Employee Mental Health and Wellbeing Update
North Lanarkshire Council · 4 October 2022
Back to Joint Consultative Committee for Local Government Employees — 4 October 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
North Lanarkshire Council Report Joint Consultative Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref FW/FD Date 04/10/22 Employee Mental Health & Wellbeing Update From Fiona Whittaker, Head of People & Organisational Development E-mail duddyf@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07534-288-124 1. Background 1.1 Mental Health A recent review of the mental health strategy was carried out recognising a lot of work that has been progressed since its inception. Input was given from the existing Council group looking at mental health but also proposals were discussed with trade union colleagues and the existing mental health group run by the health and social care partnership. This was an opportunity to consider the direction going forward to fit the needs of the Council, recognising some services have more focus and indeed funding than others. Executive Summary This report aims to inform on proposals to further progress the Councils mental health strategy and to also provide an up to date picture on activity being carried out around employee wellbeing. Both of these areas of work have had an ongoing focus by the council safety and wellbeing team and thought has been given to how best to continue to progress but with a more employee specific drive. Recommendations The JCC should note: The content of the report The intention to create Service based groups to lead on mental health The intention to create a Council based group to progress the Council plans for mental health. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve North Lanarkshire's resource base Ambition statement (23) Build a workforce for the future capable of delivering on our priorities and shared ambition
Page 2
1.2 Wellbeing For a number of years the Council has participated in the Healthy Working Lives (HWL) award programme reaching Gold award status in 2007 as well as the Mental Health Commendation Award (these awards were then merged into one). The award has then required specific ‘maintenance’ work each year covering a variety of topic areas. Public Health Scotland have recently taken the decision to end the HWL programme and will no longer deliver this award. Instead, their new approach will be to support organisations in key areas that will make the biggest difference to their workforce health and wellbeing, aligned to the ambition of becoming a Fair Work Nation. It is intended that whilst the Council will no longer be able to participate in this award this will not affect the ongoing programme of wellbeing work carried out for employees. 2. Report 2.1 Mental Health Sound mental health is a wellbeing topic that the Council is keen to continue to support and enhance for employees. The strategy was reviewed with just some minor updates but one that is included is the proposal to create service based groups who will focus on the needs within each service allowing for more of a custom made approach than a one size fits all. This affords the chance to profile the service and identify what employees actually need/want support or information on. Service groups will create a 12 month programme of work specific to the requirements of the employee groups. The membership of these service based groups would include appropriate representation from the safety & wellbeing team, employee relations, trade unions etc. The proposals also suggest an overall council group where the service based groups will feed into/share planned programmes of work/share best practice/discuss any national campaigns etc Terms of reference documents for both groups were created with a varied membership including trade union colleagues and a requirement for group members to attend mental health training to equip them correctly for the groups. 2.2 Wellbeing With the decision made by Public Health to discontinue the HWL award this in fact gives the Council an opportunity to review the wellbeing offer and look to provide a more targeted approach opposed to being restricted by a set criteria which was a one size fits all. A full review of the existing wellbeing programme will be undertaken with a subsequent action plan created to match the needs of the workforce. This will be largely guided by the wellbeing survey planned to be carried out around September 2022. For the survey to identify an accurate picture of the types of activity our employees want a focus on the safety team will be proactive in gathering survey
Page 3
responses from frontline employees who historically are difficult to reach with standard routes ie. email. It is important that as we progress our wellbeing work that our trade union colleagues are consulted throughout and in particular with the survey process to assist in gathering as much information as possible. They provide an invaluable means of encouraging employees to participate and keeping them informed of this type of work. This will ensure we move wellbeing forward in a more focused manner with full employee engagement as they see activity take place around topics they have requested. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Improvement in employee absence statistics Overall improved wellbeing of Council employees Targeted campaigns relevant to occupation groups. 4. Supporting documentation N/A Fiona Duddy Occupational Safety & Wellbeing Manager
Page 4
5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? There are legal impacts in respect to the Council meeting their statutory obligations in relation to the management of stress at work and health surveillance. 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐
Page 5
5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? For the ongoing programme of work for both mental health and wellbeing there will be a need for communications going out to all employees including targeted campaigns. 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? There is a risk that if the health and wellbeing of employees is not managed correctly it could result in ill health, absence and potentially resource issues. This risk is covered within the corporate risk register for People and Organisational Development.