Fund information
Research and practice innovation supporting people with long-term health conditions and disabled people over the age of 50 to remain in work or re-enter the workforce.
A total of £5.5 million is available across two rounds. This is drawn from our Oliver Bird Fund and partnership with Arthritis UK. Arthritis UK will support projects with an MSK focus as part of this broader funding call.
Background
Older workers bring a wealth of accumulated assets to the labour market and economy. For many people over the age of 50, being in good quality work helps maintain their living standards through continued earnings and pension accumulation. However, many older workers experience long-term health conditions or are disabled which makes working during their 50s and through to pension age harder. Whilst a substantial proportion remain in employment, for some, without the support needed, work becomes unmanageable. In 2024/5, 2.8 million working-age people were economically inactive due to long-term sickness, putting many at risk of financial hardship. Over half were aged between 50 and 64.
Countries such as Denmark, Germany and Norway have higher rates of employment among the older age group, suggesting there is scope for improvement in the UK. A range of policy responses are in place to address health related economic inactivity, including measures set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper. Programmes including WorkWell and Connect to Work aim to support disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to stay in, return to, or find work. The Keep Britain Working Review will lever the vital contribution employers can make.
To maximise benefit for disabled people and people with long-term health conditions over 50 who want to work, policy and practice needs to be targeted to them. Identifying effective ways of retaining people and taking early action to prevent job loss are especially key in a context where older and disabled workers can still face compounding disadvantage. Valuable learning and good practice already exist but are not always evaluated, shared or scaled. We want to support activity which capitalises on this knowledge to support and extend intervention to benefit a wider group of individuals, especially those facing greater disadvantage. We also want to support evidence gathering which makes a significant novel contribution to informing solutions where critical gaps exist.
What we will fund
We are looking to fund activity in two areas:
1. Extending what we know about effective approaches
Improving the evidence base for effective approaches to supporting people with long-term mental or physical health conditions or disabled people over the age of 50. These will enable remaining and progressing in work, or to make, ideally rapid, returns to employment, where doing so is beneficial.
You can consider any disability, long-term physical or mental health condition, or combinations of them, that have the potential to impact on working lives.
The focus can be on preventing long-term health conditions developing or escalating which limit people’s ability to remain in work, including by focusing earlier in people’s careers where there is a clear link through to enabling healthier working lives in later life.
We particularly want to extend knowledge about what works, for whom, in which settings and how broader implementation can be supported. This can be by:
- evaluating the impact and implementation of existing pilots or programmes that have potential to be scaled;
- understanding how scaling of effective approaches can be achieved; or,
- delivering and evaluating innovative approaches with a clear theory of change and potential for wider rollout.
Focusing on groups at greater risk of poor health, labour-market exit and disadvantage is especially welcome. Recognising that paid work is not always beneficial, especially when it is highly insecure or poorly designed, we will support activities that take account of this.
Activities can connect working lives to wider population health and place-based initiatives. They may include collaboration between employers, health services, local authorities, public health, private providers, and community infrastructure, for instance housing providers. We welcome consideration of partnership and integrated ways of working to address fragmented delivery and provide holistic support. You can take a whole place or organisation approach. Reflecting increasingly devolved, localised decision making, we are open to considering how principles for programme design can be tailored to local contexts.
Digital provision, as stand-alone or as part of a wider programme, is in scope.
2. Addressing barriers and seizing opportunities
We will support research and analysis on specific challenges faced by older disabled people and those with long-term health conditions staying in, or re-entering, work. This should lead to new insights that can inform action. For instance in relation to:
- groups of older workers who are at greater risk of poor health, wellbeing and economic outcomes and how sources of disadvantage interact and compound;
- employer attitudes, behaviours, and incentives to recruit and retain older disabled workers and those with health conditions;
- occupational sectors, types of organisations and job designs which create challenges for older workers with health conditions;
- opportunities and risks for older workers from the changing labour market, such as self-employment, flexible working and adoption of automation and AI;
- transitions among older workers, recognising that people move between different work statuses over time such as reducing hours or retraining before finally stopping work;
- enabling rapid return to employment, rather than intervening after extended absence;
- interactions between work and home lives which can particularly affect the working lives of older people, for example caring responsibilities;
- policy or benefit design, including in relation to incentivising more flexible approaches to work, and ensuring pension and benefit rules support continued employment for older disabled people and those with health conditions.
Relevant outcomes
Outcomes include increasing ability to remain in work or return to work, improving mental and physical health or intermediate goals such as increased confidence, individual productivity, and improved job quality. Activities may specifically target older workers, or drill down on this age group as part of a wider programme.
Preventing health conditions developing or escalating (through support beyond clinical care), so that they don’t become work limiting, including before people reach 50, is in scope as long as there is a direct and meaningful focus on achieving better outcomes for older workers.
What approaches are eligible?
You should propose approaches that are best suited to addressing your objectives and achieving programme outcomes. We are open to diverse and innovative methods and disciplinary perspectives.
Evaluation designs should be high quality but fit for purpose in a fast-moving context. Evaluations should include consideration of costs and cost effectiveness.
You can utilise new data sources or undertake novel data linkage where this will extend knowledge to inform intervention.
Eligible projects can include synthesis and knowledge exchange.
You should propose plans for involvement of people living with, or at risk of developing, health conditions and/or disabled people in the oversight and delivery of the project. Ideally, you should also meaningfully involve people with lived experience in the development and design of your proposal. Funds to support this can be included in the project budget.
We will fund activity that accounts for differences in local environments, noting that specific needs of the four UK nations’ devolved contexts require tailored solutions. We are open to applications focused in one devolved nation (but require a strong justification for this), making comparison between them or taking a cross UK perspective. International comparisons are in scope.
Who should apply?
We encourage collaboration between researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds and non-academic partners, which may include, but isn’t limited to employers and employer bodies, employment support providers, people with lived experience and health professionals.
Your organisation must be based in the UK.
We will not fund
Proposals for:
- clinical/ medical interventions or care;
- preventing or improving health conditions where the link to employment outcomes isn’t clear;
- supporting existing service provision or simply looking to roll out an established model in a new geographical area;
- new intervention or programme development where effective ones already exist;
- data collection as a standalone activity.
More information
Size and duration of grants
You can request up to £750,000 for up to 4 years. We will consider applications beyond this with prior discussion.
Our assessment criteria
The Nuffield Foundation’s Guide for Applicants sets out our general eligibility requirements and what we look for in a strong proposal. We’re particularly focused on:
- Relevance: Will your project make a new and significant contribution?
- Impact: Is there a clear path to how the research and related activities will make a difference?
- Rigour: Is your methodology appropriate and sufficiently rigorous?
- Experience: Does your team have the appropriate experience and expertise?
- Involvement of lived experience: Is meaningful involvement planned throughout?
- Value for money: Is your budget appropriate and good value for money?