CMA Employer Pledge and Action Plan
The CMA is committed to promoting the importance of good mental health and wellbeing in
the workplace, tackling stigma and fostering an environment where colleagues feel
comfortable talking about mental health issues.
Internal lead(s)
Timescales
Progress status

Discuss ideas to support wellbeing and
mental health at SLT meetings.

Chris and Cecilia to
lead discussion with
SLT

SLT meeting – 11th
Oct 16 (Complete)


Encourage senior leaders to share their
experiences (e.g. through blogs, intranet
posts, talks, etc.) or demonstrate their
commitment to change if they have not been
directly affected by mental health difficulties.

Ideas from SLT meeting have been
discussed and have been
incorporated into actions and future
activities.
Adam to write blog for
World Mental Health
Day/ Wellbeing Week

Publication of senior
leader intranet posts
– 10th Oct 16
(Complete) and Feb
17

World Mental Health Day blog was
published on the intranet (10th Oct
16). Further communications from
senior colleagues are being
arranged for Feb 17.

XCo meeting – Jan
17 (Complete)

XCo approved the pledge and action
plan and agreed to support further
initiatives, including promoting the
CMA’s wellbeing activities externally

Pledge signing event
with Chairman – 2nd
Feb 17 (Complete)

Pledge signing event was well
attended and received positive
feedback from colleagues and
external speakers.


Present action plan to the Executive
Committee (XCo) for sign-off and comments
before pledge signing event.
Have a senior sponsor (CEO or Chairman)
to present the pledge at an all staff event on
Time to Talk Day.


Chris, Adam and
Louise to prepare
paper for XCo and
SMC meetings
Adam and Louise to
secure senior level buyin for pledge signing
event
Commented [KS1]: This is great and excellent to have senior
leaders sharing their experiences as this has been shown to encourage
other employees to disclose and talk freely about mental health.
Commented [KS2]: This is excellent that you have the CEO or
Chairman signing the pledge on Time to Talk Day and also the fact
that you have a communication plan being developed to promote this
internally. In order to promote and celebrate the fantastic work you
have already put into these changes within CMA and to further
change the way we all think and act about mental health problems,
could you also get your Senior Management Team to promote your
pledge signing and other work publically outside of the CMA to the
wider public?
1
Demonstrate
senior level buyin
Activity description
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Action plan
principle


How will you ensure
that this action plan is
successfully
implemented?
How will you recruit
Employee Champions
to support your work?
More information on
Employee Champions
here.
Raise
awareness
about mental
health
How will you get your
employees talking
about mental health?
Recruit a Senior Civil Servant Champion to
help drive forward actions and chair group
meetings.
Consider how we can measure current data
on wellbeing:
- Check wellbeing focused questions are
included in next staff survey
- Collate and analyse wellbeing related
questions from staff survey and from
sickness absence data
- Design and conduct a more specific
survey on mental health to provide a
baseline of current wellbeing levels

Use collated data for awareness raising and
reporting purposes (e.g. XCo meeting).

Contribute to Tea and Talk events, where
senior leaders talk about a range of issues
outside of core work related issues,
including wellbeing and mental health.

Louise to co-ordinate
Wellbeing and Mental
Health action group

Adam to act as Senior
Civil Servant Champion

Saiqa, Lizzie and
Sharon to lead on
designing survey

Sayka to provide
comms support for
survey

Wellbeing and Mental
Health action group
set up – Aug 16
(Complete)
WaMH have continued to hold
monthly meetings and make
progress in each principle, with
Adam present as chair for each
meeting.

Wellbeing questions
included in staff
survey – Oct 16
(Complete)

Good progress has been made
towards designing an internal survey
on mental health, on track to be
launched in Feb 17.

Internal survey on
mental health and
wellbeing – May 17

The possibility of using an external
benchmarking survey (e.g. Mind) for
2017 is being explored.
Chris and Louise to
include data on
wellbeing from 2016
staff survey and
absence data in XCo
submission and present
proposal to XCo

Consider case for
externally
benchmarked survey
– Autumn/Winter 17

XCo meeting – Jan
18 (Complete)

Adam to deliver first
Tea and Talk


Cecilia, Claire S and
Saiema to liaise with
Saskia on future Tea
and Talk events
1st Tea and Talk with
Adam Land on Mental
Health in the
Workplace – 12th July
16 (Complete)



2nd Tea and Talk with
Sarah Cardell on
Work Life Balance –
17th Oct 16
(Complete)
Commented [KS4]: This is brilliant and is a fantastic example of
putting a structure in place to sustain the work you have done and
plan to do around stigma and discrimination.
Commented [KS3]: Again, this is excellent. With Adam as a
Senior Civil Servant Champion, this provides you with a great
opportunity to then recruit further employee champions. We have an
Employee Champions Officer who can liaise with you and be on
hand to assist Champions to bring lived experience more into the
workplace. https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/getinvolved/employee-champions
Commented [KS5]: Again excellent and good timing to coincide
with Time to Talk Day.
Commented [KS6]: I am really impressed by your focus not just
on what you are doing now but on the future and developing the work
you are doing. A next step can be the Mind Workplace Wellbeing
Index, which I think may be your reference to Mind on this point.
More information is available on the Mind’s website:
http://mind.org.uk/workplace/workplace-wellbeing-index/

