The Building Podcast
Mark Wakeford is Chairman of the National Federation of Builders, vice-chair at Constructing Excellence Midlands and a Governor at Construction College, Moulton College. He has run a large regional building contractor and now chairs Evoenergy, one of the UK's foremost renewable companies, bringing low carbon solutions to corporate Britain.
Mark talks to leading experts from across the construction sector to discuss issues facing the built environment. He explores various challenges with his guests, who offer solutions, information and ideas that listeners can apply to their own situations, be it in a company, on a project or studying at college.
The Building Podcast aims to provide CPD on the go. Supporting the sector with easily digestible ideas to support a rapidly changing industry!
The Building Podcast
Mark talks to Carla Toro
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Mental Health remains a stain on the reputation of the construction industry with a suicide rate of four times the national average. The reasons why are varied and complex, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of stress, poor health and lost productivity within the sector.
Carla Toro is an Associate Professor in Mental Health Sciences at Warwick University. She has been focusing on mental health throughout her professional career and on our sector for the past four years. Carla talks about the international rise in poor mental health and the renewed focus on improving this around the world. She believes that construction has a number of challenges that decrease our workers state of mental health, including a long hours culture, a loss of agency in managing our workloads, when and if we are paid and whether we have any work after our current role. Carla points out that the self-employed, despite allegedly having control of their work, are perhaps more prone to poor mental health, through a loss of agency.
Carla is part of the group assembled through the Construction Leadership Council to provide a code of conduct for the industry. She is gathering responses to a questionnaire and she is keen that as many people as possible will provide information to inform her work and the output of this small working group. Details of the questionnaire are below, which should be finished before the 5th November 2025.
CLC Launches Construction Mental Health Consultation – Construction Leadership Council