The UK Government should develop a national approach to workplace mental health, set targets and support businesses to address the rise in mental ill health, according to RoSPA’s groundbreaking Safer Lives, Stronger Nation report.

The report, which brings together 20 years of accident data from all four nations for the first time, outlines the key health and safety issues facing the UK alongside a raft of recommendations to tackle them.

Mental health at work represents a major challenge, with statistics showing that the incidence of mental illness among adults is rising, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase is of particular concern to businesses and workers, with the highest rates of mental ill health found among those of working age. Stress, depression and anxiety are cited by workers as serious problems impacting their jobs, with the three conditions accounting for 49 per cent of long-standing work-related health issues in 2022/23. Combined, work-related stress, depression or anxiety occurs in about three per cent of workers annually, resulting in over 17 million lost working days, costing over £177bn.

Under health and safety law, employers have a legal duty to protect workers, including from work-related stress, by identifying hazards and risks and taking action to reduce them where practically possible. However, if managers are not trained to identify these risks as part of their risk assessment process, to spot issues, signs and symptoms, or to support staff, then this raises the question of how effective risk reduction will be in practice. Leadership in these areas needs to come from the top of the organisation.

It is also important to improve employees’ access  to suitable occupational health services and support. While this is well developed in many businesses, many workers, particularly those in many SMEs, still do not have access to a suitably trained or empowered occupational health professional.

The main recommendations made in RoSPA’s report are:

• Workers should have universal access to Occupational Health practitioners
• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should review its HSE Stress Management Standards and then ensure that they are embedded in the training and continuing professional development of all managers, workers’ representatives and health and safety professionals
• HSE should use its powers to require businesses with significant unaddressed stress problems to introduce mental health change programmes under the supervision of outside experts
• Government should develop a national approach to workplace mental health, set targets and support businesses to build the capacity required to address this issue.

Read the full report here