East Lothian Council’s housing team has introduced Wellness Action Plans to help staff manage their wellbeing and mental health.
The challenge
Every five years, the Housing Strategy Team carries out a range of Joint Strategic Needs Assessments to inform the Local Housing Strategy. During this period, each member of the team is supported to develop a specialism in a specific area of housing, such as housing for older people or for people with learning disabilities. Although the team are research based, the work requires in-depth studies including qualitative research and building up a thorough knowledge of their specialist area.
Housing is a complex area and there can be many difficult challenges associated with supporting people with their housing needs. Often this requires supporting people with multiple needs and vulnerabilities, and making difficult decisions with limited resources. As such, management within the team recognised that undertaking in-depth work to develop specialisms can be emotionally challenging for staff.
In addition, we also recognised that the move to a hybrid-style of home and office working, initiated by the Covid-19 pandemic, can present challenges for staff wellbeing and support.
We therefore identified that it would be advantageous to integrate more strategies to support staff with their wellbeing through existing supervision and management structures. This felt particularly important with the introduction of a number of staffing changes and all new recruitment to the team in 2021.
Outline of activity
Team management introduced the use of Wellness Action Plans which have been developed by the mental health organisation, Mind. These plans encourage the individual to think about how they work and what they need to do this most effectively; how they and others might identify if their mental health is suffering; and what strategies and supports can help that individual to feel mentally healthy at work. The plan also includes information around mental health, tips for managing wellbeing, and assistance as to how to use the plan itself.
The Wellness Action Plans were introduced within the initial induction phase for the newly recruited team, alongside a deliberate discussion with the team manager about the purpose and scope of the Plan. Demonstrating leadership was important here in order to make clear that this was a collective effort to maintain good wellbeing throughout the team. The team manager ensured that staff understood that they too can struggle with some of the aspects of this work, and that they had also created their own plan in their management role. We explained to staff that completion of the action plan was entirely optional but that one of the main purposes was to allow team management to be flexible to their needs and aware of any topics of work they didn’t feel comfortable working with in terms of potential impact on their wellbeing.
Results
After being given time to consider, all staff completed the action plan. Space was then given to discussing this in more detail with team management, which allowed for staff to add further detail on reflection. All staff reported how helpful they found the questions and team management reported that they felt more equipped to allocate work appropriately and to be able to offer extra support where they felt staff might need it. It also allowed for frank and open discussions about mental health, a topic which can be really difficult to approach.
It was agreed that the Wellness Action Plans will be reviewed every six months, but staff have been encouraged to update their plan at any time and, if they find it helpful, to use it as a communication tool to let team management know if there is something affecting their current wellbeing.
Learning
It is really important that there is leadership in approaching staff wellbeing. We knew that completing a Wellness Action Plan could be intimidating, particularly for a new member of staff who might be concerned about disclosing too much information about themselves. It is important that leaders demonstrate the importance of giving due consideration to mental health and wellbeing.
Team management ensured that they took time to appropriately share some of their own experiences, including an article which had previously been published internally regarding that manager’s own experience of depression and anxiety. Staff reported that this helped relieve fears about sharing more personal information, particularly to a manger who they didn’t yet know well. Whilst it is important to acknowledge that there is a balance between sharing and over-sharing as a manager, we felt that it is important to demonstrate a non-judgemental approach, as well as sufficient knowledge and confidence to be able to approach Wellness Action Plans sensitively with staff.
Resources
Mind’s Wellness Action Plans for hybrid working
It is also helpful to have relevant support and assistance resources readily available to offer staff when reflecting on their individual action plan, i.e., employment assistance schemes, etc.
Rebecca Pringle – Team Manager, Housing Strategy, East Lothian Council
Email: rpringle@eastlothian.gov.uk