Corporate report

Voluntary reporting on disability, mental health and wellbeing: workforce report 2019

Published 31 October 2019

Foreword

The Thriving at Work Review looked at how employers can better support their employees, including those affected by mental health or wellbeing, challenges to remain in and thrive at work.

One of my personal objectives is to ensure the MOD meets the recommendations made within the review. Over the last 2 years we have made good progress with a wide range of support and initiatives in place, and have arranged a number of excellent events throughout that time.

I equally recognise there is still more to do. I am looking forward to the introduction of an Employee Assistance Programme by January 2020, which will provide a 24-hour support line for all civilian staff and access to a range of mental health and wellbeing related advice and services.

I would also challenge our leaders to continue to do everything they can in developing a culture where our people feel confident and comfortable enough to have honest and open conversations enabling them to be able to thrive at work.

Sir Stephen Lovegrove, MOD Permanent Secretary

We are pleased to share with you the MOD’s first annual report on disability, mental health and wellbeing for its civilian workforce.

MOD is committed to creating an environment in which individuals can be themselves and flourish. Like every other employer, we have a responsibility to support employees with disabilities and mental health issues, promoting wellbeing across Defence. Our vision is for all Defence people to enjoy a state of positive physical and mental health and wellbeing.

This is our first report and we would be interested in receiving any comments or thoughts before our next report in 2020 on how we can ensure the MOD is a place where everyone can thrive or is supported where they are not.

Thank you for reading.

Paul Hollinshead, Civilian Disability Champion Damian Paterson, Civilian Mental Health Champion

Disability

Championing disability

MOD is a very large organisation, which is hugely diverse in terms of age, the nature of work (physical v desk-based roles) geographic location - working both at home and overseas, including on operations. This provides for a working environment where we have a large range of different disability and health and wellbeing needs for the workforce and our policies and approaches are designed to cater for this from higher intensity support and assurance for those deploying on operations to the needs of those working in roles seen more widely across the Civil Service.

Diversity & Inclusion and Health & Wellbeing are priorities for the Department and are regularly discussed by the Executive Committee.

In July this year (2019), Paul Hollinshead (Director) was announced as the new MOD Disability Champion. Paul is supported by a group of Disability Advocates and Champions (from around the UK) who meet up quarterly to discuss issues, highlight common themes, share good practice and help to provide visible senior leadership through events and activities throughout the year. MOD’s champions work closely with the staff networks and TUs to provide practical support for staff, including networking opportunities, education and training to discuss and learn more about common issues. They promote talent and development schemes within underrepresented groups, to ensure there is a talent pipeline for these individuals into the Senior Civil Service and for all to achieve their potential.

Being a Disability Confident Leader

The MOD is dedicated to achieving a more diverse and inclusive civilian workforce and is committed to recruiting the best people regardless of whether they have a disability. The Civil Service does not discriminate against people with a disability and positively encourages candidates with disabilities to apply for jobs within Defence.

Under the Government’s Disability Confident scheme MOD has been an accredited ‘Disability Confident Leader’, level 3, since September 2017 (this will be renewed in September 2020). Our aims are that staff with a disability should feel valued and supported; that line managers of staff with disabilities should have access to consistent advice and expertise; and that reasonable adjustments will be made in a timely manner.

MOD is also a member of the Business Disability Forum and draw upon their tools and resources to enhance the support available to employees.

The Defence diversity and inclusion strategy 2018 to 2030: A force for inclusion (published in October 2018) supports the wider Civil Service disability and inclusion strategy to increase representation of staff with a disability across the department, including within the Senior Civil Service.

Declaration rates

From April 2011 to October 2018 the declaration rate for disability was not sufficiently robust enough for the representation rate to be reported on, as at 1 April 2019 it was 12.1%. The percentage of employees with a declared disability is higher than the Civil Service average of 11.7%.

Support

The department recognises the importance of supporting staff with disabilities to be at their best in work. We encourage the use of the Workplace Adjustment Passport, which has been introduced by all government departments to make it easier for employees who have a disability, health condition or who are undergoing gender reassignment to move jobs within the Civil Service. The passport helps with changes of line manager, aiding new managers to understand the workplace adjustments the employee has in place and avoiding the need to revisit the process again. It can also be helpful in identifying non-visible disabilities, such as mental health issues.

