We need a bold new approach to improving mental health focused on prevention, including giving discounts to business rates for companies that take concrete steps to improve well-being in the workplace.
We also need a pay rise for NHS staff and demanded that Theresa May give EU nationals working in the NHS the right to stay now.
We need to make a fundamental shift of focus to prevention.
We now know that children who suffer trauma or neglect in early years have a higher risk of poor health, low educational attainment, worklessness and often fall into the criminal justice system.
We let these most vulnerable children down horribly. And it costs the state a fortune.
Yet we know that intervening before the trauma has set in, working with parents, we can transform lives – so let’s do it. Make the big investment. It will pay off.
Equally, let’s set a ten year plan to get employers really focused on the health and wellbeing of their workforce.
As part of my work chairing a Commission on mental health in the West Midlands, I’ve proposed a ‘Wellbeing Premium’ – a temporary discount on your business rates if you take tangible steps to improve wellbeing at work. The evidence is there of what works.
So let’s do it.
So many incredible people work in our NHS – totally dedicated to the care and treatment of patients.
Our brilliant doctors, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, cleaners, porters. But they are working under incredible pressure.
Take the paramedics I met with in Norfolk recently. They are deeply concerned about the impact on acutely ill patients of long delays. They frequently work horribly long shifts.
I don’t know about you, but I think NHS staff deserve a proper pay rise.
And remember all those people from across the EU who help keep our NHS and care system going.
Guarantee to them now the right to stay, Mrs May.
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