Health and Wellbeing at Southampton City CCG

In January 2018, Southampton City CCG won a small amount of funding via an ‘In Place Leadership Fund’, enabling us to launch a group of Mindful Wellbeing Champions within the CCG. We asked for one person from each team to volunteer who had an interest in wellbeing, who then embarked on a training programme.

Since graduating from the training, the Mindful Wellbeing Champions have worked on different projects to keep wellbeing front and centre in the day to day ethos of the CCG. This includes:
·         Promoting national campaigns (Mental Health, Happiness, Stress, Gratitude) in the form of a big wall display with information, interactive options and the sharing of experiences.
·         Running lunch time drop in meditation sessions (very well received).
·         Writing wellbeing articles in our fortnightly staff newsletter.
·         Organising a book/DVD swap area in the office so people can share and swap their favourite uplifting books and films.
·         Organising external speakers to talk at our CCG away days about stress and mental health.
·         Running lunch time wellbeing walks.
·         Running lunch time ‘wiggle and giggle’ dance sessions.
·         Running Summer and Christmas CCG quizzes.

A lot of these activities have meant that people are more likely to meet and come into contact with people who work in different teams, increasing the overall feeling of community and connection, which in turn increases wellbeing.
We have been lucky to have a Senior Leadership team who is not only supportive, but serious about promoting Health and Wellbeing.  As a result we have built wellbeing elements into our appraisal documentation and 1:1 supervision forms.

Wellbeing in our organisation is about the recognition that we are all human and that big or small life events can provide challenges to the way we feel, behave and think. We wanted to improve the level of community, the sense of support and connection and open dialogue to ensure that everyone in our organisation feels as valued and supported as possible.