupation is something really that I
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  find really attractive and I think for a lot of
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  people is also the attractions of pisional health knowing that
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  they have that option. You don't have to be in
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  the big old NHS. You have other options beyond NHS
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  or big big employers.
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  Speaker 1: And sleep health and the role of OH professionals with
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  doctor Bernard Steep.
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  Speaker 4: One should actually always be a stick between two am
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  and four I was just at point if you clock
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  up enough hours but you are awake in the point
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  of sleep studies demonstrated interfacuable performance.
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  Speaker 1: There will also be a new Mini CPD episode next
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  week focusing on burnout with Julie's Resolve.
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  Speaker 5: The numbers are quite frightening if you think about the
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  number of people who may be suffering from burnout and
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  the occupations that are suffering more than others with regard
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  to the number of people that have burnout in their sectors,
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  and one would have thought that the modern technologies would
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  actually help ease these things out. But this constant accessibility
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  actually never lets your body rest, never lets your brain
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  to actually stable down and go back to the condition
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  that is actually not excitable. So the cycle of excitability
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  requires to have a cycle off rest after that. But
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  a constant excitability is what leads us to believe that
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  burnout happen.
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  Speaker 1: Some members get all the news first in the e
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  News email, and remember to catch up with our other
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  podcast episodes in the same place you're listening to this one.
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  They include Special Interest Group, Occupational Therapist, and Mini CPD series.
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  And until next time, thanks for listening to the Some
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  News Update. This podcast is sponsored by orchid Live. Orchid
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  Live is a specialist occupational health software used by a
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  number of some members to run every aspect of their
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  occupational health operations. They hold healthcare records for over one
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  million UK workers and work with both in house OH
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  teams and OH Provide. You can find out more at
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  orchidlive dot com