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The Hub engaged with this project to further understand the needs of people going through menopause in Health, Social care and Primary Care settings, what support is available and what support is needed. 

We engaged in the project after a request from a male colleague in the social care sector. They approached the KeepingWell NCL Hub who wanted some guidance in order to support his colleagues going through menopause. Around the same time, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust was looking at creating a menopause policy. We decided to join forces with them so our project could inform the policy.

The project followed the Experience Based Co-Design (EBCDE) approach thatwas developed by the Point of Care Foundation. This approach allows staff to work with service users to co-design services and projects.

We facilitated two focus groups – one for staff with lived experience of menopause and one for leaders and managers supporting staff with menopause in the workplace.

From the information in the focus groups, we created the following resources:

  • a ‘Touchpoint Film’ which drew out the themes of the groups and put a spotlight on the lived experience of staff and the issues they were facing in relation to Menopause and working life.
  • A resource pack with information about Menopause and resources available for both managers/leaders and people experiencing menopause. 
 
You can find both resources below. 

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Link to resource:

This pack is made up of resources that staff with lived experience of Long Covid have found helpful in their own recovery journey, as well as resources that staff working in Long Covid services across NCL use to support their patients. It also includes advice and information for managers or teams supporting colleagues with Long Covid in their journey to return to work.

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We also ran a webinar on this topic, titled ‘Returning from Long Covid: How we can understand and advocate for our health and social care colleagues who have or are recovering from Long Covid’. Watch a recording of this webinar here.

Link to resource:

KeepingWell NCL are looking to shape resources for health and social care staff managing different experiences of menopause – so we need your help to make sure workplaces provide the support staff really need.

Share your experience and help employers understand what support is needed though participating in our experience-based support project.

Experiences shared in the groups will be used to inform policy and strategies around managing menopause in the workplace. A short ‘touchpoint’ film which will be created from the discussion and it will be shared across local health and social care organisations.

Join us for one of the following discussion sessions:

  • Tuesday 27th June 2023 13:30-15:00, via Zoom – Staff who have lived experience of menopause
  • Thursday 29th June 2023 13:30-15:00, via Zoom – Managers and leaders supporting staff who have lived experience of menopause, or want to learn more about how to support staff during menopause

All group attendees will also be asked to join us on Tuesday 18th July at 13:30-15:00 for a screening of a short touchpoint film created from the discussions.

To ensure that our research is fully representative of the workforce across NCL, we especially encourage staff from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities and, trans and non-binary people to participate.

Before attending any of the groups, we encourage you to read the  information for participants booklet linked below. 

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GamCare is the leading provider of information, advice and support for anyone affected by gambling harms. They operate the National Gambling Helpline, provide treatment for anyone who is harmed by gambling, create awareness about safer gambling and treatment, and encourage an effective approach to safer gambling within the gambling industry. 

If you are worried about your relationship to gambling, you can call The National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 for free confidential information, advice and support.

To visit GamCare’s website, click here

There are at least 400,000 people currently experiencing serious gambling related harm in the UK, with a further 2 million at risk (Public Health England). Out of control gambling can damage relationships, finances, and physical and mental health. At work, productivity, ambition, and engagement may be affected, as well as adherence to safety protocols and vulnerability to criminal activity.

Worksafe was created to provide tailored support to employers, as they develop a wellbeing at work approach to gambling harms whilst at the same time mitigating business risk.

Link to resource:

 

Moral distress is the feeling we experience when we cannot carry out what we believe is the right course of action due to real or perceived limitations on that action.

The ongoing impact on health and care workers of responding to unlimited need with limited resources can lead to “moral distress”. This can be especially difficult when we feel that our personal and professional values are being compromised.

At Keeping Well NCL, we are increasingly aware of how this may be experienced by managers who often occupy a singular position on the boundary between their staff, service users and the wider organisation. For example, they may find themselves defending unacceptable situations for staff and service users, stepping in to fill gaps at a cost to their own wellbeing and generally carrying the burden of trying to keep services running safely, often without recourse to the peer support available to their team members.

