Should businesses be req by law to offer Mental Health First Aid training

Yes definitely mental health training should be on the same basis as first aid training. Legally speaking, there’s no absolute requirement for a trained first aider. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide “adequate and appropriate” equipment, facilities and personnel to ensure their employees receive immediate attention if they are injured or taken ill at work. This could easily be updated to include mental health issues. Seems an easy win without much additional burden for employers who already have obligations to their employees anyway. I would add that there’s one organisation who likes to think it owns the rights to the phrase “mental health first aider” but organisations should know that there’s a multitude of great MHFA trainers around.

It requires resources - time and money, both are often limited.
If a business has the resources, formal training is a worthy investment. A less well-resourced business may struggle to meet mandatory training requirements and a mandatory regime can be a barrier to accessing quality training.

It’s an opportunity to upskill HR personnel, but should not be offered to HR personnel exclusively. Businesses should roll training out to staff across the business (at all levels) to successfully target staff wellbeing across the board.

It can assist an employer to spot early signs of poor mental health and aid early intervention. Early intervention and gaining trust amongst staff can avoid absenteeism in and long-term sickness absence from the workplace and their results i.e. avoid unfair dismissal/ discrimination claims.

This is something I feel conflicted on as a small business owner. Level 1 awareness training for all staff seems to me like a great idea that would ‘open the conversation’ in businesses and work towards breaking down stigmas in workplaces that aren’t open to this kind of communication.

Level 2 and beyond however feels like it would be burdening a single individual in a small team like ours which could end up being to the detriment of that individual if they felt they were the only conduit for conversation. With mental health provision in the NHS and via GP referral being so poor, we could end up with mental health first aiders bearing the brunt of responsibility for individuals who’ve come to them, but that have nowhere else to turn as they sit on 12+ week waiting lists.

Whilst we should definitely encourage businesses to invest in skills development initiatives that focus on mental fitness and employee wellbeing, mandatory mental health first aid training is not the answer. Providing the tools and resources for employees to build mental resilience is a great way to help teams to avoid overwhelm and burnout. However, forcing organisations to adopt these policies strips away the autonomy and engagement that is vital for true progress. Companies that have voluntarily implemented these programs have already reaped the rewards, but if we make training mandatory, we risk reducing these initiatives to box ticking exercises which are more likely to cause harm than good. Instead, we should educate leaders on how mental fitness training can boost productivity, well-being, and engagement in the workplace.

A surefire way to ensure employee wellbeing becomes a tickbox exercise.

In my view, mandatory MHFA training is not the answer. Organisations will treat it like a tick-box exercise and there will be little benefit to employees. It would be far better to embed healthy working practices instead, starting with proper training of line managers

"As with many government initiatives, this initiative has good intentions but is likely destined for a poor outcome, becoming little more than a meaningless tick-box exercise.

Legislation for compliance does not equate to changes in behaviour. Equal pay legislation is 50 years old, and some employers still grapple with that.

Mental health provision needs to look more broadly and holistically - job design, resources to do the job, flexibility, organisational culture, psychological safety, management style and wellbeing initiatives- as part of a broader wellbeing strategy.

The holy grail is a company culture that reduces stigma so that individuals feel comfortable talking in the first place. It starts at the top. All the MHFA training in the world won’t help unless people feel safe speaking”.

We believe that mental health first aid is important in the workplace but that, unfortunately, some of the training that accredits people as 'mental health first aiders' can be woefully lacking. HSE research points to 'significant gaps', and backs up our own experiences, including that MHFA doesn't meet workplace requirements for supporting employees and that MH first aiders are not better equipped to deal with people experiencing emotional distress or crisis. One advantage is that MHFA increases awareness and understanding of mental health in the workplace, but we believe resources would be better directed to evidence-based strategies that improve management of health and wellbeing at work. Unfortunately, the proposal seems to be akin to requiring employers to engage in virtue signalling.