We know that the work that we do, the fulfilment and the enjoyment that we get from it, and the achievements that we realise through our working lives, are often a key factor in our overall sense of well-being. We also know that, even with those positive effects, sometimes we find ourselves under pressure or working with others who are under pressure for reasons in their work or their personal lives. I know this not just from my time here but my time before this place when I was an employment lawyer and much of the disability discrimination that I dealt with in terms of giving advice and representation was actually about work-related stress or employers not dealing with factors from outside of work that affect their ability to work. So, this is a long and consistent theme of the challenge that comes from not properly recognising mental health pressures and how employers and employment can be an important factor in a person's sense of self-worth and well-being. The impact of employee health and well-being is now more universally recognised as a key factor of business growth in an increasingly competitive economic world. The benefits include increased productivity, reduced costs and improved staff retention and commitment.

Of course, the issues and challenges around mental well-being in the workplace are complex, but there is a role for all of us—the Government, employers, employees, colleagues and friends—both as sources of support, but also in making such a big part of our life both prosperous and happy.

In terms of the contribution of Government, our role is an important one, setting out the overall policy direction but also helping to put in place practical interventions. I am proud that this Government, with support from across the Chamber in each party, has placed a high level of importance on improved mental health and well-being, and for the Government it features strongly amongst our overall priorities, because mental health and well-being is one of the five key themes in 'Prosperity for All', and we set out a range of commitments in the programme for government on how it would be delivered.

I'm particularly pleased that, in opening this debate, Jack Sargeant didn't refer to the health service, he referred to the economic contract and the commitments that were made there about what we want from employers, recognising that the workplace is a key factor in mental health and not simply that mental health is only a topic for the health service. Because we do recognise that receiving the right treatment at an early stage, raising awareness of conditions, can often help to prevent more serious and long-term impacts. Of course, in 'A Healthier Wales', our joint plan for health and social care, we've got a future vision of a whole-system approach between health and social care, focused on health and well-being and on preventing ill health, and not just physical ill health but ill health in all of its aspects.

Now, whilst it is crucial for the strategic national direction to be strong and clear, that in itself is not enough to fully realise our ambitions. That needs to be supported by a range of policies and programmes across the Government in order to make a real difference to people's lives. I deliberately refer to 'across the Government'—as I've just said, this is not simply an issue for the health sector. We have an important role both as an employer as well as a service provider. But, as a Government, this is work that moves across portfolios to ensure that mental health and well-being is a priority in the workplace. I want to address a few particular areas to highlight some of the variety and scale of activity.

Last year, the Government published a cross-Government employability plan that set out our vision for Wales to be a high-employment, high-tech and high-wage economy. In that plan, we committed to helping everyone to achieve their potential through meaningful employment, regardless of their ability, health issues, background, gender or ethnicity. And we fund, between the economy department and the health department, the Healthy Working Wales programme, which is delivered in partnership with Public Health Wales. That programme aims to improve health and well-being to help people stay in work or return to work. I've presented a number of awards under that programme to small, medium and large employers and it does make a difference when employers engage in that programme with the idea of understanding it's good for their business and their employees to make that difference.

There are a wide range of services that help to reduce the costs and the burden of ill health and absence, from one-to-one support, training events, workshops and the provision of online and telephone information and guidance. And some elements require managers and employees to be given training to identify signs and symptoms associated with stress and mental health problems in the workplace. And that's what we call mental health first aid.

Now, I recognise that, in moving this, Jack Sargeant referred to the Where's Your Head At? campaign. The mental health first aid programme that I referred to is currently delivered by the social enterprise called Training in Mind. They have over 100 approved trainers in Wales and the programme receives no direct funding from the Welsh Government, but my officials are actually due to meet Training in Mind shortly to discuss their work and to consider whether the Welsh Government could support the potential development of the programme. I'm happy, following this short debate, to update Members on the progress that we make in those discussions once they've happened, as well as the broader point that David Melding mentioned about the Public Health Wales report due by the end of this financial year.

I'm pleased that, with Healthy Working Wales, over 3,000 employing organisations in Wales, employing over half a million people, have engaged. That's over a third of the working population of Wales within those businesses. And a complementary programme funded by the Welsh Government and the European social fund is the in-work support service. It provides free and rapid access to occupational therapy designed to help people with mental or physical health conditions to remain in employment. And, since we launched it in 2016, the scheme has already provided therapeutic interventions to 3,500 employees, including over 1,300 people with mental health conditions. That's helped over 2,500 people to remain in work and another 430 to return to work, and it's also helped nearly 2,000 small and medium businesses to reduce the business impact of sickness absence. In November last year, an additional £9.4 million of European Union and Welsh Government funding was announced to continue the in-work support service to December 2022. That should help us to significantly expand the service to support up to 12,000 people and an additional 2,500 businesses to help build and sustain a healthy workplace. It will also provide more in-depth support to enterprises, including dedicated business coaches to support their small and medium businesses to take forward the well-being agenda within their workplace.

Now, we have made progress in tackling the stigma associated with mental health. There is, of course, more to do. The third phase of the Time to Change Wales campaign started last April with Welsh Government funding of over £650,000 over three years. The central aim remains to challenge and change negative attitudes towards mental ill health. Phase 2 of Time to Change Wales yielded encouraging results, with evidence of a 5 per cent improvement in public attitudes towards mental health and with more than 150 Time to Change Wales champions having spoken about mental health to over 8,000 people. I'm delighted that over 100 employers in Wales, including the Welsh Government, have signed the Time to Change Wales pledge on behalf of over 260,000 members of staff.

A key difference of phase 3 will be to focus on targeting male audiences. Other target audiences include rural communities and Welsh speakers. So, there's a broad range of activity making an important contribution to mental well-being in the workplace. But, of course, we need to consider that outside the workplace too, and how we encourage people to adopt healthy and active lifestyles to improve not just their physical health but their mental well-being too. Helping people access well-being activities and services is a key aspect to doing so, and we do believe that social prescribing could have an important role in helping get people to community-based non-clinical support, to shift the emphasis from treating illness to promoting better well-being, and to support people to take greater control of their own health and the broader preventative agenda. Whilst further evidence of its effectiveness is needed, that helps explain why we're funding two social prescribing schemes with robust evaluation mechanisms that I've approved within the last year to expand our evidence base on the effectiveness of social prescribing in improving and maintaining good mental health.

So, I am by no means complacent. The challenges are complex and the impacts on people's lives are real. There is always much more to do, and we, all of us, need to strive to make the most positive contribution we can do, but on this, I believe that there's a shared commitment across parties and I hope, across the country.