Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the potential savings to the NHS of the provision of cognitive behavioural therapy services by employers.

The Government is exploring a range of policy options aiming to reduce ill-health related job loss.

The consultation ‘Health is Everyone’s Business: Proposals to Reduce Ill Health-related Job Loss’ closed in October 2019. It set out proposals to boost Government support available to employers to support employees who are managing health conditions in work and to manage sickness absence more effectively. It included proposals to encourage employers to take early, sustained and proportionate steps to support a sick employee to return to work.

While people with health conditions need timely delivery of effective treatment, available evidence shows that treatment alone is not enough to address occupational health issues.