Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies her department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the past 12 months.

We use Office for National Statistics (ONS) wellbeing statistics to inform Health and Wellbeing policy within the Civil Service. Defra also measures personal wellbeing through the annual Civil Service People Survey using the same national statistics that the ONS use for the UK population as a whole. The four personal well-being questions are: Life Satisfaction, Worthwhile, Happiness, and Anxiety. Further details can be found here.

Defra has an established work-related health and wellbeing programme, as part of our Health & Safety Policy, incorporated into the overall health and safety management system. Defra recognises its legal duty to identify both physical and psychological risks to harm and put measures into place to minimise work-related ill health and injury. The Health & Safety Policy is supported by our agreed safety, health and wellbeing standards, risk assessments, guidance and training which are reviewed and updated regularly to meet our aspirations around continuous improvement.

In the last 12 months specifically Defra has reviewed, refreshed and reinforced various services and support mechanisms in place to support employee health and wellbeing. This has included benchmarking against the core and enhanced standards in the ‘Thriving at Work Report’. For example Defra has implemented Mental Health First Aiders to support individuals in crisis, an internal employee-led mental health ‘buddy’ network. These improvements supplement our standard offer where employees have access to an external provider Employee Assistance Programme, and Occupational Health Service. Staff and Line Managers are encouraged to notify work-related stress via internal reporting procedures; follow up conversations help to identify areas to address and ensure individuals are signposted to appropriate support. A programme of regular wellbeing related webinars are available and we consult with areas of the business to provide bespoke health and wellbeing services as needed.