§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes in employers' policy and practice the Working Minds programme seeks to achieve; and if he will make a statement on how he intends to monitor progress and measure success. [17091]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 22 November 2001]: The Working Minds programme is working in partnership with employers to: increase awareness and improve understanding of mental health issues among employers and employees; eliminate discrimination on the grounds of mental health within the workplace and during employee recruitment; improve workplace policies on mental health and promote best practice in the management of mental health at work; and promote improved management and fair treatment of staff experiencing mental health problems in the workplace.
The campaign does not dictate changes in policy and practice, but provides the information to encourage employers to take action, along with signposts to further resources provided by specialist organisations. Every employer is different, so each will want to develop specific policies and practices that are appropriate for their own size, structure, objectives and culture, within a time scale that is appropriate for them.
Changing individual behaviour and organisational culture will take a sustained effort on behalf of employers and a considerable amount of time. We would therefore not expect to see immediate improvements in workplace policy and practice on mental health. However, we are able to monitor the immediate impact of the campaign. At the start of the Working Minds programme, we conducted research among human resource managers to evaluate their awareness of, and approach to, mental health in the workplace. We will repeat this research at intervals to measure the progress the campaign is making in putting mental health on the workplace agenda. We are also embarking on an evaluation programme which will measure take-up of campaign materials and specifically evaluate how useful employers have found the information, and what action they are taking as a result of the campaign.