Business people are being invited to hear two top speakers at the Jurys Inn Swindon explain how mental health can impact on local businesses in the town.

The Swindon Mindful Employer Network welcomes Adam Spreadbury of the Bank of England and campaigner and workplace mental health specialist Jonathan Naess who will talk to local employers how they can reduce the negative impact of mental health amongst their workforce while implementing effective monitoring of stress and mental ill-health in their organisations.

The event is being staged with kind support of the Jurys Inn Swindon on Monday 23rd May and will chaired by Melanie Richens of the UK College of Personal Development. Special guest will be Richard Frost who is the UK Lead for Mindful Employer.

Adam Spreadbury will talk about his own experience of mental ill-health and will explain the Bank of England’s approach to mental wellbeing for its employees, including why it has an employee led Mental Health Network.

The Bank of England offers a range of services to promote mental wellbeing, including an in-house medical unit, staff counsellors, and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme. In addition the Mental Health Network works with Human Resources and the staff counsellors to raise awareness and improve understanding around mental health conditions, and to highlight the support available to employees.

Jonathan Naess, who formed the campaign charity Stand to Reason and is now Head of Workplace Mental Health at Open Minds Alliance CIC agrees that businesses must be switched on the idea of monitoring workplace stress.

“For many employees work is a positive environment for quite a lot of the time. However, studies show that stress is increasingly seen as a significant contributing factor for sickness absence including long term absence, low productivity and a demotivated workforce.

"The relationship between workplace stress and business performance is proved beyond doubt. This event provides advice, ideas and good examples of how employers can tackle these matters in a cost effective and meaningful way.”

Network Chair Melanie Richens says of the event: “These sessions provide an opportunity to local firms and organisations to learn how to provide a mentally healthy, safe and productive workplace for their staff. There is ample evidence that reducing the stigma of mental health at work is good news for both employees and employers. Mindful employers and developing a mindful business can transform and engage your workforce.”

Janet Allen-Louden, Sales Manager of the Jurys Inn Swindon, comments: “We are always pleased to welcome back the Swindon Mindful Employer Network as we know it attracts a lot of attention due to the interesting topics discussed. Workplace wellbeing is of critical importance to Jurys Inn Swindon and the hospitality sector as a whole.”

This session follows the Mental Health Awareness Week which takes place this year on 16 – 22 May.

Places for this event are available for representatives of Swindon Employers only. Booking is essential.

For more information about this event please contact: smen@swindonmind.org ENDS Release date: March 2016   Speaker profiles Adam Spreadbury Quality Assurance Manager, Prudential Regulation Authority, Bank of England and Co-Chair of Bank of England’s Mental Health Network Adam Spreadbury is the co-chair of the Bank of England's Mental Health Network. He helped the Bank to publicly support the Time to Change anti-stigma mental health pledge in 2013. Adam also featured in articles in the Financial Times and Buzzfeed where he talked about being ill with depression and how support from his managers and colleagues at the time helped him recover.

Adam was born in Swindon, grew up in Wiltshire and still has family in the county.

  Jonathan Naess Head of Workplace Mental Health, Open Minds Alliance Jonathan Naess is a corporate financier from London married with a son. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After qualifying and working as a corporate finance lawyer, Jonathan worked as a senior regulator at the London Stock Exchange and latterly in corporate finance, where he was a director and partner of a firm in the city.

Jonathan is passionate about work being integral to an individual’s self-esteem during recovery and set up Stand to Reason, in 2006 - the first mental health charity run by people who have experienced mental illness to tackle stigma, discrimination and prejudice in the workplace. Jonathan has been involved in many areas of mental health policy, locally and nationally, particularly with relation to the workplace.

He was a member of the steering group chaired by Dame Carol Black that advises the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Health on the mental health aspects of worklessness in Britain. Stand to Reason launched a campaign for the removal of symbolic and stigmatising law that prevented people who have experienced mental ill health from becoming an MP, magistrate, juror, company director or partner. Having garnered the support of large NGOs and both sides of the House of the Commons they lobbied successfully for the Mental Health (Discrimination) Act 2012 which removed these restrictions.

Jonathan now heads the Workplace Mental Health team at Connecting with People and provides workplace training and consultancy for workplace cultural change and has advised many of the leading edge organisations on this agenda in the UK.

Richard Frost Lead, Mindful Employer Employed by Devon Partnership NHS Trust, Richard leads the UK-wide MINDFUL EMPLOYER initiative which provides information and support for employers in recruiting and retaining staff who experience mental ill health (www.mindfulemployer.net). Since it began in 2004, MINDFUL EMPLOYER has spread throughout the UK and is also operating in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Richard has worked in the field of employment since 1979, specialising in helping people with disabilities. Richard has specialised in mental health since 2002 although his interest in that particular area dates back many years. He graduated with an MSc Vocational Rehabilitation through Sheffield Hallam University in 2012.

Melanie Richens Melanie is a Professional Coach, Certified NLP Trainer, NLP Master Practitioner, Hypnotherapy Master Practitioner and Provocative Change Works TM Practitioner.

Her first career was as a lawyer, becoming a partner in a top 100 law firm and latterly Director of People. She is now following her passion for developing people enabling them to perform at their peak and removing barriers to success through a combination of coaching and training.

Melanie has coached and trained individuals at all levels to improve personal performance, to aid career progression and unlock personal potential enabling people to achieve their maximum capabilities. She works collaboratively in partnership with clients to set and achieve goals, solve problems and foster learning and development. She is equally at home working with individuals or organisations; when working with organisations she can bring her first-hand experience to bear of working at board level designing and implementing strategy and delivering cultural change.

Melanie is passionate about encouraging business success through engaging and developing people in order to ensure that individual performance is aligned with the strategy of the business leading to a win-win situation for both employers and employees. She has collaborated extensively with a number of training organisations and coaches to design, develop and deliver leadership and management training programmes.

For more detailsd visit www.mindfulemployer.net 01392 677064