Supporting good days at work

About

Workforce mental health and wellbeing is priority and something we know is important to you. Our 2022 Staff Survey showed us that many of you felt that there had been improvements made in this area but that there was still work needing to be done.

What we've done so far

You'll know that as part of these improvements, we introduced the Employee Assistance programme towards the end of 2022. The Employee Assistance Programme offers timely listening support, guidance, advice and counselling on a variety of personal, family or workplace issues.

We've also refreshed our Employee Wellbeing pages to help you quickly find the support you need.

What we're doing next

We know that many of you work in an environment that can be challenging and difficult, so we're about to start some work to help us better understand your experiences and how they may have affected your wellbeing.

The Supporting Good Days at Work Project has been designed to help us achieve this by creating a safe environment for you to share your experiences, so we can better understand what type of support you might need, to help you stay well and reach your full potential.

Working with us to deliver this is Warren Larkin Associates (WLA) – an organisation that specialises in trauma, adversity, and resilience. Led by Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr Warren Larkin, they will create and facilitate safe and confidential conversations, through focus groups, interviews with nominated colleagues and a short survey, with those of you who would like to share what challenges and difficulties you have faced in the workplace.

Getting involved

We are now inviting specific groups of colleagues at all levels of the organisation to get involved, specifically those who are potentially at higher risk of emotional impact and stress through the work they do. We will then work together to capture examples of good practice that support wellbeing, personal awareness of the corporate wellbeing offer and individual competence and confidence in accessing the support available.

We would also like as many colleagues as possible from Adult Services, Education and Children's Services or Public Health, Wellbeing & Communities to share their experiences by completing a short survey. You can also access it via Staff News, your manager, and a QR code which will sit on posters and leaflets which we distributed to our buildings around the county.

All collected information and data will be anonymised and colleagues who agree to take part will need to provide written consent before any of the information gathering takes place. You can read more about confidentiality and data here.

Do I need to take part?

Participation isn’t mandatory, but it is important that we capture as much lived experience and feedback as possible so that the research is balanced and as complete as possible.  It's only by understanding your experiences, and the impact they have had on your wellbeing, that we are able to create a positive change at work.

The results

Once the information and data has been collected and analysed, a report on the results will be produced, along with some key recommendations on how to develop our workforce wellbeing offer to meet the needs of colleagues across the organisation. Evidence and results shared within the report will be anonymised to protect the identity of everyone involved, and the report will be shared with participants once it's been agreed and finalised.

Find out more

We have already held some webinars with senior colleagues and staff networks to explain the project and their role in supporting it.  If you are interested in participating in the project and would like to find out more, you can view those webinars below.