The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has published its Mental Health Joint Code of Practice (JCOP), providing leaders and businesses across the sector with a framework to create an environment that fosters better mental health for their workforce.

The sector continues to lose too many people to suicide, and in today’s world, with the plethora of existing support services, this is unacceptable. The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce must be of paramount importance.

Whilst we recognise there is great work taking place across the construction sector in the mental health space, for too long those efforts have focused mainly on intervention, once people are already struggling. As a new approach, the JCOP is designed through the lens of prevention, enabling businesses to support employees before it reaches that stage.

Our evidence from a representative sample of our core demographic – men in mid to later working life, also shows that workers face multiple barriers to speaking up on these issues England’s first Men’s Health Strategy aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all men and boys in England, recognising that men’s health outcomes are significantly shaped by work and working conditions. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention. The cross-government Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in 2023, sets the ambition for employers, especially those in high-risk occupations, to have appropriate mental health and wellbeing support in place for their staff. The new cross-government mental health strategy, to be published later this year, will look beyond the NHS and consider the role of workplaces, schools, the voluntary sector and local government to respond more proportionately to needs and promote positive mental health.

Today’s publication is supported by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The JCOP fundamentally changes the narrative in this space, bringing together key stakeholders across the sector and beyond to take a system thinking based approach, through the lens of prevention.

It will be trialled at 33 Piccadilly and 10 Piccadilly in London – two of The Crown Estate’s new developments in the heart of the capital – working alongside their partners at Kier Construction.

The CLC has worked with its programme partners (New Hospital Programme, Marsh and BCLP), supported by key influential organisations (e.g. Mindflow, Lighthouse Charity, and British Standards Institute) and a cross section of the UK’s leading influential contractors to develop the JCOP, which is endorsed by Government, informed by industry and underpinned by academic evidence.

Affected on the ground workers (through a series of regional focus groups) and industry (through our 3000 consultation responses) told us that the core primary causes impacting the workforce’s mental health are:

• Working Patterns (e.g. long hours and excessive travel)
• People Factors and Work Environment (Welfare, Dignity and Respect)
• Operational Factors (e.g. commercial pressures)
• Barriers to Mental Health support (stigma and low mental health literacy stop people getting help)
• Financial Factors (Late payment and financial insecurity)

The Code is designed as a catalyst and living framework to address these five key hazards: a credible baseline now, which will be strengthened over time through shared learning, data and realworld case studies.

It is evidence-led, moving businesses from response to prevention. It provides- through an improved understanding of those five primary psychosocial hazards in construction- practical workplace solutions to help clients, employers and the supply chain to prevent harm earlier, driving down the incidence of ill health throughout all levels of the industry.

It recognises a simple truth that has come through repeatedly in our evidence gathering: mental ill health is not an inevitable feature of construction, and it is not a problem to be managed solely through individual resilience or support after the fact. It is, to a significant extent, shaped upstream by how work is commissioned, designed, procured, planned, sequenced and led.

This is about prevention first, not prevention only. The JCOP does not replace crisis support which remains essential. The JCOP shifts the focus earlier, helping the industry prevent work-related pressures from becoming crises in the first place.

The invitation is simple to leaders and business: adopt it, use it, improve it — and help the sector move forward together, in step, towards work that is healthier by design.

This is a joint code, written by the sector, for the sector. It reflects the reality that no single organisation can deliver change in isolation. The only way that we will be able to improve mental health in UK construction, is if the industry moves together collectively, and works in partnership.

Baroness Merron, Minister for Mental Health, said:
“It is really encouraging to see the construction industry taking this crucial step to ensure the wellbeing of its workforce, and I hope it sets a strong example for other sectors to follow.

“This government believes mental health is just as important as physical health, which is why we are investing record amounts in mental health services and recruiting more mental health professionals than ever before.

“Mental health is shaped not just by healthcare services, but at work, at home, in schools and in our communities. That’s why this initiative is so important and why our new, cross-government mental health strategy will drive the shift from crisis intervention to preventative care.”

This work was spearheaded for the CLC by The Department for Business and Trade, Heathrow, The Crown Estate, BAM UK and Ireland, Mates In Mind and The University of Warwick and supported by their partners Marsh, BCLP and the New Hospital Programme.

This week I attended the Mental Health Summit run by Get Construction Talking.

The stats are stark; we lose two people to suicide every day in construction. The industry is, when at its best, an amazing place to work, but not for everyone and not all the time.  We all know that relentless programmes, poor payment practices, the race to the bottom, erratic work patterns, location dependence, and travel all contribute.  It doesn’t help that we are a male dominated workforce that tends to the “just keep going” mindset.  But it isn’t just a construction problem – industry specific challenges blend with societal issues, neural diversity, addiction, the cost-of-living crisis and the pressure that social media puts on people to feel like they are failing if life isn’t Insta perfect.  We can’t always change the world, we can’t solve every problem, but we can be more alert.

As I sat there, I was thinking back to the presentation from Liam Colebrook at our Northern Regional Event the week prior and reminded of the consistency in the message.  In a brave and challenging presentation, Liam opened up about his addictions and  struggles with mental health and suicide.  During the presentation you could have heard a pin drop, after there were some really powerful questions and discussion, but my mind was mostly turning to a moment when we were packing up.  A former colleague of Liam’s, someone who worked with him at the time, came forward as we were unplugging the laptop and said … “mate I’m so sorry… I didn’t know”.   I regularly caught up with Liam at events, throughout his darkest days and I didn’t see the signs either.  Liam was one of our own, he went through hell, alone.  Thankfully he is still here, staying strong and sharing so that we can all learn from our failures.  But others aren’t and sadly some won’t be in the future – we do need to do more.

Get Construction Talking wasn’t just another conversation and a load of virtue signalling, it was an opportunity to share ideas, interrogate the causes, find out what others are doing and vitally to reflect.  Collaboration is critical – as well as a “just crack on culture”, construction tends to foster a solutions mindset.  We put ourselves on the hook to “fix it” rather than find the right help.   As a result we get initiative overload – we are not the sum of our parts.  This issue is one where we absolutely have to work on together.   To this end it was encouraging to hear from Mark Reynolds, Chair of Mace and Chair of the Construction Leadership Council on the work they are doing to step up and lead a more collaborative effort.  CLC has established a Mental Health Steering Group. You can find out more and support their research by sharing your insights here.

I’ve certainly come away thinking about how we can better join the dots to support individuals and businesses in our community more effectively.  This starts with promoting the excellent and very practical Action Plan that B1M and Procore have developed through the Get Construction Talking Campaign (which is now uploaded on the Mental Health Toolkit on our website).  The plan looks at the impact that individuals and Team Leaders can have and actions that they can take.   I also want to do more to emphasise the links between mental  health and other work we are doing.  We can’t talk about mental health without talking about risk dumping in contracts and poor contractual management.  FIS is encouraging all members to support the Conflict Avoidance Coalition which is doing great work to change this.  Details available through our Responsible No campaign which is all about changing the culture in construction.   We also can’t ignore unfair payment practices and retention and how they are a cancer at the core of our market, so again I encourage all to feed in to the Government consultation on late payment and retention that closes towards the end of August.  We need to make sure Government have no excuse not to regulate better.

Perhaps the most important reminder on the day was that it isn’t just about getting construction talking, but making sure I am listening.  To this end, please do bring always feel free to call FIS and unload – we can’t solve every problem, but perhaps we can help you appreciate that you aren’t the only one facing it and direct you to someone who can.  Our office number is 0121 707 0077, but my mobile is 07792 959 481 and it is always on.

FIS CEO, Iain McIlwee