In this 75-minute workshop we will create a safe space in which to explore how the concept of moral distress may help managers to make sense of their experiences. This will be an opportunity to connect with peers and to think together about what might enhance coping.

Date

Monday 20th March – 1pm-2:15pm online

All our events are free but some of them are limited availability.’

We are acutely aware of the competing demands of your roles, however, if you have booked an event but find you cannot attend, please cancel your place so that your place can be offered to someone else.  

To cancel your ticket, you can log in to your Eventbrite account, go to ‘tickets’, choose the order, and select cancel. Alternatively, you can email us at keepingwell.ncl@nhs.net or chat to us online via our website https://keepingwellncl.nhs.uk/ to let us know you’d like to cancel.

Link to resource:

How we can understand and advocate for our health and social care colleagues who have or are recovering from Long Covid

Who is it for?

This is of interest to everyone (working in health and social care or third sector mental health charities in NCL) but especially for people who are working with and supporting colleagues with Long Covid or those with lived experience of Long Covid.

This webinar explores the profound effects of living and working with Long Covid and what we can do to support and advocate for our colleagues.

Introduction

As of November 2022, there are approximately 2.1 million people living in the UK with Long Covid. There are now several studies which suggest that healthcare staff are overrepresented in these statistics, perhaps due to high levels of exposure in the workplace. Long Covid is a debilitating, chronic physical illness affecting multiple organs. It manifests with a myriad of potential complications, including damage to the heart, lungs, or brain; disorders of the nervous system; blood clots; impaired memory; and disabling levels of fatigue.

Many staff who have acquired the illness (some whilst in service to the NHS or Social Care Sector) now require support to return to or to remain in work safely. Without understanding and support they risk a decline in their health and loss of their jobs and income.

Workforce retention is a key priority across the health and care sector and this project seeks to explore experiences and draw attention to the challenges faced by our colleagues who have experienced Long Covid, the impact it has had and how to support them return to work and thrive in the workplace.  We recognise that work has a psychological function as well as a practical one.  Long Covid has the potential to have a prolonged systemic and profound personal impact.

The Event Features:

  • The Keeping Well NCL Long Covid Touchpoint Video: a short video of NCL staff sharing their lived experience of Long Covid and experts in the field discussing their ongoing work to support staff to return to work.
  • Richard Doran: Richard is an NHS Practitioner who is currently living with Long Covid. Richard shares his story, including how Long Covid has impacted his personal and professional life and what has helped him on his continued road to recovery. He also shares what he’s learned as he starts his return-to-work journey.
  • Robin McNelis: Robin is a Cardiac and Respiratory Physiotherapist and is the Lead Therapist for Post Covid Services at Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. Robin also has lived experience of Long Covid. Robin discusses the flow of patients through the Long Covid Care Pathway, investigations and treatment, cognitive fatigue, expectations and working towards acceptance.
  • Carina Knight: Carina is a Clinical Specialist Vocational Rehabilitation Occupational Therapist at the Royal Free Neurological Rehabilitation Centre. Carina discusses supporting people with Long Covid returning to work, examples and reasonable adjustment, resources, relapse and the long term nature of the condition.
  • Karen Merchant: Karen is head of Human Resources (business partnering and employee relations) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. In her role she has experience of supporting staff with long term health conditions who are returning to work, including staff with Long Covid.
  • Question and Answer session

Watch the Returning from Long Covid Webinar below

Watch the Long Covid Touchpoint Film below

Access our Long Covid Resource Pack

This pack is made up of resources that staff with lived experience of Long Covid have found helpful in their own recovery journey, as well as resources that staff working in Long Covid services across NCL use to support their patients. It also includes advice and information for managers or teams supporting colleagues with Long Covid in their journey to return to work. Click here to view it.

