FFF – Health and Wellbeing blog

FFF – Health and Wellbeing blog

Within the 2018 staff survey results, NHS Wigan Borough CCG proudly placed in the top 10 of organisations nationally in respect of organisation and management interest in, and action on, health and wellbeing. Rebecca Edwards and the team responsible for the FFF Health and Wellbeing offering have contacted us to offer an insight into the Wigan Borough’s Health and Wellbeing opportunities that are available for staff.

Structure
Wigan Borough CCG’s Employee Health Safety & Wellbeing Strategy acknowledges that employee wellbeing is of paramount importance in the job satisfaction of our employees and is therefore a management issue for the organisation.
 
Health and wellbeing is seen as a priority for all staff.  All employee’s job descriptions and annual appraisals make reference to the commitment of all employees to their own, their colleagues and the stakeholders of the CCG’s health and wellbeing.
 
This is supported by a dedicated Health and Wellbeing policy. The CCG’s Health and Wellbeing Policy has been developed to promote and encourage health and wellbeing at work. Core to the policy is the dedicated CCG wide Health and Wellbeing Group. This group comprises of representatives of the CCG’s HR function, staff side representatives and a diverse range of employees from each directorate of varying levels and experience. The group discuss many things connected with staff wellbeing including, cross organisational training and development, organisational change, concerns of individual teams, agile working and compliance with the wellbeing charter. The group has dedicated champions to support, amongst other areas, mental health, healthy eating and promoting active lifestyles. These champions have developed successful inclusive ideas to promote their given areas.
 
The minutes and key talking points of the Health and Wellbeing Group are circulated and every member of the team can request that the representative raises their individual issue at the meeting. The finance teams representatives on the Health and Wellbeing group report back to the finance team meeting. The Finance team meeting has dedicated time where the wider team discuss health and wellbeing issues and any themes can be acted upon.
 
All of the above are supported by strong staff side representations that have monthly meetings with the CCG executive to support staff issues in a confidential and positive way. The CCG has a wide range of offerings to support staff health and wellbeing.
 
Offerings
The Health and Wellbeing group have initiated a number of initiatives including;

  • External training available to all staff for Mindfulness, Resilience and Emotional Intelligence;
  • Comprehensive support for volunteering;
  • Charitable fundraising;
  • Support for healthy eating week and stop smoking campaign;
  • Stakeholder panels for senior appointments;
  • Active initiatives including Step Challenge and CCG Sports day;
  • Support for national initiatives such as Mental Health Awareness week;
  • Signposting to the employee assistance programme; and
  • Action planning following the staff survey.

All of the above are funded from a dedicated Health and Wellbeing budget which has been continually funded to support staff.

Shaun’s experience – External courses
I have attended some of the external training sessions implemented by the Health and Wellbeing Group over the past 12 months, namely the courses on Resilience and Mindfulness. Both courses were a really good opportunity and gave good insight into the different aspects and importance of Health and Wellbeing in the workplace as well as some really good ideas and techniques about how to look after yourself and others when different and demanding scenarios arise. The courses were really well received across the CCG which has led to further courses being made available to continue to support staff.

Dale’s Experience – Dress Down Fridays
About 6 months ago the Health and Wellbeing Group surveyed staff regarding dress down Fridays. A number of options where put to staff in a survey, of which, allowing staff to dress down every Friday with donations once per month for charity was the chosen option. All staff, dependent on their diaries, can choose to participate or not. I feel as though the relaxed dress code perpetuates into staff being more relaxed heading into their weekends. This has been particularly beneficial over the past few months where the organisation has gone through substantial change. The more relaxed end to the week allows staff members to approach their personal time with a positive state of mind and get the most benefit to their personal wellbeing. This may only be seen by some as a small change but I feel as though it has had a substantial impact.