We are dedicated to staff wellbeing
The Council has a wellbeing group which brings together expertise from HR, Communications, IT, Health and Safety and Public Health. The Council offers a range of support services and activities for staff, including:
- An Employee Assistance Programme, provided by Health Assured which offers confidential advice 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Services include counselling, bereavement, legal, financial and medical support.
- Regular employee engagement surveys, to seek feedback and understand how people are feeling about important topics at work.
Wellbeing workshops
All staff are invited to a monthly Wellbeing Hour delivered by external speakers and internal specialists. They are a great chance to have a break from work and to focus on yourself. Sessions are recorded wherever possible and posted, along with relevant resources, on the wellbeing portal.
Wellbeing support within Adult’s Social Care
We know that working in social care can be challenging at times. As a whole organisation, Cambridgeshire County Council has also made changes to ensure our staff’s wellbeing is maintained. As a result of this, we’ve changed and improved our working schedules for to ensure people get a better work-life balance.
In our mental health teams, we have delegated ‘wellbeing champions’ who host wellbeing meetings and act as a point of contact for any staff member who needs some wellbeing advice.
One of the things our wellbeing champions have been doing is encouraging teams to create time and space for people to talk about their feelings and any pressures they are facing currently. For some, talking isn’t always the best method so they also help people to practice relaxation exercises and learn new methods, that you may not have heard of – to help manage your wellbeing.
Our other wellbeing initiatives
Our other wellbeing initiatives include:
- Putting wellbeing at the heart of 1:1 conversations – the 'Our Conversations' framework encourages a specific discussion on wellbeing.
- An active Equality and Diversity Network, including peer support groups.
- Making sure people get space for breaks throughout their day – We have introduced the ‘Protected Hour’ where colleagues are supported to reduce internal meetings during 1pm-2pm.
- Similarly, to the Protected Hour, colleagues have also been encouraged to add ‘focus time’ in their calendar to encourage focused work without any distractions.
- Flexible working such as 9-day fortnights.
- Building breaks into longer meetings and starting meetings at 5 past the hour or ending at 5 to the hour.
- Encouraging work-life balance and using Office 365 to support ideas such as a virtual commute, using Headspace. With most working remotely for all or some of their job, it’s easy to continue working late every day – we encourage people to stop at the end of their daily hours. Work life balance is important!
