Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 66
Require DEFRA to establish a clear and active role in national suicide prevention strategy
Recommendation
DEFRA should be an active stakeholder in any national suicide prevention strategy, as the Department is responsible for populations and occupational groups arguably at higher-than-average risk of poor mental health and death by suicide. However, DEFRA does not appear to have carved out a clear role in the last two initiatives— the national strategy and cross-government workplan—and its only reference in the latest consultation is to managing “green social prescribing”.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government acknowledged the importance of addressing suicide risk factors in rural, agricultural, and veterinary populations, noting the new 2023-2028 Suicide Prevention Strategy identifies these groups. It also highlighted a new £10 million grant fund and ongoing ONS data work to understand occupational suicide rates for targeted support.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
66
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
Our Suicide Prevention Strategy for England: 2023 to 2028, was published on 11 September 2023. This strategy sets out our ambitions over the next five years to: reduce suicide rates, improve support for people who have self-harmed, and improve support for people bereaved by suicide, and it identifies actions to tackle known risk factors. The strategy identifies and sets out plans to address several key risk factors for suicide which will be relevant for agricultural and veterinary workers, including financial insecurity and economic adversity, and loneliness and social isolation. In August 2023, the Department for Health, and Social Care (DHSC) launched a £10million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to support the suicide prevention voluntary, charity and social enterprise sector to deliver activity that helps meet the increased demand for support, and to embed preventative activity that can help to prevent suicides and stem the flow into crisis services. The new Suicide prevention strategy for England: 2023 to 2028 was published on 11 September 2023. This strategy sets out the government’s ambitions over the next 5 years to: reduce suicide rates, improve support for people who have self-harmed, and improve support for people bereaved by suicide. Informed by the Mental Health Call for Evidence launched in 2022, the strategy identifies priority groups, suicide risk factors and the steps we need to take in consultation with individuals, organisations across national and local government, the NHS, the private sector, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE), and academia. This includes steps and actions to tackle known risk factors, many of which the EFRA Committee’s report rightly identifies as affecting those living in rural areas, including agricultural workers and veterinary workers. We are proud to be investing an additional £57 million in suicide prevention by 2023/24 through the NHS Long Term Plan. Through this, all areas of the country are seeing investment to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services. Funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future Spending Reviews, and we will consider further opportunities to build upon this investment for suicide prevention. The government recognises that suicide risk by occupational groups may vary nationally, and even locally, and it is vital that the statutory sector and local agencies are alert to this and adapt their suicide prevention interventions accordingly. We know that there are a range of issues that veterinary sector workers and agricultural workers are faced with that are beyond their control, and which can impact on their mental health. To further improve our understanding of risk, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is using data from Census 2021 linked with other administrative datasets, including NHS Talking Therapies, Hospital Episode Statistics, and death registration data, which will help to improve understanding of the suicide rates in different occupations, including farmers. The aim is to use this data to identify where actions should be prioritised to support different occupations.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