Corporate report

Voluntary reporting on disability, mental health and wellbeing: workforce report 2020

Published 10 May 2021

Foreword

The Thriving at Work Review looked at how employers can better support their employees to thrive at work. MOD has made good progress and we have now not only met our obligation for meeting the core recommendations made in the Review but have gone further by meeting the more ambitious enhanced standards, which build on the mental health core standards. These include the introduction of professional 24/7 support available to all civilian employees and increasing transparency and accountability through this annual report.

COVID-19 put the spotlight on health and wellbeing and the importance of looking after ourselves and each other. There is no question that many of us faced significant personal challenges at some stage throughout the year, but, overall, the latest People Survey results suggest that, as an organisation, we supported each other through these difficult times and rose to the challenges we faced collectively. I am particularly pleased to see that the majority of staff said that the people in their team genuinely cared about their wellbeing*. I want to see the Department embed the many good practices that we adopted in 2020 to further nurture a culture where our people feel confident and safe and are given the best opportunity to thrive at work.

Sir Stephen Lovegrove, MOD Permanent Secretary

This is the second edition of MOD’s latest report on disability, mental health and wellbeing and our first as the Civilian Disability and Mental Health Champions. Since we were recruited as Champions, we have spent much time speaking to employees, staff networks and policy makers to gain an understanding of what we do well and areas where we might be able to strengthen.

This report demonstrates our ongoing commitment to sustaining an environment and culture that allows our people to be themselves and which supports their physical and mental wellbeing enabling them to thrive – not just at work, but in their personal lives too.

Paul Hollinshead, Civilian Disability Champion and Helen Helliwell, Defence Mental Health Champion

Disability

Championing disability

MOD is a very large and disparate ^{[footnote 1]} made up of around 58,000 civilians supporting and enabling approximately 145,000 military personnel and 35,000 reservists. It is hugely diverse in terms of the demographics of age – employing apprentices and recruits/trainees at 16 through to individuals in their 70s, the nature of work required to deliver its outputs and the geographical locations where staff are based, with a combination of working both at home and overseas, including on operational tours. This provides for a working environment where we have a large range of different disability and health and wellbeing needs for the workforce. 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 and Inclusion and Health and Wellbeing are top priorities for the Department and are regularly discussed by the Executive Committee and at all levels of leadership.

Dr Paul Hollinshead (Director) was announced as the MOD’s Disability Champion in July 2019. Paul is supported by a group of Disability Advocates and Champions (from across Defence at deputy director level) 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 and advocates work very closely with a number of condition specific or generic staff networks, trade unions and the Reasonable Adjustment Services Team to provide practical support for employees, including networking opportunities, education and training to discuss and learn more about common issues and how these can be addressed. Defence promotes and encourages application to talent and development schemes for underrepresented groups such as the Positive Action Pathway, to ensure there is a pipeline of talented individuals into the Senior Civil Service and for all to be able to achieve their full potential in Defence.

Being a Disability Confident Leader

The MOD is dedicated to achieving a more diverse and inclusive workforce and is committed to recruiting the best people regardless of whether they have a disability. The Civil Service does not discriminate against disabled people and positively encourages disabled candidates 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. Our aims are that disabled employees should feel fully valued and supported; that line managers of disabled employees should have access to consistent advice and expertise; and that workplace and reasonable adjustments are made in a timely manner.

MOD is a member of the Business Disability Forum and draws upon their tools and resources to enhance the support available to employees. We also have membership of Purple Space the world’s only professional development hub for disability network leaders who are themselves disability confident employees, networks, allies and champions driving business change on disability from the inside out.

The Defence Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2018 to 2030: A force for inclusion supports the wider Civil Service disability and inclusion strategy to increase representation of disabled employees across the Department, including within the Senior Civil Service.

Declaration rates

MOD Civilian Disability representation rate as at 1 April 2020 was 12.3% ^{[footnote 2]} up by 0.2% from April 2019, and 52.8% ^{[footnote 3]} are aged 50 and over. The percentage of employees with a declared disability in the Civil Service as a whole is 12.8% ^{[footnote 4]} up from 11.7% in 2019.

