Engaging with employers to protect the health of night shift workers

Key partnership information

Partner: The Liminal Space

Funding amount: £568,947

Duration: April 2021 – April 2024

Programme: multiple long-term conditions

What we’re doing together

In 2020, we partnered with The Liminal Space, a creative consultancy and design studio, to pilot a project to engage employers and night shift workers to create healthier working experiences. This built on their Night Club programme.

More people work night shifts than ever before, and this has grown to over 7 million people since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Night shift work can have a profound effect on people’s mental and physical health, and there is mounting evidence that it contributes to a number of long-term health conditions including heart disease, diabetes and depression.

In our pilot project, The Liminal Space worked with Veolia, a refuse and recycling company with around 300 employees at their Southwark centre.  The focus of this intervention was on sleep and associated health issues that result from working in a way that disrupt circadian rhythms.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, through interviews and site visits with night shift and frontline workers, The Liminal Space created Supporting Our Staff (SOS), a second iteration of Night Club to offer employees support during a particularly challenging period.  These resources were designed to support employee mental health, promote good quality sleep and provide advice for dealing with relationships and anxiety, and included consultations with ‘Dr Sleep’ – a sleep science expert.