A failure to treat people with mental health problems and help them back into work costs society £67bn annually, says New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), which is calling on funders to help scale up mental health prevention charities which operate in the workplace.

A roundtable on the issue will take place today, involving charities such as Mind, the Department of Health, commissioners, major funders and the Centre for Mental Health, which is co-hosting the event with NPC.

They will discuss a new report from NPC, Job well done, which looks at how mental health problems are costing the government and employers billions per year.

The report finds that while there are many promising schemes that get people with mental health problems back into employment, there is a lack of funding, and services are patchy around the country.

In the report, NPC highlights the opportunities for private funders to invest in projects that could save money and improve the lives of thousands of people.

It suggests that there could be opportunities for social investors to provide long-term, low-interest loans to help these charities scale up their services, as well as the possibility to create social impact bonds to finance services that help people with mental health return to work.

Benedict Rickey, author of the report, said: “By funding charities that are effective at helping people with mental health problems back to work, the costs to government and society could be cut dramatically. There are also many things employers can to do make their workplaces more mental health friendly.”