MOD has its our own dedicated Reasonable Adjustments Service Team, who are responsible for supporting staff with workplace adjustments. The team also plays a significant role in providing a voice for disabled people. In the last 5 years, they have helped more than 3,600 people with conditions varying from back injuries, mobility issues, dyslexia, arthritis / rheumatism, to vision impairment and mental health issues. They have specialist knowledge and experience of making adjustments for people in a diverse range of employment types within the MOD, capturing our colleagues’ workplace experiences, collaborating with others to find best practice, and sharing knowledge across government.

Training, development and progression

MOD’s approach to training, career development and promotion is inclusion, and opportunities are offered on a fair and open basis. The MOD Talent Management Toolkit offers advice and guidance to managers to ensure that all employees are treated fairly with regards to career advancement. We actively promote talent programmes such as the Civil Service Positive Action Pathway, which is open to under-represented groups, including those with a disability. This pathway offers a formal 1 year learning programme and aims to increase skills, knowledge and confidence as well as overcoming barriers.

The department is fully committed to supporting staff who become disabled whilst employed by MOD and a range of learning and support is available to them. We created the Defence Civilian Disability Toolkit in 2016 to support staff with a disability and their line managers. It offers, amongst other things, information on what employees should do once a diagnosis is confirmed and where they can seek support, including Access to Work, the Employee Wellbeing Service, The Reasonable Adjustment Services Team and the MOD Counselling Service.

MOD has an anonymous sifting process for recruitment to help us ensure a ‘level playing field’ in the assessment process. Recruiting line managers are required to complete unconscious bias training prior to recruiting to help minimise the possibility of unconscious bias within the selection process. For recruitment campaigns advertised on promotion or externally, they must make use of an independent, ensuring the recruitment meets the requirements of fair, open and on the basis of merit.

The MOD offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, whereby individuals who declare a disability are guaranteed an interview providing they meet the minimum requirements for the role. Also, to encourage and support applications from a more diverse applicant pool, we no longer have minimum educational qualifications threshold for entry roles to the Civil Service or mandate selection tests across all grades (online tests are only used to assess particular skills/behaviours required for a role). During 2018 the Civil Service transitioned from Civil Service Competencies to Civil Service Success Profiles, enabling managers to assess candidates’ suitability for the role using a range of selection methods (including personal statements, CVs, online tests etc.) rather than Civil Service competencies (which external candidates are not familiar with).

Staff networks

The department has over 30 staff networks that provide support for the wellbeing of our staff and bring their insight into the development of HR policies. The Defence Disability Network (DDN), the Mental Health Network and the various condition specific networks provides a safe space for individuals to share experiences. These networks help to test and improve policy and practice and work closely with their champions, including in challenging and improving working experiences in the MOD.

To assist the networks, committee members are allocated time to fulfil their duties. Chairs have a minimum of 20% and committee members have a minimum of 10% of their time to work on network activities. This is set out in their letter of appointment which is signed by the Permanent Secretary and is used to ensure that their line manager approves the time dedicated to network activity and it is recognised through the annual reporting process.

Civilian network members are encouraged to set personal objective in their PAR linked to their network activity to ensure that the vital work that they have carried out on behalf of the network is recognised.

Employee engagement

The trade unions, staff networks, champions and HR work together to have regular communication and engagement with staff. There are regular intranet articles and blogs to raise awareness of national campaigns and sharing through personal stories. For example, in December 2018, on International Day of People with Disabilities, MOD had the #PurpleLightUp #IDPD Purple flag relay which travelled across defence raising awareness. The staff networks also come together regularly to promote National Staff Networks Day and National Inclusion Week.

The Civil Service People Survey provides us with a robust way of measuring engagement. The 2018 survey highlighted that those who identify as having a limiting long-term illness, score 7 percentage points (PP) lower on engagement than those who do not. Where an individual identifies as having a long-term illness this gap decreases to 5 PP. Although this gap has not increased from when we started collecting this data (2014) it also has not decreased. The gap in engagement scores between different groups is something we are addressing through the implementation of our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy “A Force for Inclusion”.

Mental health and well being

A key priority

The physical and mental health and wider wellbeing of defence people contributes directly to our operational capability. Improving and promoting the mental and physical fitness of our people through a co-ordinated approach to physical and mental health remains a key focus for defence.

The Defence People Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (a 5 year strategy due for review in 2022) was produced in collaboration with key clinical, professional and academic experts across Defence, as well as experts from the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS, No.10 policy office and key service charities.

