The manager's role
Mental health conversations and support at work.
Three hours on the manager's role in mental health: designing healthier work, starting supportive conversations, reasonable adjustments and planning a return to work.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 3 hours
- Where
- Mental Health at Work for Managers
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Content Note.
This topic is about mental health at work. Part 3, Safe to Speak, Safe to Seek Help, talks about suicide and how to respond when someone is in crisis. It follows the Samaritans' guidance on talking about suicide safely and gives no detail of methods. Take it at your own pace, pause whenever you need to, and come back to it later if that helps.
If you need to talk to someone now, call Samaritans free on 116 123, any time, day or night. For urgent mental health help, call NHS 111 (in Wales press 2, in England choose option 2; in Scotland NHS 24 is also on 111). In Northern Ireland, call Lifeline on 0808 808 8000. If a life is at risk, call 999.
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Managers supporting staff whose mental health affects their work
Overview
Mental health belongs in every manager's job, and this programme sets out what that means in practice. It begins with prevalence and cost evidence, Keyes' dual continua model and the six Thriving at Work standards, making clear what a manager is and is not. It then argues that how work is designed is the biggest lever, through the HSE Management Standards and the principle of changing the work, not the worker. It moves to noticing and starting a supportive conversation, the law on disability and reasonable adjustments, and finally absence, fit notes and planning a phased, reviewed return to work.
Aims
This programme aims to develop managers who can act early and well when mental health affects work. It builds the confidence to design out avoidable harm, open supportive conversations, make adjustments that meet both the law and good practice, and support people through absence and back to work with dignity.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain the manager's role in mental health at work, using the dual continua model, the Thriving at Work standards and the HSE Management Standards.
- Plan and hold a supportive conversation with someone who may be struggling, and agree follow-up such as a wellness action plan.
- Apply the law on disability, reasonable adjustments, absence and fit notes to support a fair, phased and reviewed return to work.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Explain the dual continua model and why the absence of a diagnosis is not the same as being well.
- Distinguish what a manager is and is not in supporting mental health, including noticing, adjusting the work, signposting and following up.
- Identify the six Management Standards and use them to diagnose the source of stress in a team.
- Identify changes in work, behaviour, energy and relationships that may signal someone is struggling, without attempting a diagnosis.
- Explain when a mental health condition meets the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability, and why a diagnosis is not the test.
- Explain the Statutory Sick Pay changes from April 2026 and what fit note advice does and does not require of an employer.
Built from 2 parts.
3 hours of learning.
- 01Starting the conversationWork stress and the HSE Management StandardsBitesize3 modules
- 02Support that worksAdjustments, Access to Work and return to workBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the Mental Health at Work for Managers topic, also sold whole as Minds that matter.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 3 hours, £69
- The whole topicExplore, Minds that matter, 5 hours 30 minutes, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms
Also part of: Well at work