A regional initiative · Yorkshire & the Humber
Yorkshire has the workforce.Now it needs the intelligenceto unlock it.
Parachute is a workforce intelligence system connecting employers, commissioners and policymakers across the region around a single evidence base that turns health data into productivity gains.
Making Yorkshire and the Humber the UK's first region to drive productivity gains by transforming workforce health through data, collaboration and innovation.
Yorkshire and the Humber - the numbers
Life expectancy in England, for men and women. The gap with more affluent regions is widening.
Source: YHealth4Growth, 2024
Spent annually by employers across the region on workforce health, without shared intelligence on what's working.
Lost in productivity every year across the North as a result of health inequalities.
Source: Health Innovation Y&H, 2024
The return on participation
What does this mean for your organisation and for the region?
The ROI case starts at the employer level and scales to the region. Each number is the previous one multiplied - whether you're redirecting existing spend or making the case for investing for the first time.
Per 1,000 employees
£334k
Targeted productivity gain for each participating employer - from smarter use of existing wellbeing spend, not new investment.
Across the initiative
£33.4m
Combined productivity gain across 50+ participating organisations and 100,000+ employees - the collective return on shared intelligence.
Regional annual gain
~£1bn
What a 5% annual reduction in lost productivity adds to Yorkshire and the Humber's economy - every year, compounding over time.
Not new spend. Better spend.
Participating employers spend an average of £485 per employee on health and wellbeing. Parachute shows you what's working, what isn't, and where to redirect it.
A regional opportunity
Yorkshire and the Humber can lead the country on this. The conditions have never been better.
The national agenda has arrived. The Keep Britain Working Review calls for exactly this kind of regional vanguard - evidence-led, employer-driven, and built on shared data. The YHealth4Growth partnership has spent years establishing the evidence base. And Yorkshire has the scale, the anchor employers, and the economic ambition to make it real.
This is the moment to move from evidence to action. Making Yorkshire and the Humber the UK's first region to drive measurable productivity gains through workforce health intelligence.
Aligned with the national agenda
Find your place
This initiative operates at four levels: it empowers organisations to invest in their people and workplaces with evidence; it puts individuals at the heart of the transformation; at regional scale it creates intelligence no single organisation could build alone — and for sponsors, it is the opportunity to lead and shape a defining moment for the region.
Stop guessing. Start measuring.
Employers across the region invest significantly in workforce health. The challenge is knowing whether it's working, and understanding what your workforce actually needs. Parachute measures what capacity loss is costing you, identifies what's driving it, and gives you the evidence to act. Your own diagnostic. Sector benchmarks. An accredited directory of solutions matched to your people's specific needs.
The intelligence that connects the system.
Population-level intelligence on the drivers of health inequalities and capacity loss, by sector, by cohort, by location. The evidence base to align regional initiatives, inform commissioning decisions and evidence programme impact.
Your 7 minutes shapes what happens next.
A short, confidential survey, fully anonymised, never individually identifiable. Your participation gives your employer the evidence to build the workplaces and support that people actually need, and connects them to local and national solutions that fit.
Lead what the region builds.
Founding sponsors are the organisations making this possible, shaping governance, lending credibility and placing themselves at the centre of something with lasting regional and national significance. Named recognition. An influencing voice. A founding role.
Other ways to be part of it
Shape how the intelligence generated connects to regional efforts already underway, across health, economic growth and workforce participation. Contribute to cross-system analysis and help ensure the data informs the decisions that matter most to the North.
Get in touchA directory of accredited services connecting evidence-based interventions, providers and community programmes with employers, so employees can find and access the support that's right for them, informed by the data.
Get in touchParachute is grounded in research and continues to develop through active academic collaboration. Institutions and universities, in the UK and beyond, are invited to be part of that.
Get in touchThe people shaping this initiative
An independent Advisory and Governance Board, drawn from business, health, academia and the public sector, provides oversight, constructive challenge and regional advocacy across the initiative.
Founder & CEO, Myndtime · NED, Angel & VC Investor
Professor of Organisational Psychology & Health, Alliance Manchester Business School
Professor of Psychology & Mental Health, University of Manchester
Professor of Work & Employment, University of Leicester · Evolve, PrOPEL, WISHES
Pro-VC Enterprise Partnerships & Engagement, University of York
CEO, Society of Occupational Medicine
Head of Occupational Health, Yorkshire Water
Charity & Public Sector Leader
CEO & CCO, Co-Founders, Parachute