Support

The Department recognises the importance of supporting disabled employees to be at their best in work. MOD encourages 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 roles within the Civil Service. The passport helps with changes in management, aiding new managers to understand the workplace adjustments the employee has in place, avoiding the need to revisit the process again. It can also be helpful in identifying non-visible disabilities such as Mental Health.

MOD has a dedicated Reasonable Adjustments Service Team (RAST), who are responsible for supporting employees with workplace adjustments. In the last six years they have helped more than 8,600 people with a wide range of conditions. The RAST also plays a significant role in advocating for the disability networks and employees to bring about continuous improvement of the lived experience helping to ensure compliance with relevant legislation and IT Provision and support to ensure Defence meets the needs of people with disabilities requiring Assistive Digital support. They have specialist knowledge and experience of making adjustments for people in a diverse range of employment types within the MOD, capturing employees’ workplace experiences, collaborating with others to influence policy and procedures in identifying best practice, and sharing knowledge across government.

In September 2020 MOD launched its Hidden Disability Sunflower Scheme (approved by the Permanent Secretary and MOD’s Disability Champion). Employees with hidden disabilities and non-visible conditions across MOD now have the option to take part in the scheme virtually (due to COVID) using banners and photo overlays, the Sunflower logo provides a discreet indicator for colleagues that an employee has a hidden disability.

Staff networks

The Department has over 30 staff networks that provide support for the wellbeing of our employees and bring their insight into the development of HR policies. The Defence Disability Network, the Defence Mental Health Network (see section below), Menopause Network, Neurodiversity and the various condition specific networks provides a safe space for individuals to share experiences, and support managers when they need extra help and advice based upon ‘the lived experience’. Helping to test and improve policy and practice, work closely with their respective champions and senior leaders, including challenge boards and overall 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 or Champion and is used to ensure that their line manager approves the time dedicated to network activity and it is recognised through the annual performance reporting process.

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

Employee engagement

The trade unions, staff networks, champions and HR work together to have regular communication and engagement with employees. Intranet articles, training sessions, skype events and blogs raise awareness of national campaigns and sharing through personal stories. The staff networks come together regularly to promote National Staff Networks Day, National Inclusion Week and various celebration days throughout the year.

The results from the latest People Survey result suggest that employee engagement has increased during 2020:

I am proud when I tell others I am part of my organisation - 70% from 64%*

I feel a strong personal attachment to my organisation - 64% from 60% (and 8% up on the Civil Service benchmark)*.

Training, development and progression

MOD’s approach to training, career development and promotion is inclusive, 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 Future Leaders Scheme for eligible Grade 6 and 7 and Senior Leaders Scheme for eligible senior civil servants; both schemes offer successful candidates an accelerated development offer for those with a declared disability (DELTA). MOD takes part in the award-winning Summer Diversity Internship Programme, which gives people from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to see what a career in the Civil Service is like. It puts talented undergraduates and graduates on a work placement in a government Department. Successful applicants will get an insight into the broad range of opportunities available across the Civil Service.

The Department is fully committed to supporting employees who become disabled whilst employed by MOD and a range of learning and support is available to them. The Defence Civilian Disability Policy, Procedures and Toolkit was refreshed in March 2020 to support disabled employees and their line managers. It offers information on what employees should do once a diagnosis is confirmed and where they can seek support. MOD has an anonymous sifting process for recruitment to help ensure a ‘level playing field’ in the assessment process. The MOD offers a guaranteed interview through the Disability Confident Scheme, whereby individuals who declare a disability are guaranteed an interview providing they meet the minimum requirements for the role, which is stated in the job advert. To encourage and support applications from a more diverse applicant pool, we do not require minimum educational qualifications for every entry role to the Civil Service. We use the Civil Service Verbal, Numerical and Situational Judgement tests, which have all been independently audited for accessibility, to assess particular skills or behaviours required for a role.

