Psychological Wellbeing at Work

Monday 20th January 2014 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Esther McVey)]

Poor mental health is a major issue for Government, society and for the many individuals either directly or indirectly affected by it. At any one time, around one in six people have a common mental health problem like anxiety or depression, and a further two in a hundred are affected by severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Additionally, we know many people suffer from both physical health and mental health problems at the same time.

The sheer number of people with mental health problems in work, and out of work, across all working-age benefits, makes this a mainstream issue for the Government. It represents an enormous challenge to both health and employment services, not just in the UK but across industrialised nations.

While none have yet established the best way to increase the effective support for people with mental health problems to work, the mental health benefits associated with good work are well known. We are working towards a solution and, if we get it right, the benefits for society will be substantial.

It is clear that health and work services need to work together, for example with flagship programmes like improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT) working more closely with local employment services. We are also developing the health and work service in order to support employees to return to work from sickness absence.

This need for collaboration between health and work services is precisely why my colleague the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), who is responsible for care and support, and I are vigorously pursuing solutions to this issue. Through the Cabinet Office’s Contestable Policy Fund, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health jointly commissioned RAND Europe to explore the most promising approaches on how to improve employment outcomes for people with common mental health problems, with a focus on better alignment of employment and health services.

Today we are launching RAND Europe’s report, “Psychological Wellbeing and Work: Improving Service Provision and Outcomes”. The report sets out key findings and advocates:

enhanced employment support in primary care including IAPT services, building on the employment advice currently offered in these services, with fully-specified support models like individual placement and support (IPS);

activities for benefit claimants with, or at risk of developing depression or anxiety to build belief in capability for work and increase emotional resilience to the setbacks people face when job seeking; and

different modes of specialist work and well-being assessments and support, including online, telephone and face-to-face.

The project report and its proposals will contribute to a better evidence base for action. It will enable both Departments to take forward our exploration into better mental health and employment provision—providing better approaches to help people with mental health problems to work.

The report will be published later today on the gov.uk website, and I will place a copy in the House Library.