Recommendations to support the mental health and wellbeing of response-focused civil servants asked to work from home during public health emergencies in the United Kingdom: a Delphi study

Background A recent research project sought to explore the experience of UK response-focused civil servants asked to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic and to create a series of recommendations for future public health emergencies requiring response-focused homeworking. In general, civil servants from one select government organisation were able to convey a plethora of lessons learnt, reflections on experience, and suggestions for future support offers should another public health emergency require homeworking. Recommendations were derived from the evidence, but it remained important to ensure that the recommendations were useful, fit for purpose, and actionable. This required collaboration with experts in appropriate fields (in this case, mental health, occupational health, and government affiliated individuals). Method This Delphi study sought to refine and operationalise evidence-based recommendations designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of future UK response-focused civil servants asked to work from home during public health emergencies. A total of 32 experts were recruited into the study; these individuals provided feedback and rated recommendations over three iterative rounds. Results A total of 19 recommendations reached consensus at a > 90% level of agreement. In line with feedback from experts, these were categorised into preparedness and response focused recommendations to aid with implementation. Collectively, these recommendations establish the importance of organisation/employer level initiatives to protect mental health and wellbeing in response-focused civil servants working from home. Conclusion The key outcome of this work has been the importance of employees, managers, and organisations retaining flexibility when working from home, as a range of factors (e.g., living circumstances, others in household, relationships with colleagues) can influence experience, and each employee will face theird own barriers and facilitators to working from home.