NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) was set up on 1 April 2011.
The purpose of the organisation is to provide a range of professional, technical, and administrative services on behalf of all Health Boards and Trusts in NHS Wales.
Challenges
NWSSP sought to establish a thorough and inclusive employee initiative that reflected the organisation’s overall health and wellbeing strategy.
Innovative actions
With its people centred approach, NWSSP engaged employees by creating 52 health and wellbeing champions, 22 change champions, and a collection of newly established health and wellbeing initiatives.
To support the organisation’s wellbeing strategy, the decision was made to introduce several employee network groups:
- Mental health wellbeing;
- Men’s (mental health);
- LGBTQIA+ network;
- Health and wellbeing partnership; and
- Equality, diversity, and inclusion
Additional wellbeing efforts included:
- Coffee mornings
- Cycle to work schemes
- Health and wellbeing annual conference
- Menopause cafés
- Disability awareness events
- Inclusive recruitment training
- Unconscious bias training
- Wellbeing support for 16- to 25-year-olds; and
- Insights discovery sessions (designed to encourage participants to get to know themselves and others)
Employees were actively involved in designing the initial approach and are regularly asked to provide feedback to ensure the provisions continue to be useful. Using Microsoft Teams, NWSSP has created a two-way feedback opportunity, using channels to update information, and inviting employees to contribute and comment on the information or suggestions that have been given. After receiving positive feedback, the organisation has increased engagement in these activities.
NWSSP also conducted an organisation wide health and wellbeing survey in 2021/22 which focused on developing new areas of support. This data has been used to ensure the organisation will continue to support employee needs.
Evidence of impact
The positive impact has been seen through increased engagement from employees and feedback. NWSSP has found that more staff are happy to share wellbeing concerns, attend health and wellbeing meetings and events, and increase their visibility.
There has been an increase in men coming forward to take part in mental health events and share their stories with others to educate and support. There has also been a healthy number of attendees at wellbeing and belonging events.
NWSSP is using several surveys to measure success and is also making external services available (such as an Employee Assistant Programme or offerings through Remploy, which is operated by Maximus) to support staff wellbeing. The organisation receives reports on how these services have been accessed, which helps to gauge success in the form of awareness and engagement.
Success has also been acknowledged through the organisation’s staff recognition awards for initiatives related to the health and wellbeing conference and mental health support. Finally, the most significant measure of success has been the engagement from employees, which continues to grow.
The information contained within this resource was accurate at the time of its publication. This article was created in March 2023.