Since 2018 MOD has used Civil Service Success Profiles for recruitment, enabling managers to assess candidate’s suitability for the role using a range of selection methods (including personal statements, CVS, online tests etc. MOD has improved guidance for managers on selection panels including emphasising the importance of having diverse panels. Bite size learning videos have been introduced, ‘How to write a better job advert’ (to ensure it is inclusive and does not discriminate) and ‘How to sift’ (ensuing people are offered a guaranteed interview if they meet the minimum criteria). Recruiting managers are required to complete inclusion training prior to recruiting to help build a fairer, more inclusive and more effective workplace. For recruitment into the Senior Civil Service all selection panels have a BAME and/or disabled member.

Mental health and well being

COVID-19

This year has tested employee’s health and wellbeing perhaps more than ever before. The Department quickly established a COVID-19 portal on the Intranet, which is accessible through employee’s personal devices. The COVID-19 portal has a dedicated section on health and wellbeing and provides a raft of materials and guidance to support employees and their line managers on topics such as mental fitness, domestic abuse, bereavement, technostress, sleep as well as lots of advice on maintaining wellbeing while working from home. Staff surveys were used to measure the impact that COVID-19 had on employees. One of the largest was primarily targeted at staff working for the Army and Navy , which received 7,600 responses – over half of whom were civilians. The aim of the survey was to gain an insight into the impact of COVID on work and personal life, and health and wellbeing. Some key findings found:

• over half (55%) reported that their workload since ‘lockdown’ of respondents was about right; just over a quarter (27%) said it was too high*

• 58% of respondents agreed that they were able to maintain a balance between work and personal life

• a third (32%) of respondents said their work/life balance had improved as a result of remote working; a fifth said it had worsened

• despite the current situation, the majority of respondents (72%) reported feeling motivated; around one in seven (15%) felt demotivated

• the majority of respondents agreed that their LM was supportive of work/life balance issues (82%; disagree: 8% disagree)

MOD-wide, the Annual People Survey 2020 showed that over half of respondents reported COVID-19 having no, or a positive impact, on their mental health, with 32% reporting a fairly negative impact and 4% a significant negative impact.*

A key priority

The overall health and wellbeing of its staff has a direct impact on the effectiveness and operational capability of Defence. In May 2020, MOD signed up to the “Mental Health at Work Commitment” for our full workforce, military and civilian, using the pledge to promote the activity already delivered over recent years and to demonstrate MOD’s ongoing commitment to the mental fitness of its people.

The 5 year Defence People Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (2017 to 2022) is the overarching strategy that covers the whole of the MOD. However, each of the single services and organisations that make up the Department (known as Top Level Budgets or ‘TLBs’) have delegated authority for the health and wellbeing of their staff and associated activities in their area.

In October 2020, the TLB Head Office launched its own Health and Wellbeing Strategy with the tagline ‘How are we feeling today? Closely aligned with the Department’s overarching strategies, it introduced the ONE approach which describes owning our behaviours and shaping our cultures, new ways of working and encouraging healthy lifestyles as positive steps towards good mental health.

The delegated approach not only recognises that different business areas are likely to face different challenges and varying priorities but that local-level communications are an important and effective compliment to national and Department-wide efforts, particularly for a large and geographically widespread government Department such as the MOD.

Among other initiatives, the Submarine Delivery Agency introduced the feature ‘Wellbeing Corner’ into their regular and routine communications. It raises awareness of topical or important issues and signposts staff to forthcoming activities and opportunities for support.

During 2020, staff at Defence Business Services have been provided with access to physical and mental wellbeing guides called Playbooks and well as monthly ‘lunch and learn’ presentations on relevant topics such as healthy eating, desk-exercises or from charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support and The Charity for Civil Servants.

To reflect some of their unique requirements, staff at Defence Intelligence have developed the ‘Building Resilience when Working with Distressing Materials Course - a package aimed at equipping staff with the skills, resources and coping strategies needed when working with potentially traumatic material that might compromise mental health.

Thriving at Work: A Review of Mental Health and Employers

The Department meets the 6 core recommendations and the enhanced core standards required of public sector employers set out in the Thriving at Work Review. We will, however, continue to make progress against each recommendation, including striving to improve employee working conditions, promoting effective people management and monitoring employee mental health and wellbeing.

