Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Whately and Damian Green

Monday 27th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) (Con)]

6. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that employers are encouraged to recruit and retain people with mental health conditions.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Damian Green)]

We are making progress on the independent mental health and employers review, which is led by Lord Stevenson and Paul Farmer. We are also taking forward an internal review of discrimination law in relation to mental health and work. We continue to look at how we can improve employment support for people with mental health conditions, and this approach is reflected in the work and health Green Paper.

[Helen Whately]

I recently trained as a mental health first-aider. Such training helps people to support others with mental health problems, as well as to look after their own mental health. Will my right hon. Friend encourage more employers to take part in initiatives such as mental health first aid to create a culture in which everyone feels able to seek mental health support in the workplace?

[Damian Green]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on taking that training, which is very important. She is right that more employers should act. We are now providing a range of support to help employers to recruit and retain people with mental health conditions, including the Disability Confident campaign and the mental health support service in the Access to Work scheme, which many firms and those who suffer from mental health conditions find useful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Whately and Damian Green

Monday 17th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

It is not so much the conditions as the individuals. We apply the exemption on an individual basis, as there are clearly conditions where at some stages people will be able to work and at other stages they will not be able to work, so the exemption covers conditions that can only deteriorate as well as conditions that may stay the same. On timing, we will be consulting on a wide range of measures in the work and health Green Paper, which my predecessor promised would be with us by the end of the year, and I am happy to repeat that promise today.

[Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) (Con)]

I, too, welcome the announcement that people with severe lifelong conditions will no longer face repeated work capability assessments. My right hon. Friend has clearly recognised how stressful people find these assessments. Although mental health conditions can follow an unpredictable path, will he consider taking steps to reduce the stress and trauma experienced by people with long-term mental health conditions undergoing work capability assessments?

[Damian Green]

I am happy to try to reassure my hon. Friend about that because she is right. One of the things that has improved in the diagnosis field has been the number of people who have been correctly diagnosed with mental health conditions in recent years, and clearly this is a group who in some cases have particular difficulties in getting back to work. The stress and strain of constant reassessment may well contribute to that, so we are always looking at ways of improving the assessment that we do to make sure that they achieve what they are meant to achieve and do not just act as an increaser of strain on people.

Syrian Refugees: Resettlement

Debate between Helen Whately and Damian Green

Wednesday 27th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I thank the Minister and all hon. Members for their attendance to discuss this subject, which seems particularly fitting on Holocaust Memorial Day.

I am told that Syrian refugees arriving in Britain are asking three questions in particular: when can I learn English; when can I work; and when can my child go to school? A family who arrived in Kent in December already has an answer to the third of those questions. Their six-year-old daughter has now been at school in Ashford for four days. She proudly says that she has made a friend and learned how to write “dog” and “cat”. Her parents only wish that her sister could be at school, too, but her sister died last year in a refugee camp of a lung infection.

[Damian Green (Ashford) (Con)]

I am sorry to intervene so early in my hon. Friend’s speech, but she mentioned Ashford, so this is an appropriate time to ask her to join me in welcoming the courageous and correct initiative of Ashford Borough Council, which was so early in saying that it will provide accommodation for 250 Syrian families over the next five years, and its success in beginning to integrate them into British society.

[Helen Whately]

Ashford is one of several councils I have spoken to and the effort, commitment and even enthusiasm it is putting into welcoming refugees are inspiring. It is at the forefront of that effort.