MOD’s overall Mental Health Strategy covers the whole of MOD (known as the Whole Force). The single services and organisations that make up the Ministry of Defence are usually referred to as Top Level Budgets (TLBs), these are:

HOCS (Head Office and Corporate Services), the Royal Navy, the British Army, the Royal Air Force, JFC (Joint Forces Command), DIO (Defence Infrastructure Organisation), and Defence Nuclear Organisation.

Each TLB has delegated authority for the wellbeing of their staff in recognition of their own challenges and priorities. This report therefore reflects the centralised provision and policies, while acknowledging that each TLB is also taking forward their own initiatives to encourage and improve employee health and wellbeing.

Breaking the Stigma

The social stigma attached to mental ill health and the discrimination people can experience can exacerbate situations and make it harder to recover. The simple act of having a conversation about mental health can challenge people’s stereotypes and change somebody’s life.

We have seen some good progress in helping people feel comfortable talking about mental health and opening conversations.

The Permanent Secretary has taken part in discussions about mental health, sharing his own views and listening to staff talk about their own experiences. Our Mental Health Champion and other senior leaders have talked openly about their own experiences of mental health, opening a forum for others to share their own stories. A Whole Force Defence Mental Health Network has been established to build on this; it now has over 500 members and has just passed its 1 year anniversary.

Like within several other organisations, mental health is becoming part of everyday discussions between teams and line managers. MOD strongly encourages open and honest conversations and wants staff to have the confidence to know that they will be supported and listened to without prejudice.

Support available

The department has a range of information, tools and support available to those who need it.

The Employee Services is an integrated helpline for civilian staff to speak to experienced practitioners, who offer:

• emotional support and advice on wellbeing
• staff counselling services aimed at reducing sickness absence attributable to work related stress
• confidential peer supervision to discuss the emotional impact of work issues
• a safe and confidential space to discuss issues relating to bullying, harassment and discrimination

The new wellbeing portal, which was relaunched in October 2019, pools together the support resources available.

These include:

• a mental health toolkit, including links to internal and external support and guidance, such as The Charity for Civil Servants
• relevant training available through Civil Service Learning and the Defence Learning Environment
• a mental health guide for line managers
• stress reduction toolkit
• staff blogs, and regular updates from across the organisation designed to inform, educate and spread best practice.

The wellbeing portal also provides extensive resources on healthy lifestyles, covering several areas such as physical activity, smoke cessation, alcohol awareness to name a few.

We have a significant network of Mental Health First Aiders, estimated to be around 2,000 spread across establishments, many of whom identify themselves by way of a bespoke green defence mental health lanyard.

The Department encourages those who have completed Mental Health First Aid training to promote themselves and develop localised networks leads to encourage peer-to-peer support.

Supporting Attendance

Being in work can be an important step to good mental health, it can improve self-esteem and confidence. Employment is therefore vital for maintaining good mental health and promoting recovery from poor mental health.

Practices to review absence (such as return-to-work interviews and absence review points to review attendance) remain the most effective, particularly for short-term absence. Supportive policies such as changing work patterns or environment and occupational health involvement are also among the most common methods used across organisations (the latter is seen to be particularly effective in the management of long-term absence ^{[footnote 1]}).

The new Supporting Attendance Policy and Procedure, which was launched in July 2019, is people-focused, incorporating language that is designed to be more empathetic and supportive to individual circumstances. There is an emphasis on line managers holding regular, high quality conversations with their employees to address issues before they develop. This extends to supporting colleagues with mental health issues to help them stay in work or return to work as soon as they are able through reasonable adjustments or temporary adaptations. These could include a change in working pattern, a review of objectives and discussions around workloads and external factors that could impact on a reduction in mental health.

Expert advice for either the Line Manager or employee can be sought via MOD’s Casework Service, Reasonable Adjustment Services Team, or Occupational Health Services.

Improving Line Management Capability

Strengthening line management capability is a departmental priority. The MOD’s new Line Management is Defence course (LmiD) has been designed to help line managers develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to manage their teams fairly and effectively. Mandatory for new line managers, it has a strong emphasis on wellbeing, inclusivity and high-quality conversations, meaning those completing the course will be able to:

• identify the impact of their own behaviours on their team and know when to adjust how to act and behave
• build trusted relationships with their team and positively contribute to their wellbeing and engagement
• conduct productive, high quality conversations on difficult or challenging topics
• identify the impact of change on individuals and how to overcome different reactions through effective communication
• create an inclusive culture by valuing and supporting individual differences.

