From awareness to action: Construction industry launches Mental Health Joint Code of Practice

Launched on 15 June, the code provides a structured, risk-based framework to help employers respond to mental health risks in a more consistent and preventative way.

It aligns with Plan-Do-Check-Act – a methodology shifting mental health from crisis response to a continuous safety system – to help identify mental health hazards, take action, and monitor effectiveness over time.

It provides steps on how to integrate mental health into existing safety frameworks, ensuring psychological risk is managed with the same rigour and accountability as physical risk.

The work was led for the CLC by the Department for Business and Trade, Mates in Mind, Heathrow, The Crown Estate, BAM and the University of Warwick and supported by partners including Marsh Risk, BCLP, and the New Hospital Programme.

Managing director of Mates in Mind, Sam Downie said: “At Mates in Mind, we are proud to have been involved in the creation of the Joint Code of Practice which has been produced by the sector and for the sector; a labour of determination and collaboration.

“We have created practical and comprehensive guidance which, if effectively implemented, will create generational change. Now is the time to move from awareness to ACTION.

“We look forward to providing both new and existing members with the framework, tools and confidence to build a culture of prevention that helps them make, communicate and embed the necessary adjustments required to “eliminate the risk, reduce the risk and/or reduce the harm” of the five hazards that cause mental ill-health as identified in the JCOP.”

The 140-page JCOP has chapters including ‘Using the code’, ‘working patterns’, ‘Operational Demands’ and ‘Financial Issues.’

“Mental health harm is not an inevitable part of working in construction,” says the foreword. “It is not a problem to be managed solely through individual resilience or support after the fact. It is shaped upstream by earlier decisions and behaviours around how work is commissioned, designed, procured, planned, sequenced and led. This is why the Code focuses on the system, not just the individual.”

The Mental Health Joint Code of Practice can be downloaded here