Both tea and talks have taken place,
were very well attended (between
50-70 people for each) and have
received very positive feedback. A
Tea and Talk Taskforce involving
WaMH, E&D and Corporate Action
Plan members has now been set up
to co-ordinate future events.
Commented [KS9]: All of the work you have done and are going
to do to raise the awareness is exemplary. You have truly embraced
the concept of changing how your employees think and act about
mental health problems. Another idea to think about is the
recruitment, as mentioned above, of further employee champions
who can then create events and help to start and share conversations
around mental health with employees. This will tie in really well
with the 2017 Time to Talk Day which is going to focus on how
positive conversations change lives.
2
Demonstrate
accountability
and recruit
Employee
Champions
Set up a cross-functional group to take
forward the mental health agenda, who
would have oversight of implementing
actions.
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
Commented [KS7]:
Commented [KS8R7]:


Organise mental health related activities
(e.g. mindfulness workshops, inviting
speakers to talk about resilience, etc.)
during Wellbeing Week.


Organise mindfulness sessions for all staff

Run an internal comms campaign to
promote relevant materials, share case
studies and myth-busting information.

Include mental health and wellbeing as an
agenda item in team meetings (e.g. diamond
meetings)

Wellbeing Week –
10th – 17th Oct 16
Louise to help Tom
facilitate mindfulness
sessions

Launch new
fortnightly
mindfulness sessions
– Nov 16 (Complete)

Elena and/or Saiema
to consider mindfulness
training sessions run by
the Civil Service

Catherine, Sayka and
Elena and Louise to
help develop comms
campaign


Claire S and Louise to
lead on organising
Wellbeing Week
Saiema, Claire H and
Luigi to assist with
organising Wellbeing
Week
Cecilia, Chris and
Louise to speak about
mental health and
wellbeing in team
meetings



A range of events were held during
Wellbeing Week (e.g. talks delivered
by external and internal speakers,
workshops on resilience and
mindfulness) which received positive
feedback. Attendance reached full
or close to full capacity for all events
(between 40 – 120 for each). We
agreed to hold one again for 2017.

Mindfulness sessions have been
trialled (with around 10-12
colleagues attending), and have
received positive feedback

A comms plan was developed in the
run up to the Feb pledge signing
event and Time to Talk Day, which
included posters, an all staff email
from the CEO and blogs by staff
members. Resources were also
handed out on the day, where three
external speakers attended.
Time to Talk Day –
2nd Feb 17
Begin speaking at
diamond meetings –
Nov 16 (Complete),
further meetings in
2017 TBC.

Commented [KS10]: We will have dedicated resources for Time
to Talk Day available next week and I will ensure you receive details
of these to help you promote the event.
Presentations at staff diamond
meetings have received positive
feedback so far. More are being
arranged for 2017.
3
Take part in awareness raising events e.g.
World Mental Health Day, Time to Talk Day.
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
How easy is it for an
employee struggling
with a mental health
problem, or their line
manager, to find out
how your organisation
will treat them?
How can you change
your policies to
encourage those with
mental health
problems to come
forward?
Consider introducing Wellness Action Plans
(WAP)s for staff with mental health
difficulties.

Integrate mental health into induction
sessions so that new joiners to the CMA are
aware of what support is available for staff
and what the policies are.

Jack to produce Health
and Wellbeing toolkit

Claire S and Lucy to
update toolkit as
necessary

Louise and Claire S to
check possibility of
implementing WAPs
and mental health into
induction sessions
Create an interactive Health and Wellbeing
toolkit to provide advice and guidance for
staff and managers on a variety of issues
affecting health and wellbeing.




Work with the staff forum and unions to
ensure that any wellbeing and mental health
related feedback and concerns raised are
communicated to the group, who can then
take action to address these if possible.
Create a guide to ways of working that
encourage good wellbeing in the workplace
(e.g. not setting meetings at inappropriate
times to encourage staff to take breaks and
not work excessively long hours).



Publish Health and
Wellbeing toolkit –
Sept 16 (Complete)


Integrate mental
health into induction
sessions – TBC in
2017

Marie to help ensure
Staff and Union
Representative
Executive (SURE) are
kept updated and
involved
Jennie and Marie to
create guide to ways of
working that encourage
good wellbeing in the
workplace
The Wellbeing toolkit is now
available on the intranet and has
been promoted through various
communication channels.
WAPs and mental health into
induction sessions are continuing to
be looked into.
Commented [KS13]: Brilliant.
Commented [KS11]: Again, this is great together with the
WAPs.
Commented [KS14]: More information on WAPs can be found
on our website. We use these at Mind and find they are a really
helpful tool for all staff. More information can be found here:
http://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/takingcare-of-your-staff/employer-resources/wellness-action-plandownload/
SURE has provided comments on
the Wellbeing toolkit and have been
updated on WaMH activities.
Commented [KS12]: Again, this is excellent work and love the
fact that you are looking at the whole employment journey.

