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Welcome to the Better Health At Work Award portal

The Better Health at Work Award recognises the efforts of employers in the North East and Cumbria in addressing health issues within the workplace.  

The award scheme is FREE, flexible and open to all employers in the North East and Cumbria, regardless of size, location or type of business.

Many organisations already promote healthy lifestyles and consider the health of their employees.  This Award will recognise the achievements of these organisations and help them move forward in a structured and supported way.
For those organisations who have not considered promoting health at work, taking part in this award will help you reap the rewards of encouraging a healthy workforce.

The business case

Promoting a healthy workplace has considerable benefits for employers and can lead to decreased absenteeism, increased productivity and improved performance.

The business case

Award criteria

There are 5 levels  – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Continuing Excellence and Maintaining Excellence, with appropriate criteria at each stage to build into an Award Portfolio.

Award criteria

Case studies

Read about our success stories, covering a wide variety of organisations across the north east.

Case studies

Organisations are given up to a year per level, but there is flexibility for those who need it. Every employer/organisation who signs-up to participate in the Award scheme is supported by a dedicated Workplace Health Improvement Specialist.


Taking part in the Award does not affect the participant’s obligation to comply with the law, including health and safety and employment law.  It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure they are legally compliant in these matters and, therefore, the awarding body cannot be held accountable for any shortfalls in legislative compliance as a result of participation in the scheme.

The award is beneficial to the organisation as it prompts us to think outside the box, extend our health and wellbeing support into new and important areas that we might not necessarily touch upon usually; and it also holds us to account for conducting high quality, meaningful campaigns.

We joined the Award to ensure that our health and wellbeing work goes above and beyond the requirements outlined by the NHS health and wellbeing framework, helping to ensure that we support our colleagues across a variety of areas and that we can demonstrate excellence in doing so.

- Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Bronze 2021

The award is a declaration of our commitment to building a healthy and happy workplace culture for every employee. Designing a positive and engaging health and wellbeing offer where health inequalities are reduced is so important to us and we know we will achieve this with the support of BHAWA.

The award process provides structure for Better Health at Work. It provides support, guidance and networking opportunities to learn and improve. The opportunity to collaborate and hear about others practice across the region is always inspiring, we always come away buzzing with ideas.

- Sunderland City Council, Maintaining Excellence level

Our Hospice values the health and wellbeing of our staff and volunteers and the award is a fantastic way to be able to formalise our approach and provide a structure and focus to delivering health and wellbeing campaigns to our workforce.

The award has helped us to plan and focus more strategically on our priorities for campaigns and events with regards to health and wellbeing, following the structure provided by the award and with support from our workplace health lead.

- St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham

We chose to participate in the award programme as it is providing us with a structured and planned schedule of events and initiatives that supports our overarching health and wellbeing strategy and objectives. It is a key strand to use providing a holistic approach to our employees’ health and wellbeing.

The award programme has provided us with key benefits including pointers in data gathering, event planning and networking opportunities. The monthly health advocate meetings are invaluable in providing information on what local support is available to enable us to build up our calendar of events and provide relevant and engaging content to our employees on a variety of health topics.

We are excited to be part of this programme and look forward to progressing through the differing levels to provide real benefit to our workforce. This will ensure we continue to put health at the heart of Hitachi.

- Hitachi Construction Machinery Ltd, Bronze

We participated to provide a further structure, focus and sustainable framework to our wellbeing programme.

The Award offers full support in terms of co-ordinator and resource information including best practice ideas and structured targets to aim for  – it feels like we’re working together rather than in a silo!

- Northern Housing Consortium Limited, Sunderland

The BHAW network provides an excellent forum to engage with other local businesses and organisations sharing best practices, knowledge and resources to improve colleague wellbeing.

Access to knowledgeable workplace support advisors and supportive community of members is hugely beneficial,  assessment framework helps us measure our progress, and enjoy learning from other businesses and services as we support each other.

- Durham Constabulary, Durham
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