Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to address the stigma of mental health problems amongst healthcare workers.

The Government included in its Mandate to NHS England an objective for them to “make partnership a success”. This includes “championing the Time to Change campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues and reduce stigma, including in the NHS workforce”.

In taking this forward, NHS England recently announced the "A healthy NHS workforce" initiative. This aims to raise staff awareness and understanding of mental health issues, helping to ensure they have access to help, support and treatment when they need it. A copy of the announcement is attached.

“A healthy NHS workforce” includes, for example, line manager trainingand, providing NHS staff rapid access to talking therapies. Thisis currently being tested as part of the Healthy Workforce programme led by NHS England.

In addition, NHS Employers have launched the How are you feeling NHS? toolkit. This has been developed with NHS staff to help bridge a gap in understanding and enable them to: talk openly and regularly about their emotional health; assess the impact emotional wellbeing has on themselves, their colleagues and patients, and help with action planning to enable more good days than bad. The online only resource can be found at:

www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/retain-and-improve/staff-experience/health-work-and-wellbeing/protecting-staff-and-preventing-ill-health/how-are-you-feeling-nhs-toolkit