Our health and well-being initiative recognised at the CIPD People Management awards

The Trust was a finalist for having the Best Health and Well-being initiative at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) People Management Awards 2023, which took place on Thursday 21 September.

Reacting to the result our Associate Director of People Employment, Holly Tetley (pictured at the awards ceremony above far left with her colleagues), said:

“Although we didn’t win the award, we are still proud to be recognised as a Trust for our health and wellbeing offer.

“The wellbeing of our people is so important to us as they can deliver high quality care to some of the most vulnerable people in society day in, day out.

“As we set out in our People Plan, we want our people to be safe, healthy and well both physically and psychologically. And this award backs that up.”

 

Our staff care for some of the most vulnerable patients and service users, who are often in crisis. As a Trust, it’s our priority to support our people to look after themselves physically, mentally, and financially. In our latest quarterly survey, 75.3% of people agree: My organisation is proactively supporting my health and wellbeing, 22 higher than NHS overall.

The Trust’s CIPD Awards submission showcased our comprehensive staff health and wellbeing strategy. During 2022 we focused on three areas which are summarised below.

Cost of living

During the national cost of living crisis as a Trust, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for our colleagues to work when facing financial pressures at home and support our staff in the best ways possible.

Through a dedicated survey in February 2022, we asked people what support they would need to help with the increasing cost of living. As a result, we were able to put together a comprehensive package of measures based on what people said would make the most difference to them.

From increasing the milage rate to offset the rising price of fuel, through providing free food so people can eat during their shifts, to offering a way to access wages early, we listened and worked hard to help people where we could.

So far, we’ve invested £275,000 in cost-of-living initiatives, including giving all staff (including bank staff) vouchers, the chance to buy and sell leave, and a crisis support fund.

Check out our staff cost of living offer on our website.

Critical incident support

As a mental health trust, it’s not unusual for staff to be subjected to violence by patients, deal with the deaths of service users, or witness patients harming themselves. A critical incident is a stressful event with the potential to overwhelm people’s usual coping mechanisms.

We needed to support our staff’s wellbeing after critical incidents. So, we launched our Critical Incident Staff Support Pathway, or CrISSP for short.

We believe we are the only mental health trust with a dedicated coordinator and to invest in peer supporters for this rapid support programme. In 2022 we trained 21 people to debrief in pairs, supporting people as quickly as three days after an incident. Response times have reduced since we appointed a co-ordinator. So far, we’ve supported over 400 staff.

Group sessions enable experiences, coping strategies, and reactions to be shared. The sessions facilitate a supportive conversation, destigmatising trauma reactions, creating a shared understanding, building team support and, where needed, encouraging early signposting to specialist interventions.

Menopause

Our workforce is 72% female, with 53% aged over 40. Research by the Fawcett Society shows 1 in 10 women aged 45-55 had left their job, 14% had reduced their working hours, and 8% hadn’t applied for a promotion due to symptoms.

The menopause presents a significant threat to our people’s health and wellbeing, impacting their ability to provide great care. We needed to start a more informed conversation linked to our “we are caring” value.

Menopause is now integrated into our annual staff wellbeing assessments. We’ve rolled out new Menopause Guidance, and in spring 2023 presented our menopause initiatives at the Positive Practice in Mental Health network, ensuring we are sharing our great practice with colleagues across the NHS.

Anyone can choose to attend training to become a Menopause Advocate, which covers how to have supportive conversations. All managers have been offered this training.

We were the first NHS Trust to run a dedicated menopause event in April 2022, which featured 23 experts and was attended by over 350 people from across the country, including community groups, elected councillors, and staff.

The health and wellbeing of our staff will always be a priority for LYPFT, and it’s great to see that hard work recognised.