Employment Practice
The facts
Good work is good for us.
The workplace is a hugely important place to promote, foster and embed health and wellbeing and good employment practice is an integral part of that.
Ensuring staff are supported with good policy, procedure and practice is fundamental to building and maintaining a healthy workplace, with healthy staff. This extends to all aspects of work and the workplace infrastructure.
Skills for Care also provides an advice telephone line (0113 241 1260) open to all frontline social care managers and email inbox (rmadvice@skillsforcare.org.uk)
Wellbeing support and building resilience
The British Psychological Society has put together a guide aimed at leaders and managers that provides practical advice on how to respond to how staff may be feeling during difficult phases of working and living through the pandemic.
Similarly, the Local Government Association has put together some key steps that they recommend employers take in order to support and protect the mental health of frontline staff at this time.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in partnership with the Chief Social Workers of England have developed guidance for the support and wellbeing of adult social workers and social care professionals.
Employers can encourage their teams to create a Wellness Action Plan and encourage them to share these with line managers. This is a personalised and practical tool for employees to use to identify how to address what keeps individuals mentally well at work and what can result in poor mental health. It also opens up a dialogue, helping supervisors better understand the needs and experiences of employees.
Registered managers can find advice on maintaining team resilience on the Skills for Care website. It includes various guides. One gives examples of things that can be done to reduce workplace stress and the other provides examples and case studies of adult social care employers that have developed the wellbeing of their staff by building resilience.
Support for registered managers
For registered managers, peer support is extremely important. Skills for Care has opened up its members Facebook group to other registered managers and frontline managers in similar roles. This is used to share advice, experiences and good practice.
Similarly, registered manager networks can offer local support and are establishing WhatsApp groups to allow registered managers to stay in touch.
Skills for Care also provides an advice telephone line (0113 241 1260) open to all frontline social care managers and email inbox (rmadvice@skillsforcare.org.uk)
Support for those who work alone
For home care workers, personal assistants and those working in isolated services, the nature of their work may mean that they already feel isolated. Skills for Care provides guidance on how to support staff who regularly work alone. It includes a section on supporting mental health and wellbeing and on communication and support.
This is in addition to Skills for Care’s existing guidance for people who employ their own staff and personal assistants, which includes where to find information about local support.
