Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Department’s publication of spending over £25,000 for November 2022, what the nature was of the (a) engagement activity and (b) creative work for which M and C Saatchi UK Ltd was paid £60,000 on 11 November 2022 under the heading Adult Mental Health Partnership engagements and creatives 20.

The Better Health – Every Mind Matters programme supports adults to take positive actions to support their own mental health. In addition to paid advertising, the programme relies heavily on engagement with a wide range of partner organisations who promote the campaign to their customers, staff and communities through channels and activities that cannot be bought through usual media buying processes.

The expenditure with M and C Saatchi UK Ltd supported a programme of engaging and negotiating support from businesses as diverse as banks, gyms, the building trade and driving schools, and the creation of a toolkit of campaign resources that all commercial, public sector and NGO partners can use, which includes creative assets such as social media posts, posters, newsletters etc.

For example, organisations might include content about, and signpost to, the Every Mind Matters programme in newsletters to customers, internal staff communications, promotion through their social media accounts, and face to face events. The combined reach of partners who provided supporting voices around Mental Health Awareness Week, May 2022 and World Mental Health Day, October 2022 was over 2.9 million.