Dear Colleagues

It is my utmost pleasure to bring this month’s Network Bulletin to you, my first as one of the two newly appointed Deputy Chairs. 

As you may have perhaps already guessed, the foremost thing on my mind whilst writing this, is the Annual Conference. I am sure those who attended will agree that we had a great conference this year. The turnout was fabulous, and we had some highly informative and engaging sessions.

Whilst Covid-19 pandemic put Occupational Health back at the centre stage for workplace health and wellbeing, particularly in the NHS organisations, every effort needs to be made to keep the momentum going to ensure organisations invest in and develop NHS Occupational Health (or more pertinently I should say invest in, Growing OH and Wellbeing)!

The NHS Health at Work Network as the largest representative body of the NHS Occupational Health Services is at the forefront of these efforts. We are delighted to be working closely with the NHS England team on the Growing OH and Wellbeing project to put OH at the heart of staff Health, Wellbeing and Organisational Development in the NHS.

It was a pleasure to meet many of you at the conference. Over the coming months we will work closely with you and your regional representatives to make the Network more effective as your voice and add more value to your membership.

Thank you for your continued support.

Best wishes

Dr. Masood Aga

Joint-Deputy Chair, NHS Health at Work Network

In this edition:

1. Annual Conference Round-Up & Growing OH&WB Workshop Feedback

2. Network Board Key Messages

3. Network Board Vacancies

4. SEQOHS Standards Update

5. Employing Young People

----------------Cority Advertorial-------------------

6. Want to Showcase Your Work?

7. Talking Heads – Dr. Richard Heron: Wellbeing in the Workplace

8. NICE Talks Women’s Health, Skin Cancer and Quality of Life 

9. Manager Resilience

10. Useful Resources

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1.    Annual Conference Round-Up & Growing OH&WB Workshop Feedback

Close to 170 colleagues joined us at our annual conference on 7 and 8 September, who heard from some fantastic speakers whilst also having some interactive workshop time to further scope the national Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing Together strategy.

The workshops were a key opportunity for OHWB professionals to help influence and shape key elements of the programme which underpin the new NHS Growing OH&WB national strategy.

Each workshop focused on a different strategy driver: 

• Driver 1 workshop: how we can best grow our multi-disciplinary OHWB people. 
• Driver 2 workshop: what we mean by a ‘good’ OHWB service with the purpose to design a OHWB service development framework. 
• Driver 3 workshop: how can we use data as the evidence-base to grow and demonstrate the impact and value of OHWB services?

To find out more about the key findings from the workshops, read the summary article here. 

All the presentations from the full day of the conference are available on our website here.

2.    Network Board Key Messages

The Network Board held its annual face-to-face Board meeting on 7 September.  The key messages from that meeting are available here

3.    Network Board Vacancies

We have a number of vacancies on our Network Board.  Applications are invited from Network Member colleagues working in:

• East of England – to replace Kelly McClenaghan who is moving out of the region at end of September
• London – to replace Dr. Finola Ryan, and
• West Midlands – to replace Dr. Masood Aga who has stepped up to become Joint-Deputy Chair

For an informal discussion and/or an application form, contact Andrew Gilbey, General Manager at admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk and submit your application by no later than Friday 28 October. 

4.    SEQOHS Standards Update

The revised Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service (SEQOHS) accreditation standards are expected in early 2023, the Faculty of Occupational Medicine has announced.  The FOM is consulting stakeholders, including in-house NHS providers.  Watch this space for more information!

5.    Employing Young People

Young people are likely to be new to the workplace and so are at more risk of injury in the first six months of a job, as they may be less aware of risks.

When you employ young people under the age of 18, you have the same responsibilities for their health, safety and welfare as you do for other workers. This applies whether they are:

• a worker
• on work experience
• an apprentice

Find out more about protecting young people at work.

HSE’s website also has advice and guidance on how to protect other vulnerable workers such as:

• older workers
• lone workers
• new and expectant mothers

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This advertorial was brought to you by the team at Cority

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6. Want to Showcase Your Work?