Launch guide to ways
of working that
encourage good
wellbeing in the
workplace – TBC
4

Update and
implement
policies to
address mental
health problems
in the workplace
Review current policies (e.g. sickness
absence) to ensure that it supports both
mental and physical health.
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
How will you get your
employees to share
their experience of
mental health
problems at an
organisation-wide
level?
Equip line
managers to
have
conversations
about mental
health
How will you ensure
all of your line
managers feel
comfortable
discussing mental
health with their line
reports?




Organise wellbeing/mental health themed
randomised coffee trials (RCT).

Contribute to Tea and Talk events.

Run more mental health training sessions
for managers.

Ensure that the Health and Wellbeing toolkit
and other resources are available on
Management Development pages.

Integrate mental health awareness in
general management training.
Stephanie to chair
wellbeing network
meetings
Catherine to advise on
setting up wellbeing
network
Louise to help coordinate wellbeing
network and run
meetings

Adam to check with
Corina about mental
health themed RCT

Cecilia, Ronan and
Claire S to lead on
exploring and
organising further
training for managers

Stephanie to help
consider further ideas
for enabling managers
to support staff

Ronan and Raul to
work with Claire S to
look into integrating
mental health
awareness in general
management training

Launch wellbeing
peer support network
– Nov 16 (Complete)

2nd wellbeing peer
support network
meeting – Dec 16

Mental health themed
RCT – Feb 17 (for
Time to Talk Day)

Mental health training
for managers – March
17

Integrating mental
health awareness into
management training
– TBC


The Wellbeing Peer Support
Network has been launched and
held its first meeting, with positive
feedback from the 9 attendees.
Further meetings are being
arranged.
XCo approved the proposal made
for more mental health and
wellbeing training and agreed to
provide us with funding. We will be
piloting 3 courses, which is expected
to train 60 managers by March 17.
After evaluating the pilots, we can
explore further training
opportunities.
Commented [KS15]: Great.
Commented [KS18]: I am so pleased that the proposal for more
mental health and wellbeing training has been agreed, that shows
such a commitment. I am aware that Ronan has been in touch with
our Training Team re a proposal for training and they if they can
provide any further input or information, please don’t hesitate to get
back to them (Amy has been Ronan’s contact).
Commented [KS17]: Again, this is excellent and anything we or
the training team can do to help with this, let us know.
5
Ask your
employees to
share their
personal
experiences of
mental health
problems
Set up a wellbeing peer support network.
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
Provide
information
about mental
health and
signpost to
support services



Train certain members of staff of all grades
to be ‘Mental Health First Aiders’, who would
act as a point of contact in case staff want
someone to talk to at work face-to-face and
may not feel comfortable talking to their
manager.

Update wellbeing and mental health intranet
pages.

Elena, Louise, Raul
and Donna to help
design new intranet
pages

Sayka to provide
comms support for new
intranet pages

Elizabeth to help check
support tools available
and accessibility
Check stock of support tools available
already e.g. toolkit, NHS services, EAP and
make sure that staff know where to find
these easily.
Claire S to check
possibility of
implementing Disability
Confident Manager
workshops and liaise
with the Equality &
Diversity group

Elizabeth, Jackie,
Claire H and Claire S
to organise training
staff to become Mental
Health First Aiders

Disability Confident
Manager workshops –
TBC
Mental Health First
Aider training – 10th
and 11th Jan 17
(Complete)




Relaunch intranet
pages – Oct 17
(Complete)
We will work with the Equality &
Diversity group consider running
Disability Confident Manager
workshops in 2017.
A call for volunteers for MHFAs was
made – 39 applications were
received. 20 members of staff have
completed their training. The group
is now developing a roll out plan and
Commented [KS16]: I loved this idea and would really like to
know more about this and how this comes together. We are always
keen to share examples of best practice which we can use as a model
for other organisations. Once you have considered this, it would be
great to chat to you about your findings and thoughts going forward.
Commented [KS19]: This is a great take up and excellent that 20
are doing the training.
The wellbeing intranet pages have
been updated. The sub-group will
continue to think of ideas to improve
ease of access and content.
6

Run ‘Disability Confident Manager’
workshops to guide managers on how to
support staff with mental and physical health
problems and disabilities.
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
Wellbeing and Mental Health Action Group Members
Ronan Scanlan
Jackie Piper
Claire Hield
Catherine Pemberton
Marie Clark
Saiema Zulfiqar
Natasha Kutchinsky (now left)
7
Cecilia Parker Aranha
Chris Warner
Stephanie Canet
Saiqa Shaffi
Elena Ursache
Lizzie Brocklehurst
Divya Balasubramanian
Jack Harris (now left)
Page
Adam Land
Louise Sun
Lucy Robbins
Sayka Hussain
Luigi Della Corte
Sharon Dias
Jennifer Halliday
Donna Ricketts (now left)