Health Work and Wellbeing
Health, Work and Well-being is a cross-Government initiative to protect and improve the health and well-being of working age people.
The initiative promotes the positive links between health and work and aims to help more people with health conditions to find and stay in employment. It brings together employers, trade unions, healthcare professionals and other partners and builds on a growing evidence base that working is good for health. The initiative began in 2005.
Health Work and Wellbeing Co-ordinators
In November 2009 a network of Health, Work and Well-being Co-ordinators were appointed in Scotland, Wales and each of the 9 regions in England. The role of these coordinators is to facilitate an integrated approach to health and employment at a regional and national level. The aim of the co-ordinator network is to help reduce the overall incidence of work related ill-health and to promote best practice and innovation on health, employment and skills.
Focusing on smaller businesses, the co-ordinators will work to raise awareness of the many benefits of good work to good health - and vice versa - and will cement a stronger health and employment network in each locality.
Scotland's Coordinator, Donna Burnett, is based within the Scottish Government's Health and Work Unit and can be contacted at donna.burnett2@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
The Health Work and Wellbeing Challenge Fund Projects
The Department of Work and Pensions supported 6 projects in Scotland through their Health Work and Wellbeing Challenge Fund. These projects, which commenced in April 2010, provided businesses with the opportunity of introducing innovative approaches to improving workplace health and wellbeing.
At the recently held Scottish Mentoring Network National Networking Event and Recognition Awards The Craighead Institute were awarded Mentoring in Business Project of the Year 2011 for their Management and Leadership Health Work and Wellbeing project. This project focussed on improving the health work and wellbeing of managers and leaders of very small voluntary and faith organisations in Scotland. By providing professional, in depth mentoring support throughout the year. This mentoring did not just alleviate stress and isolation, but also enabled these managers to work better strategically, as well as providing them with a peer network.
The remaining 5 projects experienced a range of benefits including:
Aberdeen Foyer's Sorted at Work project led by a staff health champion the company developed and delivered a programme of health promotion events which not only impacted the health and wellbeing of their staff but was also extended to benefit their clients.
Apex Scotland's Detox project provided staff with access to the stress relieving actions of Auricular Acupuncture. Through training a number of staff across all units to deliver Apex Detox, they continue to have this available to staff beyond the periods of funding. Staff have reported benefits including sleeping better, feeling less stresses and feeling more valued.
Improving the Mental Health and Wellbeing of the SME Workforce within the Falkirk Council Area, delivered by Falkirk for Business in partnership with Healthy Working Lives Forth Valley, provided small and medium sized businesses with information and training on mental health and wellbeing and managing stress in the workplace. It also provided one to one lifestyle health checks and occupational health checks to these workforces which companies particularly beneficial in helping people identify health issues, seek advice and prevent illness.
Lanarkshire Association for Metal Health in partnership with Healthy Working Lives Lanarkshire delivered a Positive Mental Health Small Business Workshop Programme, providing half day awareness workshops targeted at small businesses in the Lanarkshire area. Workshops helped raise awareness of mental health by providing access to mental health information and resources, advice on mental health workplace policy and employment law duties and guidance for managers on recognising signs of mental health issues.
Scottish Development Centre For Mental Health developed a new resource for the voluntary sector in their Putting Wellbeing at Work Policy into Practice in the Scottish Voluntary Sector project. This resource supports businesses to promote the mental health and wellbeing of their staff, and support people with mental health conditions to flourish in the workplace.