Involving assurance groups in planning workforce wellbeing

Sheffield Health and Social Care Foundation Trust used the Health and Wellbeing Framework diagnostic tool at an assurance meeting

What we’ve done

Who we are

Sheffield Health and Social Care Foundation Trust provides a range of mental health, learning disability and substance misuse services to the people of Sheffield, plus some specialist services to a wider population. We have about 1,800 staff.

What we did

We are using the Health and Wellbeing Framework to improve our workforce wellbeing offers. We took the Framework’s diagnostic tool to an assurance group, which stimulated interesting conversation and helped us think about what we do, what we could do, and what we could do better.

We sent the blank diagnostic tool spreadsheet to the assurance group in advance. We chose the shortest section to talk though at a two-hour virtual meeting. We discussed each of the questions in turn, taking them at face value rather than overly complicating them. Then we delegated people to complete specific sections after the meeting. Once the tool was completed, we checked it with the group again and began to identify priorities to focus on next.

A benefit of this approach is that it engaged a range of people with different experiences, including senior personnel. We would advise others to ringfence time and bring the right people around the table to evaluate where you are and where you want to be.

“It is important to be clear what you want to achieve from using the tool. It is a diagnostic to inform your practice alongside other things. It helped structure our thinking and review how we evaluate our work. The questions prompted us to consider things that we might not have thought of previously. We are updating the tool as things change over time.” – Trust representative