The HSE Management Standards


The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) management standards on workplace stress provide a useful benchmark for measuring the employer’s actions in the context of mental wellbeing at work and can be useful when representing members off work with mental health conditions. The six standards: Demands, Control, Support, Relationships, Role, Change, try to identify the main sources of stress at work. They help highlight the collective, organisational causes of work-related mental ill-health – such as working hours, workload, and effective leadership and line management.


There is advice for reps on using the management standards on the Health and Safety Executive website and in LRD’s companion publication, Health and Safety Law. There is also a TUC guide, available from the TUC website.