Employer responsibilities
Work-related stress and your duty of care
UK employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work. Here's a plain-English overview of what that means, based on Health and Safety Executive guidance.
6 min readUpdated 21 October 2026By MENd Together CIC
The legal duty
The Health and Safety Executive says employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. This sits within general health and safety law, alongside the duty to assess other risks to health.
Where a mental health condition has a substantial and long-term effect on someone's normal day-to-day activities, it may count as a disability under the Equality Act 2010. Employers then have a duty to consider reasonable adjustments.
The HSE Management Standards
The HSE's Management Standards cover six areas of work that, if not managed well, are linked to stress:
- Demands: workload, work patterns and the work environment
- Control: how much say people have in the way they do their work
- Support: encouragement and resources from the organisation, managers and colleagues
- Relationships: promoting positive working and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
- Role: whether people understand their role and avoid conflicting roles
- Change: how organisational change is managed and communicated
Practical next steps
- Use the Management Standards to structure your stress risk assessment, and involve your workforce in it.
- Act on what you find, and review it.
- Train managers to recognise stress and have early, supportive conversations.
- Make support easy to reach and genuinely confidential.
- Think about who your current support isn't reaching. In many workforces, that's men.
Support alongside your duties
Wellbeing sessions don't replace a risk assessment or occupational health. They can help men feel able to speak up earlier, which supports everything else you do. MENd Together delivers men's wellbeing workshops, workplace circles and one-to-one support for employers.
This guide is a general overview, not legal advice. For your specific situation, see the HSE and Acas guidance or take professional advice.
For employers
Support for the men in your workforce
MENd Together is a Community Interest Company delivering practical, confidential men's wellbeing support for employers: workplace men's circles, workshops, one-to-one support, drop-ins, leadership support and ongoing partnerships, shaped around your workforce.
Common questions
- Is stress itself a medical condition?
- Stress isn't an illness in itself, but long periods of it can lead to physical and mental health problems. That's why HSE treats work-related stress as a health and safety risk to assess and manage.
- Where can I find the official guidance?
- The Health and Safety Executive's stress pages include the Management Standards and risk assessment tools. Acas publishes guidance on supporting mental health at work.
Sources
- Health and Safety Executive: Stress risk assessment
- Health and Safety Executive: What are the Management Standards?
- GOV.UK: Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010
- Acas: Supporting mental health at work
This guide is general information, not legal, medical or clinical advice. MENd Together is not a crisis service. If someone is at immediate risk, call 999.