Mental Health at Work: UK Employer Guide
The Scale of the Issue
Mental ill health is one of the biggest causes of lost working time in the UK:
- 964,000 workers in Great Britain were suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25, with 22.1 million working days lost (HSE, 2025)
- Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 52% of all work-related ill health and 62% of all working days lost to work-related ill health in 2024/25 (HSE, 2025)
- Poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year (Deloitte, 2024)
- For every £1 spent on supporting workforce mental health, employers get on average about £4.70 back in increased productivity (Deloitte, 2024)
Legal Framework
Equality Act 2010
A mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities is a disability under the Equality Act. "Long-term" means it has lasted, or is likely to last, at least 12 months (or for the rest of the person's life). Conditions that can meet this definition include:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Bipolar disorder
- PTSD
- OCD
- Schizophrenia
- Eating disorders
Employer duties apply: reasonable adjustments, and no direct or indirect discrimination.
Health and Safety at Work
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states that employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. HSE's Management Standards for Work-Related Stress provide a framework for that risk assessment.
Six areas of work design identified by HSE:
- Demands — workload, hours, pace
- Control — how much say employees have
- Support — from managers and colleagues
- Relationships — including bullying and harassment
- Role — clarity of responsibilities
- Change — how change is communicated
The Thriving at Work Standards
The government-commissioned Thriving at Work review by Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer (2017) set out six "mental health core standards" that all employers can adopt, plus more ambitious "enhanced" standards for employers who can do more to lead the way. The review also estimated that, at the time, 300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem lost their jobs each year.
Core Standards
- Produce, implement, and communicate a mental health at work plan
- Develop mental health awareness among employees
- Encourage open conversations about mental health and the support available when employees are struggling
- Provide employees with good working conditions
- Promote effective people management through line managers and supervisors
- Routinely monitor employee mental health and wellbeing
Enhanced Standards
- Increase transparency and accountability through internal and external reporting
- Demonstrate accountability
- Improve the disclosure process
- Ensure provision of tailored in-house mental health support and signposting to clinical help
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)
Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA England) trains workplace Mental Health First Aiders — employees who are trained to:
- Recognise signs of mental ill health
- Have a supportive conversation
- Signpost to professional help
- Follow up appropriately
Courses for workplaces
- Mental Health Aware (four hours): Awareness-raising
- MHFA Champion (one day): Builds a network of champions who can start conversations about mental health and challenge stigma
- Mental Health First Aid (14 hours, over four sessions): Full Mental Health First Aider training
- Instructor training: MHFA England also trains instructors who can deliver its courses
Good practice: Make your Mental Health First Aiders visible, named, and known to all staff, and give them support of their own.
Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs)
An EAP typically provides employees with confidential access to:
- Short-term counselling
- Legal and financial advice
- Health and wellbeing support
EAPs only help if people know about them — promote yours regularly, not just at induction.
Reasonable Adjustments for Mental Health
Common adjustments that make a significant difference:
| Condition | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| Anxiety | Flexible start time, advance warning of meetings, written agenda |
| Depression | Phased return to work, reduced hours during recovery, adjusted targets |
| PTSD | Remote working option, noise-reducing environment, designated safe space |
| Bipolar disorder | Flexible working to manage energy levels, awareness training for manager |
| OCD | Written procedures for tasks, reduced pressure on speed |
| All conditions | Regular 1:1 check-ins, signposting to EAP, Workplace Adjustments Passport |
The Access to Work Mental Health Support Service, delivered on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions, offers employees nine months of confidential, no-cost advice and support from mental health professionals — separate from the employer's own adjustments.
Manager Training
Line managers play a central role in whether employees with mental health conditions thrive or leave. Useful training topics:
- Mental health awareness: Understanding common conditions, signs to look for, how to have a supportive conversation
- Wellbeing conversations: How to ask "how are you?" and mean it; when to escalate
- Return to work: Supporting employees returning after mental health-related absence
Free resources: Mind's Mental Health at Work Commitment, and Acas guidance on supporting mental health at work.
Sources: HSE, Work-related stress, depression or anxiety statistics in Great Britain, 2025; Deloitte, Poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year (2024); Equality Act 2010, section 6 and Schedule 1 paragraph 2; HSE, Stress risk assessment; Thriving at Work review, 2017; MHFA England courses for workplaces; Able Futures — Access to Work Mental Health Support Service