Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 3:02 pm on 1 March 2017.
It’s no surprise to me that mental health reasons are a significant cause of workplace absence. From my previous time outside this place, as well as within it, I would be surprised if that were not the case. Our challenge is: how do we recognise it and the issues about stress within the workplace? We have specific programmes of activity, working with employers, and the awards we give about encouraging employers to take better and more anticipatory care of their workforce—recognising the significant gains to them as a business from doing so—as well as how we support people if they are out of the workplace. There’s something there about investing in occupational services in both the private and the public sectors to take care of our workers, and then, if people do need to access specialist mental health services and talking therapies, we, of course, have invested in those services successfully and progressively. This institution, as an Assembly, and, indeed, the Government, has recognised for a number of years the need to treat mental and physical health with a parity of esteem, and that has led to further investment in mental health services. We’re the first part of the UK to have meaningful working-time standards, and, actually, our performance against those is relatively good. However, there is more ground to achieve and more to be done. So, we can take some comfort in what we have done already and the priority for this area of action, but there’s much more to do before any of us can say that we’re satisfied.