INFORMATION RESOURCES ON MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
< Child and adolescent mental health | Guidance on management of mental health problems >
Mental Health of the Workforce
Page contents
Ministerial Task Force on Health and Safety at Work - “Managing Sickness Absence in the Public Sector” and “One Year On” Reports
Work related stress is the major cause of sickness absence in the public sector, prevalent across all types of work and occupation.
The Ministerial Task Force on Health, Safety and Productivity and the Cabinet Office produced a joint report on Managing Sickness Absence in the Public Sector in December 2004. This was followed in November 2005 by the ‘One Year On' report which summarised progress against key recommendations.
Managing Sickness Absence in the Public Sector contained a detailed analysis of comparative surveys and data. These indicated that:
- Average recorded absence in the civil service and wider public sector is higher than in the private sector.
- Sickness absence is most pronounced among junior grades, increases with age, and is generally more common among women than men.
- Long term absence (particularly stress related) appears to have increased in recent years.
A number of system changes were recommended, for example:
- Sickness absence becoming the responsibility of senior management
- Improvement of management information systems
- Managers to be trained in the systems and procedures skills needed to deal with sickness absence
One Year On summarised progress against the key recommendations of the earlier report. Although it was recognised that some of the measures recommended take time to be worked through and implemented, there were some grounds to believe the work was already having an impact. For example:
- Cabinet Office statistics for civil service absence showed a reduction in the average number of working days lost per member of staff from 10.1 days in 2003 to 9.1 days in 2004
- Early signs from the Best Value Performance Indicators information indicated that average sickness across all local authorities had reduced by approximately half a day
Overall, this report concludes that action is in hand across the public sector to tackle sickness absence, and early indications show that this is starting to feed through into reductions in days lost.
Health and Safety Executive Data from Labour Force Survey
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) commissioned surveys in conjunction with the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in 1990, 1995, 2001/02 and 2003/04 on self-reported work-related illness. The surveys provide an indication of the overall scale of work-related illness and its distribution by a range of demographic and employment-related variables.
The 2003/04 survey shows that:
- An estimated 1.3% of people who have ever worked in Great Britain believed they were suffering from stress, depression or anxiety that was caused or made worse by their current or past work
- An estimated 12.8 million days were lost in 2003/04 through stress, depression or anxiety caused or made worse by work
- Prevalence rates are similar for men and women, but the incidence rate is higher for women
- Prevalence rates are higher among employees than the self-employed
The following report gives further detailed analysis of the HSE survey findings regarding stress in the workplace. It includes information on:
- Context
- Key points from 2003/04 survey
- Prevalence and incidence by:
- age and gender
- country and region
- socio-economic group
- occupation
- industry
- Working days lost
HSE Work-related Stress Management Guidelines
The Health and Safety Executive have produced Management Standards and tools to help employers and employees work together to prevent excessive work-related stress. The material is intended to help organisations meet their existing duty of care and their duty to assess the risk of work-related stress. The standards define the characteristics, or culture, of an organisation where stress is being managed effectively. The toolkit consists of a survey and continuous improvement model which enables organisations to measure their progress and effectiveness of interventions. The Guidance provides advice on:
- developing a stress policy;
- securing management commitment;
- using the HSE stress survey;
- using the HSE analysis tool;
- developing a stress policy;
- setting up and running focus groups;
- targets to be achieved;
- action plan template.
Workplace interventions for people with common mental health problems (BOHRF, 2005)
The British Occupational Health Research Foundation have published a systematic review of current evidence on how to reduce absence from work due to common mental health problems. The review is designed to provide evidence-based answers on key questions related to mental ill health in the workplace. It is intended to assist managers, occupational health professionals and other interested parties in making management decisions and offering advice based on the most robust evidence available.
< Child and adolescent mental health | Guidance on management of mental health problems >
PAGE CREATED: 17 November 2009 | PAGE REVISED: