In this special edition of our Make a Difference Leaders Podcast, to mark World Mental Health Day (on Saturday 10th October), we are in conversation with former Health Minister and mental health reform advocate – Sir Norman Lamb.
He’s passionate about shifting from managing employee mental health as a problem to treating people as human beings (so passionate, he’s just written an entire book on the topic!) called: “Be More Human: Why Mental Health Care is Broken – and What We Can do to Fix It”.
Drawing on his background in government, the NHS, and employment law, Lamb argues society and workplaces intervene too late, letting people fall into crisis. He urges employers to focus on prevention through better workplace culture and evidence-backed line manager training.
He warns against “medicalising” distress caused by toxic environments and advocates addressing root causes rather than defaulting to antidepressants.
The discussion also covers UK productivity, record ill health absence and presenteeism, Charlie Mayfield’s prevention-focused analysis, the “Higher Health” soft-skills programme for young people and NEETs, AI-driven anxiety and the need for humane communication, rebuilding community and social connection (including social prescribing). As well as a proposed “wellbeing premium” to incentivise employers via National Insurance discounts.
You can find the episode here, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts:
Time Stamp of Conversation
00:00 Welcome to Leaders00:44 Meet Sir Norman Lamb
02:45 Preventing Workplace Crisis
04:40 Training Compassionate Managers
07:11 Productivity and Wellbeing
08:46 Prevention and Soft Skills
11:15 Stop Medicalizing Distress
13:03 Humane Change in Hard Times
15:29 AI Anxiety and Control
20:20 Rebuilding Community Connection
22:04 Business as a Force for Good
24:20 Wellbeing Premium Proposal
26:10 Final Thanks and Subscribe
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