Caring, Sustaining, Resourcing

Durham County Council is currently going through a large scale change programme to ensure it makes the savings required.  This includes restructuring departments with the anticipated loss of approximately 1600 jobs over the next four years. The organisation is supporting employees in various ways, such as: 

Workshops on CV writing and job search.
Be your own boss.
Career Development
Financial advice 

In addition to these practical workshops, it recognised that the stress employees may feel due to these circumstances.  Working with NHS County Durham and Darlington Mental Health Improvement Team , two sessions have been developed.  The first is a 90 minute session designed to help people recognise the signs and symptoms of stress and assist in developing coping strategies called “Building Resilience to Stress”.  A half day workshop is also available which gives time to explore the key facts about mental health conditions called “Basic Mental Health Awareness”. 

Occupational Health is provided internally and there is a confidential counselling telephone service available where employees can talk to a counsellor about anxieties, fears or concerns.

Susan Abson, Senior OD & Workforce Planning Officer, Durham County Council
susan.abson@durham.gov.uk
0191 372 8365

Our Staff Support Service - Resolve - is gearing its services towards helping people deal with change.
Our coaching service is currently specifically promoting using coaching to help with thinking about the future and about careers, building confidence for interviews, for people managing teams undergoing change, for people finding themselves in new management roles as a result of the changes.
Our consultancy service is working with managers who want help with managing the change process.
Regarding our workshops, we are putting on workshops called 'Building Resilience' - this is an approach to well-being based on Positive Psychology and we are also running workshops for managers called 'Supporting Staff Through Organisational Change' which is about the psychological adaptation to change and how managers can assist their staff in adapting to change.
Our HR department has plans for outplacement, CV writing, interview techniques, linking up with agencies that can actively find suitable roles for staff, lunch and learn sessions from outside providers.

The White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ has made a clear proposal for PCTs to be abolished in 2013/4. NHS Gloucestershire therefore fully recognises the uncertain environment in which staff are working in.  To provide the best support to NHS Gloucestershire staff, the organisation is undertaking the following measures:

Full engagement and dialogue with Trade Unions
1-1 management/staff meetings to discuss the implications/issues with staff.
Ensure the effective engagement of our contracted Occupational health and safety provider
Rolling out a staff health and wellbeing programme called ‘Lighten-Up’
Contracting an Employee Assistance Programme (which provides counselling, advice and support to our staff).
 

We have a Staff Wellbeing Steering Group, which aims to improve staff satisfaction through positive action. Membership of the group includes a representative from each division who meet month to review issues that are affecting staff, feedback from staff satisfaction questionnaires and other sources of information. The work of the group is publicised in the company newsletter. We want to send a message to all staff that they are genuinely valued and their welfare is given serious consideration.  The group lead on the wellbeing programme, a series of focussed activities and events to improve staff wellbeing and health, recent events have included a back care awareness special and blood pressure awareness. Wellbeing events are very well received by staff, they can include information packs, signposting, presentations and therapies where appropriate. The steering group has two sub-groups who are working on actions plans following gap analysis for the Mindful Employer Charter and HSE Health and Safety standards. The sub-groups will be looking to take positive actions in areas that we have identified as being in need of improvement.

We have a Employee Assistance Programme through PPC Worldwide. Our staff can access PPC 24/7 via telephone and internet, for free guidance and advice on any matter affecting them and their families including money, legal and family issues. We also use a company called First Care for our sickness absence reporting. When staff call into First Care to report sickness absences they speak to a qualified nurse who will discuss their symptoms and offer advice. A notification that they will be absent is then sent through to their manager and HR. Staff can also call at any time for confidential free medical advice.

By mid-November we will have at least one manager in each service area trained as Mental Health First Aiders. We have also offered the training to Union representatives.

For staff who are at risk we have sessions planned for them with Connexions to advise them what services they provide e.g. help with CV, applications, interview skills, career planning etc.
 

 Fortnightly staff engagement events. Video-linked presentations by CEO across the county to deliver key messages: these are then made available on the staff intranet for those unable to see them first hand. Wellbeing and Recovery Project working with Dorset Mental Health Forum. Free Wellbeing Assessments and Free Healthchecks.
 

CWP is an organisation which is in the throes of change and development. The reality is that change is likely to be permanent feature of the organisation’s ongoing development. However not all staff have experienced change to the extent it will be felt in the future and not all staff will welcome the degree of change likely to arrive in the near future. Without some form of guidance and support it is possible that some staff may respond less positively than desired and that, as a consequence, organisational and individual performance, wellbeing and the development of a positive atmosphere will suffer.

The Resilience Plus programme (a two-day mental toughness development programme) is aimed at supporting staff, individually and in teams, to develop qualities to enable them to embrace change positively and enable the organisation to achieve its key goals increasingly efficiently and increasingly effectively.
 

In addition we are process of arranging pensions support sessions for staff to enable informed choice regarding Pension Choice and independent information regarding effect of TUPE transfers for Provider Arm on pension provision.

And of course our Occupational Health and Staff Support services continue to be available to staff should they wish to access.
 

At the moment we are providing a series of short workshops which are a follow up to some workshops around stress management and positive thinking that we ran last month.  The idea is that people will tell us what else would be useful based on these ‘taster’ sessions. In addition we have set up an intranet page that provides information and resources for employees and managers.  

We are using the services of Job centre plus to access a range of redundancy support service and access resources available through the skills council. This week workshops provided indirectly by the FSA entitled  ‘Making the most of your money’  are starting these focus on managing money after redundancy.

There is also the beginnings of a regional network organised by SHA which plans to offer similar resources plus potentially some coaching etc. SHA has purchased a basic membership for every organisation in the region to a business wellbeing network (Robertson Cooper) I am awaiting my access codes but this looks potentially useful www.robertsoncooper.com

NHS Hull recognises that we are in uncertain times and that staff may require additional support.  NHS Hull have put the following mechanisms in place:

The Chief Executive’s monthly briefings open to all staff updating them on organisational changes and relevant information

A team of Health and Well-being Champions helping to boost morale in the workplace

The HR team’s confidential sessions for advice and guidance; one-to-one appointments with The Job Centre Plus and presentations in relation to NHS pensions .

The Learning and Development team have organised internal programmes to support staff in dealing with career change and transition:

A Preparation for Change Programme

CV review sessions

Interview practice

Introduction to assessment centres

Introduction to psychometric testing.
 

Learning and Development Team
learning.development@hullpct.nhs.uk