Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 904, what the campaigns and initiatives referred to in the Answer were; and how many staff took part in each of them.
Answered by Lord Hart of Tenby
As referenced in the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 904, Cabinet Office has run a number of campaigns and initiatives in the past year to improve the personal wellbeing of staff relating to physical, mental and social wellbeing. The department receives consistently strong engagement rates in activities relating to these campaign events. Whilst we cannot give exact numbers, we estimate that around 2000 members of staff taking part in events and initiatives in the first ten months of 2019, either physically or remotely through the use of video technology.
A breakdown of events can be seen below:
Month | Type of initiative | Staff Engagement |
January | Wellbeing Month - we organised 29 events and training sessions throughout the month, including resilience workshops, park runs, mindfulness sessions and a visit by ‘wellbeing dogs’ | Over 400 people attended workshops, 30 colleagues joined sessions remotely (via google hangout), and hundreds of colleagues visited the wellbeing dogs. |
February | Time to Talk Day events | Circa 50 attended events |
May | Mental Health Awareness Week – 5 talks organised and ‘This is me’ campaign where Cabinet Office staff shared their own personal stories with mental health | Raised £219 by selling green ribbons to staff Circa 500 members of staff took part in this campaign either through buying a ribbon or attending one of the talks |
June | Civil Service Active Wellbeing Week, led by Civil Service Sports Council. To support the week, colleagues across Cabinet Office volunteered their own time to run a series of events, such as bike rides, pilates sessions and wellbeing walks. | As these were organised by volunteers, we do not have an estimated number of staff who attended these events, however they were very popular amongst colleagues. |
September | National Suicide Prevention Day – guest speaker | Circa 50 members of staff attended the talk on the day, and a further 150 watched the talk remotely through the use of video technology. |
September | Know Your Numbers Week. A national campaign led by Blood Pressure UK to encourage staff to know their vital health statistics, such as blood pressure, heart rate, hydration and body mass index. As part of this event, we arranged for health check kiosks to be made available for staff in our London and Newcastle offices | A total of 683 people using these kiosks. In addition, 30 people took part in the smoothie bike challenge which formed part of the event |
October | Cabinet Office encouraged staff to stop smoking for 28 days as part of the Stoptober campaign. We promoted this campaign via the intranet and set up stalls manned by specialist stop smoking advisors | Circa 30 people visited stalls |
October | World Mental Health Day. This included a tea & talk session, a panel discussion and a mental wellbeing workshop. | Around 300 people took part in these events, with a further 200 people buying green ribbons to support the day |
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is taking steps to incorporate mindfulness and wellbeing into support for veterans provided by the Office for Veterans' Affairs.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The Government already provides significant support to veterans through mental health and wellbeing services, including through an additional £10m to support Veterans’ Mental Health and Wellbeing needs announced in autumn 2018. The NHS in England has developed two bespoke services, the Veterans’ Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service and the Veterans’ Mental Health Complex Treatment Services.
The Office for Veterans' Affairs will be working to join up such services across government and collaborating closely with service charities to ensure that veterans can access the mental health and well-being support they need.
Health and wellbeing is also one of the key areas set out in the Strategy for our Veterans, on which we worked closely with the Devolved Administrations. One of the Office’s first tasks will be to produce a detailed work programme informed by the responses to the consultation on this Strategy.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has commissioned on the efficacy of mindfulness-based therapies in the treatment of (a) stress, (b) depression and (c) other mental health conditions in the last five years; and which organisation conducted each such research project.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including mindfulness-based therapies for the treatment of mental health conditions. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
The NIHR is the largest funder of mental health research in the United Kingdom and it has considerable investments in translational, clinical and applied mental health research. NIHR investment in mental health research for 2017/18 was £74.8 million. In the last five years the NIHR has funded a number of studies investigating mindfulness-based therapies for a range of mental health conditions across its research programmes, biomedical and applied research centres and research fellowships. These range from a trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for people with mild to moderate depression to a study which is evaluating the effects of mindfulness and connection with nature on chronic stress and well-being in deprived areas.
The attached table provides details of these studies, including which organisation conducted each project.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS staff were qualified to treat patients with mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how UK mindfulness research centres and universities have contributed to the development of NHS mindfulness-based practice and therapies.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is not aware of how United Kingdom mindfulness research centres and universities may have contributed to the development of National Health Service mindfulness-based practice and therapies.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of patients treated for mental health disorders in NHS facilities received (a) drugs, (b) psychological therapy, (c) mindfulness meditation and (d) a combination of such approaches in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS has spent on (a) anti-depressant drugs and (b) mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Information on how much the National Health Service has spent on antidepressant drugs is not collected in the format requested.
Information on expenditure on mindfulness-based therapies provided through NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services is not separately identifiable and cannot be provided.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Government spent on research into (a) anti-depressant drug treatment and (b) mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including mental health. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. The NIHR is the largest funder of mental health research in the United Kingdom. It has considerable investments in translational, clinical and applied mental health research. NIHR investment in mental health research for 2017/18 was £74.8 million.
The latest spend figures for research on antidepressant drug treatment and mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy are as follows:
Antidepressant drugs:
Financial Expenditure | ||
2017/18 | 2018/19 | |
NIHR Programmes total spend | £2,558,406.14 | £3,269,938.30 |
Mindfulness - based therapy
Financial Expenditure | ||
2017/18 | 2018/19 | |
NIHR Programmes total spend | £206,648 | £308,645.22 |
It should be noted that the spend figure on antidepressants will include studies where anti-depressants are repurposed for use in treating other conditions or where an anti-depressant will be being compared to a non-pharmacological intervention.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) efficacy and (b) cost of the use of (i) anti-depressant drugs and (ii) mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy and mindfulness cognitive behaviour therapy.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is responsible for the regulation of medicines used in the United Kingdom, including efficacy. Anti-depressant medicines licensed in the UK have been approved after robust supporting data has been submitted to demonstrate the quality, safety and efficacy of the product for the condition it is intended to treat. For a medicine to be licenced, the benefit to risk balance should be positive.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) examines evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness when providing guidelines and recommendations of treatment. Presently, mindfulness-based therapy is only recommended for the treatment of depression in adults. NICE pathways bring together everything NICE says on a topic. The pathway for depression, including antidepressant treatment, is available at the following link:
https://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/depression
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of universities on research into mindfulness-based therapies; and what research projects his Department has funded into mindfulness-based therapies in the last three years.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
No such discussions have taken place.
The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
In the last three years, the NIHR has funded a number of studies investigating mindfulness-based therapies for a range of conditions from depression to chronic pelvic pain; and for individuals throughout the life course, including learning mindfulness in schools and mindfulness interventions for mood and cognitive functioning in older adults.