HSE Links & Documents
These are from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), the governmental organisation for Health & Safety. which merged with the Health & Safety Commission (HSC) in 2013.
The HSE website is a mine of information, downloads, documents, proformas and advice about work-related stress.
The HSE have issued an updated report RR553 - Management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work. This is a 124 page report identifying and developing the management behaviours necessary to implement the HSE Management Standards
If you visit the HSE website you can also see some extracts from the report
The HSC Health and Safety Statistics were released in a press brief and release on November 2nd 2011. These statistics include the latest figures on stress, including numbers of cases, new cases and working days lost:
- 195 000 new cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety reported in the previous 12 months;
- Around half a million people (420 000) in Britain report work-related stress at a level they believe is making them ill;
- Each case of stress related ill health leads to an average of 30 days off work;
- A total of 10.5 million working days were lost in Britain in 2004/5 to work related stress.
The significant reduction in cases in 2005/6 is an encouraging sign following the levelling off of the previous year, though it is too early to be sure if this drop is a lasting trend.
The Management Standards were only launched 5 months ahead of the survey period and their effect was not anticipated to be immediate. However, for the last 5 years, HSE has been actively promoting a workable approach to this issue and the interest in the Management Standards during 2005/6 has been encouraging. HSE are currently proactively working in key sectors to encourage further adoption of the Management Standards approach.
The Health & safety statistics are obtainable here
25 June 2009. The HSE now have a dedicated web page for their newsletters and e-bulletins
23 October 2006. A really useful page on the HSE website dedicated to the Stress Indicator tool and supporting documents.
You can sign up for free email newsletters - news and updates from HSE's stress team.
There are a number of key findings in the 148 page report, the first one being that experts are more likely to see work conditions as a cause of stress than lay people. An interesting thought.
04 July 2006. Another research report from the HSE this time looking at the Lay conceptualisations of occupational disease, in other words, how the different types and causes of occupational illness are viewed by professionals and members of the lay public.
23 June 2006. HSE have released a research report Defining a case of work-related stress, it is 128 pages long. For a copy visit the HSE website.
The Health & Safety Laboratory have published Bullying at work, a review of the literature. The reason this is published is because the HSE currently offers little guidance to organisations on what primary interventions should be considered to address bullying at work. The aim of this report is to review current publications and research in the area of bullying at work to identify gaps in current knowledge to help HSE plan future research.
30 May 2006. The HSE have issued a report on a Workplace Health and Safety Survey Programme of which stress is one of the problems mentioned
They have also published a report entitled Psychosocial Working Conditions in Great Britain in 2005 which has a section dealing with work related stress.
Their equivalent 2004 report can also be downloaded for purposes of comparison.
On 2 November 2005, the HSE and the ISMA hosted a major conference in London, entitled, Making the Management Standards Work. The aim of the conference was to mark National Stress Awareness Day 2005 and launch new HSE guidance on the subject of stress.
The first piece of new guidance is entitled Making the Management Standards Work: How to Apply the Standards in your Workplace. It has been written for the HSE by the ISMA, based on research taken from organisations attending workshops on how to use the HSE Management Standards for Work-related Stress. (The workshops were organised by ISMA in late 2004.)
A lengthy research report entitled, Attitudes, opinions and experiences of attendees at the ISMA UK stress workshops has been issued as a follow up to the conference.
Research reports, RR431, A Business Case for Management Standards for Stress and Ethnicity, work characteristics, stress and health have been published. The purpose of the second report is to investigate the prevalence of reported occupational stress and psychiatric disorder in Black Carribean, Asian and White workers and to understand the reasons for differences in occupational stress between ethnic groups.
The Management Standards for tackling work-related stress have been issued. You can read a copy on this site or go to the HSE site to view the relevant page. You will also find a valuable new advice leaflet for employees produced by ISMAUK.
The is an an online discussion group on work-related stress and solutions for organisations. The " Stress Solutions Discussion Group" is for people to discuss approaches to tackling stress in the workplace but you will need to register with the site to enable you to express your views.
There are also a couple of reports covering a number of practical suggestions used by different organisations and materials that can be adapted.
The HSE have issued a stress pack which you can download.