Breaking the Stigma

While lots has been done to normalise conversations around mental health and fitness, the stigma still attached to mental health and to those suffering remains a barrier to recovery with individuals often reluctant to acknowledge they have a problem and/or seek help. The MOD continues to encourage an environment where staff can feel comfortable talking to each other.

Throughout 2020, the Permanent Secretary, all three military chiefs, the Chief of Defence People and other senior staff promoted mental fitness and numerous forums and networks have provided employees like Stuart from Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) with informal but vital support when they have needed it.

I have been a member of the Men’s Mental Health Group since I joined DE&S and find it to be a supportive and vital part of managing my own stress and anxiety especially now in this challenging time of lockdown. It’s reassuring talking to likeminded people who face similar challenges in both work and personal circumstances. A group who listen, share experiences and who care about how I feel.

Support available

The Department continues to manage and provide a wide range of information, tools and support-services for those that need it.

The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) was launched in January 2020 providing MOD civilian staff with a 24/7 helpline through which they can speak to experienced practitioners on anything to do with their physical, mental or emotional wellbeing or any issues that might be contributing to work-related stress - including bullying, harassment and discrimination.

As of the end of October 2020, the 24/7 Helpline had received 3341 calls which is a utilisation rate of approximately 8%, with the online portal receiving a further 19,264 hits.

Graph to show the total number of calls to EAP helpline January to October 2020.

The months of January and February experienced the highest number of calls with 419 and 426 respectively. There were 342 calls in March before the relatively quiet months of April during which there were 177 calls and May during which there were 235. Between June and October, there were a similar number of calls to the helpline each month at an average of 348.

Graph to show the total number of calls to EAP helpline by category.

At the end of October 2020, there had been a total of 3341 calls to the EAP helpline. 1036 or 31% were related to mental health. 876 calls or 26% were about legal matters and 554 calls or 17% were about work. 258 or 8% of calls were about service enquiries and 227 or 7% were about relationships. The remaining 10% of calls were about life events (176), physical health (136), Trauma (31), Financial Security (27), Self-Identify (12) or Whistleblowing (6).

At that point, calls to the EAP have so far led to 243 referrals for formal counselling. 80 referrals for face-to-face counselling have led to 199 sessions, 124 referrals have been followed by 828 sessions of structured telephone counselling and 39 referrals have seen 192 sessions of online counselling.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am for my place of work to have signed up to this service and in turn allowing me 6 sessions. My counsellor is kind, pleasant, a great listener and was able within the first session to recognise the issues I was facing and we together worked on these throughout my remaining sessions. I am such a different person and I could not have done this without her.

Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination

Bullying, harassment and discrimination have an extremely negative effect on the ability of individuals to thrive at work. Following publication of the Wigston Review on Inappropriate Behaviour last July, MOD has repeatedly stressed that this sort of behaviour has no place in Defence. To make it easier for individuals to report it and obtain support, in addition to the EAP service above, in September 2020 we introduced a specific BHD helpline which operates 24 hours a day and is run by trained counsellors who are independent of management. We have also introduced an Active Bystander on-line training course which teaches staff how to intervene when they witness unacceptable behaviour. It has already been viewed by over 30,000 staff.

The MOD Mediation Service has continued to play a role supporting staff involved in internal disputes. In addition to taking the ‘grief out of the grievance’, trained mediators provide safe environments and facilitate honest conversations to find a positive way forward and are often able to avoid the need for more formal - often prolonged and stressful - action.

Now in its second year, the Health and Wellbeing Portal continues to evolve as a one-stop-shop for all available information and resources as well as links to numerous partners and further support such as the MOD’s Occupational Health Advice team or the Samaritans.

As well as links to relevant charitable organisations or other helplines, the portal organises several guides, links to training courses, useful policy/guidance documents and online tools such as HeadFit which is a platform designed specifically to help those in the Defence community take a proactive approach to managing their mental health and stay mentally fit.

A project spearheaded by the Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and developed alongside The Royal Foundation’s Heads Together campaign and Kings College London, HeadFit provides tools designed to improve drive, confidence and mood, and help employees to de-stress.

HeadFit is a proactive approach to mental fitness, focusing on our own potential to increase performance, using proven methods of sport science.

