Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is fully committed to the health and wellbeing of its employees. As such it has devised an Engagement and Wellbeing strategy to communicate to staff the large number of initiatives available. This has led to a wide range of benefits for the Trust and staff alike. For example reduced sickness absence, improved engagement and better stress awareness.
The ‘Keeping me safe and well’ (KMSAW) screen is a risk assessment tool, for service users with learning disabilities. It was developed as part of a human rights healthcare project at Mersey Care NHS Trust, and subsequently picked up by Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, who ran an in-house, six month pilot with 5 service users. Staff and service users alike have benefited from use of this screen which has promoted inclusive practice in risk management.
St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is an acute hospital Trust employing around 7,000 staff, which includes 2,500 doctors in training under the Single Lead Employer contract for the Mersey Deanery. Following the review of the Occupational Health Service, the HR Advisory Service, the Attendance Management Policy and the role of the line manager in reducing sickness absence, the Trust has taken a holistic approach and reduced absence by over 1% in a 12 month period.
NHS Trafford, Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust and Trafford Council set out in 2010 to adopt a joined up approach to the wellbeing of their staff. Although early days this project has already been successful in delivering so much more for staff by working together than would ever have been achieved by a single organisation.
The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) has recently developed a single monthly workforce information dashboard, both at Trust level and for each service line, to enable the effective use of workforce information across the Trust. This dashboard was developed in response to internal audit reports, which identified that improvements were required across the Trust for the reporting of performance metrics, of which workforce information was one element.
3 organisations in Central Manchester are working together on Project SEARCH - an innovative employment focused education programme designed to give young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities opportunities to develop employability skills in a real work place, surrounded by other working people.
The Cumbria and Lancashire Telestroke Network is a collaboration between six Acute Trusts (across 8 sites) and seven PCTs in Cumbria and Lancashire whose aim was to deliver 24/7 stroke thrombolysis for patients with acute ischaemic stroke in a rural area. This has demonstrated cost-savings on long-term care for the stroke patients, and had a positive impact on the workforce due to improved service delivery.
Lancashire Care Foundation Trust has adopted the innovative practice of agile working, to help its workforce become more flexible, so that people can work from various locations.This has included redesigning the office layout to make it more light and airy, aiming to become a paperless office, and putting in place the necessary tools for flexible working. This has led to increased effectiveness, reduced costs, better use of technology and better quality of life for staff.
Cheshire HR Service, founded in 2006, provides a blueprint for NHS HR shared services. Hosted by East Cheshire NHS Trust it provides the full range of HR services through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) Partnership Arrangement, to East Cheshire NHS Trust, Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT and NHS Western Cheshire and is currently looking to extend its coverage and build a broader customer base. With no obligation on NHS organizations to go down the shared service route there is a need to ensure value for money and the economies of scale that a shared service brings.
Cheshire HR Service set out to increase HR efficiency and to maximise resources on behalf of its NHS partner organisations. It also recognised the value of adopting a common strategy and approach to improve the health and wellbeing of staff across Cheshire. This case study looks at the development and delivery of a staff Health and Wellbeing Strategy for customer organisations within an HR shared service organisation.