Link to resource:

Reflective Practice Facilitator Training  

Having space to stop and think is a critical part of being able care effectively and safely. Reflective practice is one evidence-based approach for achieving this.

  • Are you interested in developing Reflective Practice?
  • Are you curious about how services can be supported to improve, develop and build resilience?
  • Are you interested in experiential learning that will enhance key leadership and people management skills?

 

At KeepingWell NCL

  • We are passionate about providing Reflective Practice Facilitator Training to our Social Care and NHS colleagues.
  • We aim to develop a Reflective Practice Community across NCL that strengthens Reflective Practice initiatives across a wide range of services.
  • We will support you to facilitate Reflective Practice Groups within a team or service which will support staff to reflect and make sense of the impact of the work they do e.g. the impact of their work on themselves and those they care for, alongside the wider team and service.

Reflective Practice is of significant support for the service/system receiving your intervention and thought. However, we know from experience, that it is often not best practice to tackle reflective practice sessions within your own team.  We hope that by developing and training a Community of Practice we can create greater capacity across the system to support and strengthen reflective practice in teams and services across NCL.

Reflective Practice Facilitator Training is an important way of engaging in live learning about the impact of team, organisational and service dynamics on providing care and services. In particular, Reflective Practice creates opportunities where we can learn more about how best to support colleagues and lead teams in challenging times.

Research continues to highlight that space to think and reflect is key to safer practice. The HCPC, RCN and CQC all highlight the importance of reflective space and learning from experience. Reflective Practice is also recognised in supporting issues of wellbeing, staff retention and safety.

  • Being trained to facilitate Reflective Practice (RP) groups, enables you to set up your own RP group and provide opportunities to support colleagues outside of your own immediate work setting.
  • RP Groups provide focussed space for staff members to reflect, observe, process and learn from their day-to-day experiences at work.
  • RP Groups provide a supportive space for people to explore and understand their interactions with others, clinical and social care decision-making, team dynamics and the emotional impact of work, amongst other things.
  • Facilitating RP groups requires a variety of skills, knowledge and understanding in order to provide a safe, constructive and space. These core skills are also central to compassionate care and effective leadership.

From May 2023 we will be delivering a 6 week online Reflective Practice Facilitator Training, to support participants to facilitate their own RP groups and to encourage development of a Community of Practice within NCL Health and Care settings.

Groups will run on a Tuesday morning from 9.30am – 1.00pm on the following dates:

  • Tues 9th May 2023
  • Tues 16th May 2023
  • Tues 23rd May 2023
  • Tues 6th June 2023
  • Tues 13th June 2023
  • Tues 20th June 2023

 

This short course is adapted from and delivered in partnership with Tavistock & Portman’s CPD training and is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to establish and facilitate RP groups.

A key aspect of this the course is a Learning Partnership Agreement between Keeping Well NCL, participants and their managers to enable protected time and support for course attendance and supervision.

To build our NCL RP Community of Practice, we will provide follow up supervision-work discussion groups for 3 months following completion of the programme. These will take place monthly online. Following the completion of the 3 supervision sessions, peer supervision groups will be self directed.

This training is delivered by experienced facilitators from KeepingWell NCL. Our online training is designed to be both engaging and reflective. We will use a combination of presentations, live discussion, experiential reflective practice groups and small group work.

We will ensure that all participants have key experiences of both facilitating and being a member of a reflective practice group.

The Reflective Practice Facilitator Training will provide:

  • a deeper understanding of the role of Reflective Practice within work
  • an overview of key principles, models and frameworks for leading effective reflective practice
  • space to explore and develop skills in reflective practice facilitation
  • reflection on core communication skills and their impact on group functioning – how do we enable all group members to have a voice?
  • opportunities to develop, review and refine facilitation skills through practice
  • a lived experience of group dynamics in practice
  • increased awareness of issues of equality, discrimination and inclusion within group work – key themes and dynamics
  • a safe space to explore challenging situations and responses in the work place
  • key focus on development – how to establish and manage your own Reflective Practice community.
  • how to address key challenges.
  • drawing on the strengths of fellow participants – how to partner and co-produce to build resilient Reflective Practice initiatives

Who is this course for?

