Mental Health Awareness Week 2022
This week (9th – 15th May) is Mental Health Awareness Week, an annual campaign that encourages people across the UK to openly discuss mental health and support one another. This year, the theme is ‘loneliness’ – which can be both a cause and product of poor mental health – and people are being encouraged to reach out to their family, friends, colleagues and communities to support, connect with and uplift one another. You can find out more about this year’s theme on the Mental Health Foundation’s website.
We at the York & North Yorkshire LEP and Growth Hub are using Mental Health Awareness Week as a way to connect with each other and combat the loneliness we can sometimes feel when working from home. We’re challenging each other to meet face-to-face as much as possible and make room on our agendas to grab a cuppa and get together for some social time. We’re also encouraging our team to reach out and talk with colleagues they don’t know well, so we can all get to know each other a bit more. Finally, we’re making mental health awareness training accessible to the team and pointing everyone to mental health resources and support.
We’re hoping to build more connections across our team and promote open discussions, and we encourage you to spread awareness and support through your workplace as well!
Below are some resources from our website that can help you think about mental health and how you can support both yourself and others in the workplace.
Mental Health & Wellbeing Toolkit
Our Mental Health & Wellbeing Toolkit is free to download and can help answer your questions about workplace wellbeing. The toolkit includes a range of practical resources that can help both you and your employees.
With the guide, you’ll learn:
- What is meant by ‘mental health’?
- Business owners’ legal responsibilities around mental health
- What to do if you are worried about a staff member
- How to avoid creating mental health problems in the workplace
- How to manage your own mental health
On-demand wellbeing webinars
We have a wide range of webinars available on-demand for you to watch, including our new wellbeing playlist. The playlist is free to access and contains hours of content covering mental health, wellbeing and supporting your colleagues and employees.
Topics include:
- Employee wellness and engagement
- Maintaining positive mental health and wellbeing in difficult times
- Supporting the return to work
- Building resilience and supporting team wellbeing
- Plus more
Watch our playlist now with this link.
We also have individual webinars available for you to watch, which cover a variety of topics from wellbeing to leadership and building connections and resiliency across your team. All of our on-demand webinars can be found here.
Tips for creating a happier workforce
One misconception is that keeping employees happy at work is expensive, but you can create a more positive workplace by ensuring your employees feel valued and connected using inexpensive means. Our blog offers you some simple ideas to support your staff and create a happier, more productive and supportive workforce.
Connect with mental health support, training and programmes
Programmes exist to help you support employees who are experiencing mental health challenges and create inclusive workplaces.
Thriving at Work is a project that aims to support people to unlock their potential at work. The project can help you to create an inclusive workplace, and offers specialist coaching, training, webinars and 1-to-1 support. The project not only aims to support people with mental health challenges, but also offers training to help you support neurodiverse and disabled staff to thrive at work too. All support is free to access.
The Skills Support for the Workforce programme offers a range of free training, which includes support around mental health awareness, mental health first aid, promoting equality and diversity in the workplace and more. Skills training is also proven to make employees feel valued, improve productivity and confidence, and encourages teamwork. Skills Support for the Workforce offers training across York and North Yorkshire, for all sectors.
Yorkshire businesses get £2.4m digital innovation boost
Hundreds of manufacturing businesses across Yorkshire have put themselves at the forefront of enhancing their business through digital innovation – and now more can join them after a further £2.4m was received to support the region’s digital ambitions. Since 2021, the “Made Smarter Yorkshire and Humber” programme has supported more than 700 Yorkshire manufacturing businesses to take up digital adoption projects to improve efficiency and productivity, boosting the strength of manufacturing across the region.
BOOST: A marketing support programme for York and North Yorkshire tourism and hospitality businesses
This practical, action-oriented programme of activity has been developed to help you market your business more effectively, saving time and money. It’s created and delivered by Susan Briggs from The Tourism Network. Susan has over thirty years of successful tourism marketing experience. It’s for visitor-facing tourism businesses such as accommodation providers; visitor attractions; activity and experience providers; creative, retail, food and drink businesses.
Made Smarter Backs Unity Racing on the Road to Singapore
Made Smarter Yorkshire is proud to continue its support for Unity Racing, a team of six exceptional college students competing in the renowned F1 in Schools competition. As the reigning UK national champions, Unity Racing will once again take on the world stage this September, heading to Singapore for the highly anticipated global finals.
Fully Funded Training for Tourism and Hospitality Businesses - Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety for Catering
The York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub are pleased to be partnering with North Yorkshire Council and the City of York Council on an initiative to support hospitality businesses from across the area to benefit from fully funded Food Safety and Hygiene Level 2 training and certification courses
Industrial Strategy to provide over £150m to reinforce UK as services superpower
The UK’s modern Industrial Strategy will invest over £150 million in five transformative AI and technology programmes to help UK Professional and Business Services (PBS) sectors such as legal, management consulting and accountancy soar.
Are you paying your interns at least the National Minimum Wage?
If you are considering hiring an intern, it’s important to find out whether they are entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW).
Meet your High Street Coordinator: Vibrant and Sustainable High Street Fund
If you’re unsure whether your project idea is a good fit for the Vibrant and Sustainable High Streets fund, have any questions or simply need support, please get in touch with your local High Street Coordinator to discuss your proposal.
Innovation Supper – Apply to pitch
After the incredible success of the previous event, we’re thrilled to announce the return of Innovation Supper, and once again, we’re inviting you apply to pitch. If you are interested in your chance to get some great business advice and take away some funding to grow, then please fill in the application and return to us by 4 September 2025.
UK organisations stand to benefit from new data protection laws
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA) has now received Royal Assent. This new legislation updates key aspects of data protection law, making it easier for UK businesses to protect people’s personal information while growing and innovating their products and services.
Launch of week-long programme to help businesses to thrive
Businesses across North Yorkshire are being given key advice and the chance to develop their enterprises with the launch of the first event of its kind in the county that has been heralded as a “vital move” to supporting the economy.
Digital Adoption Grant - Apply Now
The Digital Inclusion Capital Grant aims to support businesses to adopt new technologies and resources, in order to increase innovation and productivity. The fund opened for applications on Monday 16 June 2025 and will close at 5pm on Monday 14 July 2025.
Leadership Excellence and Development Programme Launched for North Yorkshire
The Leadership Excellence and Development (LEAD) Programme is tailored for small business owners who want to strengthen their leadership skills and drive business growth. Over six months, this programme covers key areas essential for your success, delivered by experts in their fields through a mix of workshops, coaching, and consultancy.