HSC has held its first conference dedicated specifically to health and wellbeing, bringing together colleagues, politicians, members of the public and other public sector staff.
The event, which was held at Beau Sejour Theatre this week follows health and wellbeing emerging as one of the main priorities after HSC adopted an NHS staff survey two years ago.
‘You can’t treat patients if your staff are not well,’ said Elaine Burgess, director of care delivery at HSC.
‘If your staff are happy and they’re happy in their role, you have great outcomes and the patients are happy.’
She said the conference was intended to be the beginning of a wider conversation rather than a one-off event.
‘This is just the start of our journey. It’s not this conference and go away. It’s about the thinking, and the starting – asking what we can do in the future. Hopefully we’ll have a Health & Social Care well-being strategy.’
HSC holds a conference every couple of years on different subjects, with previous events focused on areas such as equality and diversity. While initially designed for internal staff, this year’s event was opened to members of the community, politicians, and public sector staff to address the transferable nature of the topic. About 280 people attended.
Head of training and education, Clare Atkins, said attitudes towards wellbeing at work differed between generations.
‘We’re seeing a real generational shift,’ she said.
‘Our younger generations put much more value on their own health and wellbeing, and finding that work-life balance which is so important, and it kind of jogs older generations to think about themselves a bit more. It’s addressing that culture, and getting more people to think about how they can change behaviours, both in themselves and in their sphere of influence.’
Topics of conversations from experts and speakers ranged from menopause and men’s health to adverse childhood experiences, workplace wellbeing, and addiction, before moving on to behavioural science and compassionate leadership.
Behavioural scientist, doctor, and NHS clinical leader Nupur Yogarajah had visited from London to present her findings. She was commissioned to look specifically at wellbeing within HSC, surveying employees and holding focus groups across its 13 teams.
‘There’s some evidence of some really good practice happening,’ she said.
‘Some really positive examples of effective leadership. Really good relationships and a lot of internal capacity and capability.’
The challenge now, she said, was ensuring that experience was consistent throughout HSC. Some leaders had highlighted difficulties finding enough time for staff supervision and their own development.
Mrs Atkins said HSC hopes the conversations generated by the conference would continue, with questions raised by attendees being put back to speakers after the event.
‘We’ve got such an opportunity being an integrated Health & Social Care service and system where we can make those real, tangible differences. And some of the comments in the last session were about how we can work well as a whole systems approach, not just HSC, but with our partners, our third sectors, to work collectively to improve the island as a whole.’