EFD reports on mental health at the party conferences
6th October 2007
Delegates were given a preview of Employers' Forum on Disability's ‘Recruitment and mental health' report at this year's party conferences.
EFD were represented by chief executive Susan Scott-Parker at all three events.
The events were deemed a great success and were an opportunity for members to discuss directly with senior parliamentarians and experts the barriers they face on recruitment and mental health.
It was also an opportunity for EFD to get points across to the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Key points made by Susan Scott-Parker included:
- The system has low expectations of people with mental health problems and low expectations of employers.
- There is a need to export private sector supply chain thinking to the system of delivering disabled job seekers into the right jobs at the right time with the right support.
- Intermediaries have a key role to play in understanding and matching the needs of the employer and the needs of the individual.
- EFD's ‘Recruitment that works' model is an example of project-led recruitment proven to give results.
Discussion points across all three events included:
- Employers need someone to help them if things go wrong. Under the current system they don't feel that they are given on-going support.
- There are examples of good practice within the private sector, for example in BT. However these have been developed on a company-by-company basis - there is no system-wide approach.
- There are competing targets between work and health at a national level, which do not help the situation.
- It is not clear how LEPs will deliver different results for employers. There are no details about whether intermediaries will be differently trained and thus deliver a different result.
- Intermediaries and recruitment providers do not currently perform well on getting people with mental health problems into work. Alongside that, employers find recruitment much harder to get right than retention on mental health.
- GPs and employers need to work together better. GPs need to promote the mental health benefits of going to work, and employers need to offer flexible working and phased returns to work in order to facilitate this.
- Where there are examples of success, these should be promoted and replicated. This does not happen at present.
- One cannot separate out ‘societal attitudes' and ‘employer attitudes' - employers are members of the public and social stigma around mental ill-health is still a major barrier.
Ends
Notes to editors
- The report, ‘Recruitment and mental health' was produced in partnership with Sainsbury's Centre for Mental Health.
- Employers' Forum on Disability offers a range of services to make it easier for employers to recruit and retain people with mental health issues.
Media enquiries, please contact:
Liz Nightingale, Communications Manager
Employers' Forum on Disability
Email: liz.nightingale@efd.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7403 3020
About Employers' Forum on Disability
Employers' Forum on Disability is the employers' organisation focused on disability as it affects employers and service providers. With over 400 members, EFD represents organisations that employ around 20 per cent of the UK workforce.Since its establishment in 1991, EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.