The organisers of the popular Health & Wellbeing at Work conference, being held on 14 & 15 March 2023 at the NEC in Birmingham, have requested the assistance of NHS Network Members to consider putting themselves forward to present.  Have you undertaken an initiative that has benefitted the health & wellbeing of NHS staff that you can proudly present or even if you are on the journey to creating a redesign of service, OH or wellbeing initiative, then why not put yourself forward to share in this national event?  

Please complete the enclosed speaker submission form and return to the organisers direct by the end of September.  There may be some flexibility around this deadline, but please drop Ben Globe an e-mail before this date to express your interest. ben@sterlingevents.co.uk

7.    Talking Heads: Dr. Richard Heron – ‘Wellbeing in the Workplace’

Dr. Richard Heron, our keynote speaker at our September conference, was a recent guest speaker on the UK Psych Health & Safety podcast.

Richard is a member of the national forum for health and safety, sits on the NHS England Expert Advisory Group for OH&WB, and is also an Honorary Fellow at Nottingham University.  Throughout this podcast Richard reflects on wellbeing in the workplace, and what organisations can do to improve this key facet of working life.

8.    NICE Talks Women’s Health, Skin Cancer and Quality of Life

Women’s Health: Earlier this month, NICE chief executive Dr. Sam Roberts featured on Woman's Hour. Sam discusses how NICE will support the delivery of the government’s women’s health strategy, published in July 2022. The interview starts 28 minutes into the programme.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0019yxm

How to Reduce the Risk of Skin Cancer: Listen to Dr Gail Allsopp, interim chief medical officer at NICE, and Richard Jackson, patient advocate, diagnosed with melanoma, advise what people can do to protect themselves from the increased risk of skin cancer ,and how NICE guidance can help. Richard shares his personal experience. 

Valuation study for quality of life questionnaire: Sophie Cooper, scientific adviser at NICE, discusses a new UK valuation study for the EQ-5D-5L quality of life questionnaire. The study aims to understand how people prioritise different aspects of their quality of life. It will make an important contribution to how NICE decides whether treatments offer good value.

 9.    Manager Resilience

Physical exercise outside work is the best coping strategy for improving resilience in office-based line managers, according to a cross-sectional research study published ahead of print in the journal Occupational Medicine. The research was carried out at the London office of a major pharmaceuticals and consumer health company, which offers its staff a wide range of health and wellbeing resources (including resilience courses and in-house mentoring and coaching for managers). Statistical analysis of questionnaires returned by more than 200 managers revealed that personal factors had the strongest influence on resilience (as measured on a validated scale).  Exercise and physical activity outside work had the strongest association with a higher resilience score, followed by hobbies and interests and socialising outside work. Years’ experience as a manager was also associated with increased resilience, but work-based resources were not.

Read more: https://ohaw.co/Coutinho

10. Useful Resources

Council for Work and Health - The Council is pleased to launch its LinkedIn page.  Here they will share news items / resources / events, and developments within the Council.  They Council has some really interesting projects coming up in the autumn so keep in touch by following them on LinkedIn.

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The NHS Health at Work Network brings together all OH teams providing health and wellbeing services to NHS OH staff.  It is dedicated to providing consistent, high quality health at work services to all NHS staff through collaborative working.

Members of OH teams in NHS Health at Work Network member organisations can receive the bulletin and access the restricted areas of the website as a membership benefit – if you are not sure of your login details email admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk   

Please share this bulletin with colleagues and encourage them to register to receive it regularly.  Non-Network members can also register to receive the monthly bulletin here.

You can contact the Network through your regional representative or as shown below.  Please get in touch if you have any queries or comments, if there is anything you would like to see in future issues of the bulletin, or if you have news to share.

Hilary Winch, Chair                                                 hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk

Andrew Gilbey, General Manager                       admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk  

Postal address: NHS Health at Work, PO Box 857, York YO31 6FR