The number and profile of Mental Health First Aiders continues to grow across the MOD civilian workforce providing an empathetic listening ear and signposting to professional services, as well as forming valuable staff networks that help to increase awareness across the organisation.

In the same way that MOD’s various business areas or TLBs have established their own strategy and approach towards promoting news and support-services, they have also provided their staff with relevant events and opportunities.

The Department has an 8-week free Mindfulness Course available to all in Defence delivered by Defence’s Mindfulness Steering Group. In the last 12 months, UK Strategic Command and the Single Services have obtained, or are in the process of purchasing, licenses to the mindfulness app, Headspace where staff have benefitted from guided meditation or helpful animations and articles.

I still have feelings of anxiety but Headspace has helped me to acknowledge and re-frame my thoughts and feelings.

The Defence Mental Health Network (DMHN)

Since its relaunch in summer 2018, the DMHN has made progress in a number of areas. The Network’s membership, made up of current and former MOD employees, now exceeds 3000. It provides a wealth of lived experience stories through its closed-group Facebook page, and has presented several online events related to mental health resilience.

The Network led the recruitment of the new Civilian Mental Health Champion who is actively supporting the DHMN to meet its aims, including helping the Network to reach out across-government. During 2021 it aims to establish a closer relationship with the military Families Federation and other MOD networks under the stewardship of the Champion.

The Network also took part in a staff discussion with the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, the Rt Hon Johnny Mercer MP, and continues to engage with him to further support the veteran community.

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.

Revised Supporting Policies and Procedures were launched in 2019. A light-touch 6-month review was carried out in 2020 and found that, overall, staff found the new policies more straight-forward and welcomed the enhanced role of the expert HR caseworkers. Managers also reported being more empowered to treat employees holistically, reacting to each individuals’ unique circumstances.

Levels of sickness absence for MOD Civil Servants have increased slightly. The average working days lost per person for the 12 months ending 31 March 2020 was 6.8 days. This represents a small increase of 0.16 days for the 12 months ending 31 March 2019, but remains slightly below the average for the Civil Service as a whole.

Mental and behavioural disorders remains the highest cause of sickness absence for non-industrial personnel at 25% (a decrease from 26 % by the end of March 2019) and second to musculoskeletal related absences for Industrial personnel (18%).*

Improving Line Management Capability

Managers are empowered to motivate, engage and empower their teams to deliver Defence outputs. The expectations from managers and employees is set out in ‘The Deal’. One of the key elements set out in The Deal is that mangers promote wellbeing in their team by acting as a positive role-model and providing the support the team needs to thrive at work.

The ‘Line Managers in Defence’ Course reaffirms the commitment to supporting managers in fulfilling their responsibilities. The course is mandatory for all new managers and includes elements on wellbeing and emotional intelligence, and a strong emphasis on supporting colleagues’ wellbeing through high quality conversations. The Department has a range of information, tools and support available to further support line managers..

MOD’s internal training unit (Defence Academy) developed a Defence focused Mental Fitness and Resilience Course. This training integrates principles from the PERMA model of positive psychology. The Senior Leaders Mental Fitness and Resilience course under this strand is available to SCS.

Communications

The Department’s annual health and wellbeing calendar of events ensured campaigns – both national and local - were promoted throughout the year. For example, the Department acknowledged 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.

Among many examples and a huge effort to promote good mental health amongst their staff, UK Strategic Command include up-to-date articles as well as links to forthcoming mindfulness sessions in their weekly internal newsletter, SWAY.

Work is under way to develop a more consistent internal narrative around mental health and wellbeing across Defence. This will be linked to the wider goals around mental health and wellbeing in the Department. Rather than providing reactive comms to a series of awareness days (as has been the approach in the past) we are developing a proactive, forward looking campaign. This will allow us to showcase the work going on in the Department and across the TLBs, signposting people to appropriate support and help where they need it and tackling issues such as stigma, lack of understanding, or lack of knowledge on how to support colleagues, friends or family.

