FUTURES ANALYSTS’ NETWORK (FAN CLUB) - Seminar 6 July 2009

Mental Capital and Wellbeing: Making the most of ourselves in the 21^st Century’

Foresight aim’s to help government think systematically about the future. It does this by bringing a futures perspective to developing the science-evidence base to inform some of the most challenging policy questions faced by the UK. It operates in critical areas where multidisciplinary science holds the promise of solutions and its long-term perspective (at least 10-year) ensures that it operates outside the ‘normal’ shorter-term timeframe of policy and business

On Monday, 6 July, the FAN Club enjoyed a lunchtime seminar in Knightsbridge on the recent Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project (MCW). The project set out to examine how the UK government could achieve the best possible mental development and mental wellbeing for everyone in the UK in the next 20 years.,.

The presentation and discussion was led by Jon Parke of Foresight’s Follow-up team.

The MCW project launched in October 2008 at the end of a two-year study which developed a vision for the opportunities and challenges facing the UK over the next 20 years and beyond. It explored the implications for everyone’s mental capital and mental wellbeing and provided signposts for what we will need to do to meet the challenges ahead so that everyone can realise their potential and flourish in the future.

It involved over 400 leading experts and stakeholders from across the world and from diverse disciplines such as economics, modelling and systems analysis, social sciences and ethics, neuroscience, genetics and mental development, psychology and psychiatry and sciences relating to education, work and wellbeing. The resultant report is one of the broadest ever produced by from a Foresight project.

Jon introduced some of the projects key messages including that there is an overarching need for departments to integrate their current and future MCW strategies so that they impact on people in a co-ordinated way over their lifecourse. Early intervention will yield many years of benefits to the individual and to society. View presentation slides here.

Some of the specific ‘Challenge’ areas that the project tackled were learning difficulties in children, wellbeing at work, mental ill-health and an ageing population. Key messages made in the presentation are set out below:

Up to 10% of children have a learning difficulty, for example dyslexia, dyscalculia. This can affect the mental capital and wellbeing of the child as they progress through the lifecourse and may reduce lifetime earnings.

Focusing particularly on looked-after children the project found that only 2% are in care because of their own unacceptable behaviour. Therefore 98% are victims of abuse and neglect. Often these children are stigmatised and have difficultly accessing services. The project evaluated how they might be affected as they continue through life and found, for example, that looked-after children were ten-times more likely to have known special educational needs and educational attainment was significantly worse than other children. They were also four-times more likely to be unemployed after leaving school.

To meet these challenges the project explores interventions such as improving teacher training to identify learning difficulties earlier and targeting stigmatised groups, such as looked-after children.

Wellbeing is an increasingly important issue as stress at work leads to both absenteeism and presenteeism which cost hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Proposed interventions include wellbeing audits and expanding the right for employees to request flexible working. Continuously developing our mental capital by training and retraining through our working lives will be increasingly crucial for people to compete in the global market for skills.

Mental ill-health is a major and complex issue which costs England £77 billion a year and impacts on many areas of government policy. In the UK as many as one in six adults suffer a common mental disorder at any one time. However there is scope for improving early diagnosis and treatment. Addressing social risk factors could make a significant impact on prevalence of disorders - an estimated 30% of GP consultations have an underlying mental-health cause many of which have a socio-economic basis such as unemployment and debt. Also, addressing stigma and discrimination are central to the reports message.

The ageing population has important consequences on the prevalence of mental capital and wellbeing. There is a great need not only to target cognitive decline in the aging population but also to unlock the cognitive potential of older people. There is considerable scope for scientific and technological innovation to support interventions. For example, the detection of the early onset of common mental disorders such as dementia, and the development of tailored learning and educational systems.

The project identified that for a future strategy to successfully address these areas might include:

• A higher priority for mental capital and wellbeing in government budgets;
• Consideration of the impacts over long timescales;
• Targeting vulnerable groups
• Integrating across departments.

The floor was then thrown open to questions. A number of interesting comments and questions were contributed by FAN Club members which led to a stimulating debate. Key issues that were raised included:

• There is a clear link between style of management and health of employee. This area of work was covered by Professor Cary Cooper who led the science coordination team on the project. There is a need for exemplar case studies in this area including cost-benefit analysis to encourage more businesses to acknowledge this link.
• As well as getting a cross-government response to the challenges set out in the report there is also a need for research councils to encourage cross-disciplinary research initiatives. One particular barrier in making this happen is that career paths in cross-cutting research do not really exist.
• There is a need to broaden the usual medical model when assessing wellbeing at work and also to look at the role of economics and health and safety.
• The MCW project did use some scenario analysis to inform its final report as well as directing resource at developing cost-benefit analysis and modelling.
• There are real opportunities for Foresight to inform government’s strategic thinking and make impact as exemplified by the Foresight ‘Tackling Obesities: Future Choices’ report which directly informed the Cross-Government Obesity Unit ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives’ strategy.
• There is a role for the community in achieving mental capital and wellbeing for individuals. The issues around social cohesion and social inclusion are integral to the report’s message.
• It is important to focus on positive mental health and wellbeing as well as the treatment for mental ill-health.
• There is a need to define metrics and the measurement for wellbeing that can be used to assess the value of different interventions.
• The issue of gender-balance in promoting a grounded management team and how this affects wellbeing at work would be an interesting area of future research.
• By tackling the topics covered by the MCW report we are not starting from a clean slate. What we are doing is using the evidence-base to allow more intelligent, informed policy making.