Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what advice his Department gives to employers on supporting employees who return to work after a period of mental illness.

Alistair Burt

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on workplace health management practices. This guidance provides evidence based recommendations on improving the health and wellbeing of employees, and can support organisations to develop effective return to work policies. The guidance is complemented by earlier guidance published by NICE on promoting mental wellbeing at work.

Additionally, guidance on the NHS Choices website provides advice for line managers on supporting employees with long-term medical conditions, including those with mental health conditions. This can be found at the following link:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/workplacehealth/Documents/ChronicConds_LineManagers_Factsheet_A4.pdf

Public Health England is working with Business in the Community on a new resource for businesses focused specifically on addressing mental health issues building on the existing best practice and considering the transferable learning between business sectors and businesses of different sizes.

“