Mental health

Contractors are facing a public backlash as sites continue to operate following the national lockdown. Workers are being heckled from the street and are experiencing abuse on social media following national media coverage of active projects. There was confusion yesterday over whether jobs could run and comply with strict new…

Calls to the helpline dedicated to supporting construction industry workers in crisis have surged following the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking to Construction News yesterday, Bill Hill, chief executive of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, which runs the Construction Industry Helpline, said the industry’s large self-employed contingent had been hit by the…

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, office staff are advised to work from home. While we recognise that home-working is not possible for many in our industry, the Construction News team has put together some tips to make the experience as efficient and beneficial as possible for those who can do so

Establish…

Today we sent issue number 7,593 of Construction News to the printers, completed in our 149th year of existence. I may be wrong, but I think this is the first in that long line of newspapers to have been compiled by a team working from home. We are connected together…

Industry mental health charity Lighthouse Club has said it experienced a 56 per cent increase in calls to its Construction Industry Helpline during 2019. In the past 12 months, a total of 2,616 families in the construction industry have asked the charity for wellbeing or financial support with £703,641 provided…

Workers are under ever increasing pressures at work, often striving to deliver more with fewer resources. The resulting stress affects not only individuals, families and colleagues by impacting their health, but also impacts employers, with costs relating to absence, replacing staff, lost production and increased accidents. Employers may also face…

I had the good fortune last Monday to be invited to this year’s CBI Conference in London. Top billing was given to speeches from Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson and while, naturally enough, their presentations were interesting, I didn’t learn anything particularly new. There was some crowing about…

Willmott Dixon, Bam, Skanska and Bam Nuttall have signed up to an onsite flexible-working scheme with Build UK and Timewise. The four contractors are the first to trial flexible-working consultant Timewise’s Construction Pioneers programme, which will focus on onsite jobs that typically have more rigid shift working. The trial, which…

There is no doubt about it, the construction industry needs to make some serious headway in supporting mental wellbeing. Rates of suicide have started to rise nationally for the first time since 2013, and male site workers are three times more likely to commit suicide than other men. The number…

A new mental health campaign from Public Health England and the NHS, called Every Mind Matters, offers a range of resources designed to help people build a personal plan for dealing with stress, anxiety and similar challenges. The campaign has garnered huge attention courtesy of endorsements from the duke and…