Promoting national campaigns

The Department’s annual health and wellbeing calendar of events ensures campaigns, both national and local, are promoted throughout the year. A regular wellbeing slot in the department’s 60 second digest, which is distributed to all staff, contains key departmental updates and information.

We acknowledge mental and physical health related campaigns such as World Mental Health Day, Mental Health Awareness Week, World Menopause Day and Time to Talk day in a variety of ways, such as: articles and blogs on defence’s intranet pages and various events and activities across establishments with guest speakers, market-stalls and workshops. We promoted the green ribbon campaign across defence, which raises awareness about mental health, raising money for defence-related charities in the process.

Positive wellbeing

Wellbeing Confident Leaders has been rolled out to senior civil servants across the MOD for. The workshops aim to provide leaders with the knowledge and confidence to role model and influence positive wellbeing. As of July 2019, around 80% of all senior civil servants have attended.

Each TLB now has a representative to encourage local teams to self-facilitate the training across all grades and positive outcomes are being reported as a result, such as the development of team Wellbeing Charters or teams working together to identifying key short-term and long-term actions for both teams and individuals.

Using elements of the Wellbeing Confident Leaders Training, The department’s Defence Academy has developed a Mental Fitness and Resilience Course for Senior Leaders, which is accessible to all senior leaders across Defence, both civilian and military.

Statistics

Sickness Absence

Levels of sickness absence for MOD Civil Servants have reduced significantly over the year. The average working days lost per person for the 12 months ending 31 March 2019 was 6.68 (7.06 days for the 12 months ending 31 March 2018). The percentage of staff with no sick absence for the 12 months ending 31 March 2019 was 45% (2017 to 18: 46%).

Mental and behavioural disorders is the highest cause of sickness absence for non-industrial personnel at 26% (2017 to 18: 23%) and second to musculoskeletal related absences for Industrial personnel (16%) ^{[footnote 2]}.

Personal wellbeing

Question *	2016 ([footnote 3])	2017 ([footnote 4])	2018 ([footnote 5])
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?	61%	61%	64%
Overall, to what extent do you think the things you do in your life are worthwhile	67%	66%	69%
Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?	60%	59%	61%
Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? (% positive for 2016/17 – negative for 2018)	27%	28%	28%

*See footnotes at the end of this report for the full survey results.

Note: figures exclude DE&S and Trading Funds.

Flourishing and Engagement: The Perma Index

This index measures the extent to which employees are ‘flourishing’ in the workplace; it is based around the 5 dimensions: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment. A high score represents a greater proportion of employees agreeing with the statements below:

• Positive emotion: Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Engagement: I am interested in my work
• Relationships: The people in my team can be relied upon to help when things get difficult in my job
• Meaning: Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• Accomplishment: My work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment

PERMA 2018	Civil Service Median	MOD
Positive Emotion	65%	64%
Engagement	82%	89%
Relationships	79%	82%
Meaning	67%	69%
Accomplishment	73%	75%
Total Perma Index	74%	72%

Note: MOD figures exclude DE&S and Trading Funds

What are we doing next

Over the next 12 months, we will:

• assess our position against the recommendations made in the Thriving at Work report, working with staff networks, Trade Unions and other key stakeholders to identify areas where we can continue to strengthen
• renew MOD’s Disability Confident Leader level 3 status (by September 2020), see para 2.2 above
• continue to encourage disability declaration rates to help the MOD to remain above the civil service average and to help us improve our workforce insight and develop policies and activities to support employee needs
• introduce a new Employee Assistance Programme, which will enhance our current support services, by having support available to civilian colleagues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• strengthen our partnerships with external partners, such as the Royal Foundation, the Charity for Civil Servants, and Public Health England
• review the department’s Stress Risk Assessment to ensure it is fit for purpose and that line managers have the confidence and understanding to use it effectively and appropriately
• continue to support our Staff Networks and Departmental Champions
• monitor and analyse data collected from The People Survey results and attendance statistics to identify areas to address
• publish a follow-up to this report by November 2020.

1. CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work ↩

2. Civilian Personnel Sickness Absence Annual Report 1 April 2019 ↩

3. Your Say 2016 ↩

4. People Survey 2017 ↩

5. People Survey 2018 ↩