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Sue Hunt, Director of People, David Lewis

What we did:

We provide a comprehensive support system for our staff’s physical and mental wellbeing with in-house roles to support them.

Why we did it:

Our strategic ambition is to attract and retain the best people, we have a number of elements that focus on supporting this and one is supporting staff wellbeing.

How we did it:

Each new care worker has access to a mentor and all our staff can access our own in-house muscular skeletal therapist who helps our staff with their physical wellbeing due to some of the physically strenuous elements of the job role, and our own in-house counsellor who can support staff with their mental wellbeing and offers training around resilience. We also offer staff a range of discounts and benefits to help them financially including a Blue Light Card, free parking, cycle to work schemes, which helps to reduce stress around financial issues – especially during the current cost of living crisis.

The results:

Through our combined efforts to support retention we’ve seen that the percentage of people who have left their role within the first year of employment has dropped 14% from 2019/20 to 2021/22.

Devon County Council

What they did:

Developed a wellbeing plan for Adult Social Care.

Why they did it:

The Council recognised the need to develop and expand its wellbeing offer. They wanted to establish a sustainable model for staff wellbeing that would support staff to be happy and effective in their role, whilst also supporting recruitment and retention of the workforce.

How they did it:

The Council developed a wide-ranging support offer regarding wellbeing. They developed a network of Wellbeing Supporters who signpost and promote wellbeing activities at frontline level. Though nothing is mandated, Wellbeing Supporters signpost support and disseminate information. Wellbeing Supporters, and team managers, have wellbeing sessions and drop-in events to share experiences and foster knowledge exchange and the sharing of good practice.

The Council also works closely with partners and builds relationships to support its work, working closely with Trade Unions, fellow councils, and with Mind to provide training for managers.

They have offered resilience workshops for whole teams, ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ online sessions and a Wellbeing Reference Group, comprising staff representing Adult Social Care that assisted in the co-production of resources and service plans for wellbeing.

The results:

87 per cent of the Adult Social Care workforce feel that the organisation is supporting their wellbeing and 93 per cent of staff know where to get support for their wellbeing.

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