Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many working days were lost due to mental illness in her Department in each of the last three years.
The number of working days lost in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport due to all illness reported under the Mental & Behavioural Disorders category in each of the last three years is shown in the table below:
Year | Working days lost |
1 March 2013 to 31 March 2014 | 305 |
1 March 2014 to 31 March 2015 | 189 |
1 March 2015 to 31 March 2016 | 79 |
We provide support to help all employees to stay well and manage their health conditions at work. This support includes a variety of programmes like occupational health support, the Employee Assistance Programme and the Civil Service reasonable adjustments service.
We signed up to level 2 of the Disability Confident Scheme and the “Time to Change” pledge and have been actively working with line managers to support individuals with mental health conditions. We introduced Mental Health First Aiders who are trained to recognise the symptoms of mental health and guide the individual towards appropriate professional help.
These actions have led to a continued decrease in the number of working days lost due to mental health sickness absence.