Supporting staff wellbeing – Ashridge Home Care becomes a Mindful Employer.

We are delighted to be a signatory to the Mindful Employer Charter which means we are positive about mental health and have made a commitment towards improving the workplace. We are committed to ensuring that our employees feel safe in disclosing any mental health conditions and confident that they will be properly supported.

“It is vitally important to us that we provide support not only for our carers, but for our HQ staff as well. This is why we are proud to publicise that we have signed up to the MINDFUL EMPLOYER Charter”

As an employer in the home care sector, Ashridge Home Care have made an on-going commitment to:

• Provide non-judgemental and proactive support to staff experiencing mental ill-health.
• Not make assumptions about a person with a mental health condition and their ability to work.
• Be positive and enabling toward all employees and applicants with a mental health condition.
• Support line managers in managing mental health in the workplace.
• Ensure they are fair in the recruitment of new staff in accordance with the Equality Act (2010).
• Make it clear that people who have experienced mental ill-health will not be discriminated against, and that disclosure of a mental health conditions will enable both the employee and employer to assess and provide the right level of support or adjustment.

Data from different countries around the world indicate that mental health problems are a cause of a number of employees dropping out of work. In the UK, it is estimated that around 30–40% of the sickness absence is attributable to some form of mental illness.

Mental health problems have an impact on employers and businesses directly through increased absenteeism and negative impact on productivity. In addition, they impact employee morale adversely.

Here at Ashridge Home Care we take the mental health and wellbeing of all our employees very seriously. In today’s tough and fast-paced society everyone can be susceptible to the normal pressures of life getting a little too much for them. By raising awareness and looking out for each other, we aim to identify issues early and then provide the support needed to deal with problems before they get out of control.

The benefits of being a Mindful Employer include:

• Increasing employee happiness and productivity
• Increasing staff awareness of mental health and tackling stigma in the workplace
• Establishing an open and inclusive workplace culture
• Helping to retain staff who have experienced discrimination in the past
• Reducing mental health related sickness leave

Giving staff access to mental health support is a provision that the social care industry has been crying out for as stress and anxiety levels soar.

We need a culture change across Britain’s workplaces to make recognising and responding to the risks of stress as routine as managing safety. From access to a dedicated councillor to extra holiday pay after a busy period, appreciating the mental and emotional demands of the job and offering practical tools to help tackle these challenges is key to a happy, healthy and productive workforce.

About the Charter 

The world of work is ever-changing. It is therefore important that we change with it.  The Charter for ‘Employers Positive about Mental Health’ is about recognising those employers working towards better mental health in the workplace; no matter where they are in their journey.

If you are a Buckinghamshire employer that is passionate about your team’s mental health – you can become a mindful employer.

Signing the Charter is completely voluntary and is not legally enforceable; nor does it require employers to have already met specific benchmark criteria. By signing the Charter, employers are simply making a public declaration of their ambition to support the mental wellbeing of their staff.