Mental Health & Staff: The Mental Health Charter, British Racing’s Formal Commitment and What It Means in Practice

In 2016, the British Horseracing Authority and Racing Welfare joined the Professional Jockeys Association as signatories to the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation, developed by the Sport and Recreation Alliance and the Professional Players Federation with the support of Mind and Time to Change. The Charter, now signed by organisations including The FA, RFU, LTA, ECB and UK Athletics, commits signatories to six specific areas of action on mental health within their sport.

The BHA’s signing of the Charter, alongside the National Association of Racing Staff and the National Trainers Federation, formalised what had previously been a piecemeal collection of welfare initiatives into a strategic commitment. Understanding what the Charter requires, and what has been delivered in practice, provides a framework for evaluating British racing’s mental health position.

The Six Charter Commitments

The Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation commits signatories to:

1. Promoting wellbeing through the power of sport: Using the sport’s platform and community to encourage physical activity and social interaction as contributions to mental health.

2. Publicly promoting good mental health policies: Communicating what the organisation is doing on mental health, making policies visible and accessible to all participants.

3. Using diverse role models: Deploying ambassadors with personal experience of mental health challenges to reduce stigma and make help-seeking feel legitimate.

4. Tackling discrimination: Ensuring that mental health conditions do not lead to discriminatory treatment of participants.

5. Supporting a pan-sport platform: Contributing to cross-sport learning on mental health, sharing resources and best practice with other sports.

6. Regular monitoring and positive action: Measuring mental health outcomes and acting on the data.

What Racing Has Done: The #InYourCorner Campaign

One of the most visible outputs of the BHA’s Charter commitment was the #InYourCorner campaign, delivered in partnership with Mind. The campaign targeted men in racing, stable staff, jockeys, trainers, with the specific message that looking out for a colleague’s mental health is a masculine act of friendship, not a sign of weakness. The framing was deliberately calibrated to the demographic: as Mind’s own research shows, mental health problems are “just not on the radar for men,” and campaigns that frame help as a sign of weakness fail to reach the people most at risk.

The campaign’s approach, encouraging people to “be in their friend’s corner” by checking in, asking if they’re okay, and not leaving struggling colleagues to suffer alone, was specifically designed to work in environments where direct discussion of mental health is culturally uncomfortable. In racing’s weighing rooms and yards, where stoicism is the dominant emotional register, the peer-to-peer framing offered a route to support that did not require individuals to identify themselves as struggling.

The Role of Mind

Following the Charter commitment, the BHA appointed Mind as a formal advisory body, a deeper relationship than simply co-signing the Charter. Mind has delivered:

– Mental health awareness training for BHA staff
– Workplace wellbeing events
– Connection to the local Mind network in communities where racing operates (Newmarket, Lambourn, Middleham, Malton, Epsom)
– Strategic input into how the BHA communicates and implements its mental health commitments

Hayley Jarvis, Community Programmes Manager for Mind, noted in the partnership announcement: “From the elite level down to grass roots, sport can play a vital role in breaking the cycle of men feeling unable to reach out.” The partnership places British racing’s mental health work within a broader public health framework rather than treating it as an internal welfare problem.

Access Points Available to Racing’s Workforce

As a result of the cumulative commitments made under the Charter and through individual organisations:

Racing’s Support Line: 0800 6300 443 (24 hours, free, available to all current and former racing and breeding industry workers). Provides telephone counselling, online CBT and access to in-person counselling.
PJA Confidential Counselling Helpline: 24-hour jockey-specific line, plus six free face-to-face therapy sessions.
JETS counselling and substance abuse support: Available to jockeys through the Jockeys Education and Training Scheme.
IJF support: Physical rehabilitation and emotional wellbeing support through the Injured Jockeys Fund’s three centres.
Mind Infoline: 0300 123 3393 (9am – 6pm Monday – Friday) for general mental health support.
Sporting Chance: Confidential support for substance concerns (077 8000 8877).

The architecture of support is genuinely substantial compared to what existed before 2016. The challenge identified by researchers, and by practitioners who work with the most distressed members of the workforce, is that the most vulnerable individuals are also the least likely to initiate contact with support services. Passive availability is not the same as active reach.

The Outstanding Gaps

Racing Welfare’s research recommendations, which informed the Charter commitments and subsequent policy development, identified several areas where provision remains insufficient:

Retired jockeys: The mental health challenges associated with career transition after riding are well documented. The emotional support infrastructure has historically been jockey career-focused rather than retirement-focused. The BHA’s announcement in 2020 that it would open its jockey helpline to retired riders was a step forward; the JETS peer support programme for jockeys approaching career transition is another. The scale of unmet need among retired jockeys who have lost structure, identity and income remains significant.

Proactive outreach: Research consistently shows that those in greatest distress are least likely to seek help. The industry’s response to this finding, embedding welfare officers, running targeted campaigns, is partially addressing it, but the fixture list density limits the opportunity for embedded welfare work at racecourse level.

Fixture list review: Racing Welfare’s formal recommendation that the fixture list be reviewed in relation to workforce capacity has not yet been actioned. At approximately 1,500 fixtures annually, British racing operates one of the world’s most intensive schedules, creating sustained pressure on training yards and their staff.