ACAS advises on mental health in the workplace

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has produced a guidance booklet Promoting positive mental health in the workplace.

ACAS has a vision to be recognised as the impartial authority on workplace relationships and effectiveness in Great Britain. As such, it produces a wide range of guidance and tools for British employers.

It is also worthwhile pointing employers to ACAS’s commendable guidance on their own website.

I don’t see that the ACAS equivalent in Northern Ireland (the Labour Relations Agency) has published anything at all. With mental health being a leading reason for absence in Northern Ireland, this is surprising and seems an opportunity missed. Has the breakdown of devolution in this part of the United Kingdom resulted in a lack of strategy on mental health?

Although, on 11 October 2017, the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland did propose an allocation of £40m to the Department of Health and asked it to proceed on the assumption that this would be approved in a Budget Bill. Just who will take forward the Bill remains unknown – will an Executive be formed or will Westminster have to progress this on Northern Ireland’s behalf?