Mental Health First Aid in the Workplace
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DEBATE PACK Number CDP-0281, 14 January 2019 Mental health first aid in By Thomas Powell Alexander Bellis the workplace Contents 1. Background 2 Summary 1.1 Government policy on mental health in the On 17 January 2019, there will be a Backbench Business debate on a motion workplace 2 regarding mental health first aid in the workplace. This debate will take place in 1.2 What is Mental Health the Commons Chamber. First Aid training? 4 1.3 Other Government The Conservative Government under Theresa May has made commitments to policy on Mental Health spread the use of mental health first aid (MHFA) in schools and amongst the First Aid 5 wider population. There have been calls to make MHFA mandatory in the 1.4 Mental Health First Aid workplace. Although not obligatory, the Health and Safety Executive’s First Aid in schools 6 guidance was updated in November 2018 to encourage employers to think 1.5 Devolved about their employees’ mental health and wellbeing needs. administrations 7 Scotland 7 Wales 8 Northern Ireland 8 2. News articles and press releases 9 Schools 9 Workplace MHFA 9 Official press releases 10 3. Further reading 11 3.1 Parliamentary material11 3.2 Reports 11 The House of Commons Library prepares a briefing in hard copy and/or online for most non-legislative debates in the Chamber and Westminster Hall other than half-hour debates. Debate Packs are produced quickly after the announcement of parliamentary business. They are intended to provide a summary or overview of the issue being debated and identify relevant briefings and useful documents, including press and parliamentary material. More detailed briefing can be prepared for Members on request to the Library. www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 Number CDP-0281, 14 January 2019 1. Background 1.1 Government policy on mental health in the workplace Statistics from the Department of Work and Pensions indicate that around 300,000 people with a long term mental health problem lose their jobs each year. Poor mental health is estimated to cost the UK economy between £74 billion and £99 billion a year. Analysis commissioned by the recent independent review into mental health and employment, found that the cost to employers is between £33 billion and £42 billion of this number.1 The Prime Minister commissioned the independent review into mental health and employment in 2017. Led by the former Chair of HBOS, Lord Dennis Stevenson, and Mind CEO, Paul Farmer, the review was one of a range of measures aimed at transforming mental health support in schools, workplaces and in the community. The review’s report, Thriving at Work, was published in October 2017 and recommended ‘mental health core standards’ that all employers can adopt to better support the mental health of their staff. The core standards include that employers should: • Produce, implement and communicate a mental health at work plan. • Develop mental health awareness among employees. • Encourage open conversations about mental health and the support available when employees are struggling. • Provide employees with good working conditions and ensure they have a healthy work life balance and opportunities for development. • Promote effective people management through line managers and supervisors. • Routinely monitor employee mental health and wellbeing. The Government response to the review was published in November 2017 and the section on Health and Safety is set out below: 205. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) play a key role promoting and protecting workplace health which is also a key strand of our agenda. Their work in the following areas are key to supporting our strategy on employers: • The HSE’s new Health and Work programme and ‘Go Home Healthy’ campaign prioritises action to tackle work- related stress and musculoskeletal disorders, as well as lung disease. • HSE is working with industry sectors and the wider health and safety community to promote and encourage action on these issues through advice, guidance and tools that enable 1 Deloitte, Mental health and employers: The case for investment. Supporting study for the Independent Review (October 2017) Mental health first aid in the workplace 3 employers, working with employees, to take effective, practical action. • HSE will implement the three recommendations made by the Stevenson/Farmer review as part of its role in both raising employer awareness of their duty to assess and manage work-related mental ill-health and building on its guidance to help employers deliver the mental health core standards. They will also play a role in supporting local authorities to adopt the same recommendations. Further information on the Government response to recommendations in this area can be found in annex C: Recommendations Government response 11 We recommend that the HSE accepts and will implement Health and Safety Executive this recommendation. revise its guidance to raise employer awareness of their duty to assess and manage work-related mental ill-health. 12 We recommend that the HSE accepts and will implement Health and Safety Executive this recommendation. builds on its risk assessment guidance and Management Standards approach by highlighting how these actions will help employers deliver key parts of the mental health core standards. 13 We recommend that Local We agree that in principle it would Authorities adopt the same be sensible for Local Authorities to recommendations as the mirror changes being made to HSE Health and Safety Executive processes. Before any changes are throughout its guidance and implemented we will need to work practices, and ensure join up with the Department for between public health and Communities and Local health and safety enforcement Government to assess the likely roles. impact on Local Authorities, including how we might mitigate any increased burden. In November 2018, the Health and Safety Executive updated their guidance to employers about First Aid in the workplace, adding a new section on mental health. It encourages employers to consider whether having staff trained in mental health awareness, including MHFA, would be beneficial for the company.2 This followed the publication of an open letter by Mental Health First Aid England calling for such training to be made mandatory in the workplace.3 2 First aid needs assessment, Health and Safety Executive, accessed 13 December 2018 3 HSE publishes first aid guidance on mental health, SHP, 22 November 2018 4 Number CDP-0281, 14 January 2019 Answering a Parliamentary Question on this subject in December 2018, the Government responded, The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 already allow for the consideration of mental health alongside physical health when undertaking a needs assessment. On the 21st November 2018 the Health and Safety Executive published guidance to clarify this point for employers. Key evidence reviews of the impact of mental health-type training in a workplace environment show that there are a number of knowledge gaps which mean it is not possible to say whether the training is effective in improving the management of mental health in workplaces, or whether it is the only effective mechanism for support. The research also identifies additional prevention and management actions that employers should put in place to create a comprehensive approach. In January 2017, the Prime Minister commissioned Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer, the Chief Executive of Mind, to conduct an independent review into how employers can better support all employees, including those with mental ill health or wellbeing, to remain in and thrive at work. “Thriving at Work: The Stevenson / Farmer review of mental health and employers was published in October 2017.” In November 2017, the joint DWP/DHSC Work and Health Unit (WHU) published “Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability” setting out plans for three key settings: welfare system, workplace and health system, and also set out the Government’s response to “Thriving at Work”. This response welcomed a key recommendation from the ‘Thriving at Work’ review for employers to adopt a set of core mental health standards that will provide a comprehensive approach to transforming mental health in the workplace. Government is committed to working with the authors of the review and key stakeholders across the public, private and voluntary sectors to ensure that employers of all sizes act to implement the core and enhanced standards and help them, and their employees, realise the benefits of healthy, inclusive workplaces. Therefore, the Government’s view is that the best way to secure employer action is to engage with employers on a voluntary basis to implement the comprehensive mental health core standards approach rather than legislate on a single issue.4 An Early Day Motion tabled in October 2016 asked the Government to: commit to the principle of equality for mental health in the workplace by amending first aid regulations and guidance to require every organisation to have trained Mental health first aiders, and to ensure that employers are aware that their first aid obligations relate both to physical and mental health issues.5 1.2 What is Mental Health First Aid training? According to Mental Health First Aid England, the concept of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training was first developed in Australia, but has since spread globally.6 Their website adds that 4 HL11674 Mental Health Services: Employment, 5 December 2018 5 MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID, Early Day Motion 505, 10 October 2016 6 About MHFA England, MHFA England website, accessed 13 December 2018 Mental health first aid in the workplace 5 MHFA came to England in 2007 and was launched under the Department of Health: National Institute of Mental Health in England (NIMHE) as part of a national approach to improving public mental health. In 2009 we became a community interest company which allows us to be fully self-funded.