Mental Health and Security Clearance

Throughout the year, staff at Defence Intelligence, United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) and the Head of the Defence Clinical Psychology Service have been working together to reassure staff working in classified environments and whom need to apply for and hold various levels of security clearance that it is safe to raise and discuss mental health concerns. Official guidance that aims to dispel myths, offer reassurance and helpful advice is due for release shortly.

Statistics

Personal wellbeing

Question	2017	2018	2019	2020
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?	61%	64%	66%	62%
Overall, to what extent do you think the things you do in your life are worthwhile?	66%	69%	70%	68%
Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?	59%	61%	61%	60%
Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?	28%	28%	30%	31%

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

Note: MOD figures exclude military staff and those at DE&S and other enabling bodies or 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 2020	Civil Service Benchmark	MOD 2018	MOD 2019	MOD 2020
Positive Emotion	58%	64%	66%	62%
Engagement	92%	89%	89%	91%
Relationships	88%	82%	80%	83%
Meaning	66%	69%	70%	68%
Accomplishment	80%	75%	75%	79%
Total PERMA Index	73%	76%	72%	73%

Self-reported Mental Health (2020)

Excellent – 15%, Very good - 31%, Good – 21%, Fair – 19%, Poor – 6%

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

Note: MOD figures exclude military staff and those at DE&S and other enabling bodies or trading funds.  

Did we do what we set out to?

2019 Voluntary Report Commitments	Actions taken
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	2-year return on progress against recommendations provided to Cabinet Office. MOD is rated as green against each recommendation and will continue to deliver against each recommendation. Mental Health is now a standing agenda item on the Department’s Joint Health and Safety Committee.
Renew MOD’s Disability Confident Leader level 3 status (by September 2020)	This was due to be renewed in September 2020, but due to COVID it was agreed that deadlines for Government Departments would be extended until February 2021). See section on Disability Confident Leaders.
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	Email prompts sent to all employees without declaration record. Between March 2019 to September 2020 the disability declaration rates increased by 5%.
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	Completed
Strengthen our partnerships with external partners, such as the Royal Foundation, the Charity for Civil Servants, and Public Health England	Ongoing. Headfit is a demonstration of effective partnership working with The Royal Foundation. Our partnership with Public Health England’s resources have been used to support national campaigns, such as smoking cessation and alcohol reduction. The Charity for Civil Servant remains an important strategic partner.
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	Incomplete. New resources were developed as a result of COVID-19enabling managers to have effective conversations and identify solutions.
Continue to support our Staff Networks and Departmental Champions	Ongoing. Networks provide an invaluable contribution to policy development, information gathering and raising awareness.
Monitor and analyse data collected from The People Survey results and attendance statistics to identify areas to address	Ongoing.
Publish a follow-up to this report by November 2020.	Completed.

What are we doing next?

Over the next 12 months we will continue to monitor the impact that COVID-19 has had on our employee’s mental wellbeing, especially those with disabilities.

This year we saw a positive cultural change to the approach to employee wellbeing within MOD.As the country, as expected, gradually returns to a more normalised state, we will aim to embed the good practices and wellbeing-focused policies that were adopted. The Department now has an array of resources designed to support the mental fitness of our employees at its disposal. New services, such as the Employee Assistance Programme and HeadFit were launched this year and we will monitor trends and feedback from these products to assess whether they provide the right support to our employees.

2021 will provide the opportunity to assess their effectiveness and identify where else we need to strengthen. Our aim is for MOD to be amongst the top government Departments for staff wellbeing, as demonstrated by the results of the People Survey results. We will continue to promote physical wellbeing, mental health and disability awareness through campaigns and employee events. We will continue to contribute to cross government activities, supporting both military and civilian employees, and we will continue to work with the Networks and Champions to ensure we respond proactively to emerging challenges.

Useful links

• CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work
• Civilian Personnel Sickness Absence Annual Report 1 April 2019
• Your Say 2016
• People Survey 2017
• People Survey 2018
• People Survey 2019
• People Survey 2020

1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/898046/ALS_-April_2020-_OS.xlsx ↩

2. As at 1 April 2020 ↩

3. As at 1 April 2020 ↩

4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/911987/Statistical_bulletin_-_Civil_Service_Statistics_2020.pdf ↩