All staff members working in NCL in social care and health, who are leading staff, developing practice and keen to learn about and implement reflective practice.

  • Are you in a senior position (managing or supporting practice development) where you are in the position to influence and develop care/clinical/wellbeing interventions to support staff?
  • Are you a skilled practitioner/social care manager keen to develop reflective practice within your service/organisation/system?
  • Do you have the potential to develop reflective practice in your service/organisation/system?
  • Do you have support from your manager and service to focus on reflective practice?
  • Are you in a Band 7 or above position (NHS) or working as a Team Manager (Social Care)?

 

Prior RP experience is not required and there will be regular sessions to support group members to bring key aspects of their work (planning, interactions, and reviews) and to experience reflective practice for themselves.

If you have any questions, please email us at keepingwell.ncl@nhs.net

The deadline for this round of Reflective Practice Facilitator Training Course has now closed. We will let successful applicants know by Friday 14th April. We have 20 places to allocate on this course and places will be allocated according to the application guidance, particularly your ideas and plans for how you might use the reflective practice training in your work. There will be a waiting list once we are fully subscribed.

In allocating places, we will bear in mind the broad range of roles across NCL, and the needs of colleagues who have not previously had access to Reflective Practice training.

Link to resource:

This 60-minute interactive online webinar shares theoretical and research informed knowledge in relation to racism and the notion of becoming anti-racist allies, from a number of perspectives, using a range of materials. It is aimed to invite participants to think about anti-racism within their individual role, organisation and team context. Our approach holds relationship-based, anti-racist practice at its heart and is based on a model for achieving emotionally intelligent, critically reflective, curious conversations, in a safe space.

Learning outcomes

Participants were invited to:

  • Explore the individual, institutional, societal and global levels of complexity and structural inequality which creates a culture of racism, oppression and discrimination.
  • Take ownership of their unique positions of power and privilege and how this is informed by other intersecting factors which shape our identity and agency for change
  • Consider how to contribute to a revolution of allyship, which embraces the notion of actively becoming anti-racist in everything we feel, think and do.

Facilitator Biographies

Dr Sylvia B Smith is an independent social work consultant and Course Lead at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.  Sylvia has research interests in compassionate leadership approaches with particular interests in anti-racist practice and leadership.  She is a coaching practitioner for health and social care professionals and hosts her popular podcast ‘Social Workers Matter’.

Jo Williams is an independent social work consultant and Deputy Head of the Interprofessional Portfolio at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a PhD student with the University of Sussex and visiting lecturer with the University of Bedfordshire. Jo has a personal and professional interest in anti-racist leadership and practice and is part of an Anti-Racist Activism group for social workers. She provides reflective coaching, learning and teaching spaces to individuals and groups from a range of disciplines within health, education and social care.

Participant testimonies:

“The facilitators had such a friendly approach to such a serious topic, although they were speaking in a light-hearted manner, they managed to tackle some hard topics and made it easier to have those difficult conversations”

“Totally enjoyed it and has made me reflect on changes that I can make personally and to share the message and change others’ views and opinions in my personal and work life”

Link to resource:

 

Friday 29th September at 1:00-2:00pm – online

“Did I do the Right Thing?”

Schwartz Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum designed for staff to come together once a month to discuss and reflect on the emotional and social challenges associated with working in health and social care. Rounds provide a confidential space to reflect on and share experiences, and are open to all health, social care and voluntary sector staff on NCL. 

For more information, visit pointofcarefoundation.org.uk

You can also register below for the following date:

Friday 27th October 1-2pm – Topic: “A Colleague I’ll Never Forget”

Friday 29th Nov 2023 – 1-2pm – Topic “Being on the Other Side: As a Patient, Client or Carer”

Keep an eye on this page for further Schwartz Round dates and details on how to sign up.