Employability scheme empowers local people

Trust’s employability scheme continues to empower local people

An employability scheme launched by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in collaboration with Leeds City Council over two years ago has been a great success, supporting 50 people from local communities into employment across a variety of roles within St James’s Hospital.

Michelle Stanley, People Development Manager in Organisational Learning is delighted with the progress of the project - Health and Care Careers, Narrowing Inequalities - which, two years on, continues to deliver. “A number of those recruited have gone on to secure further roles/ promotions in LTHT, advancing their careers either through accessing available apprenticeships and/or formal and informal learning and development opportunities,” said Michelle. “This is real testament to our ambition to support people to ‘get in, get on and go further’.”

Previous recruitment has seen one resident now working successfully in an admin role following her appointment into facilitates. Another is now working as a registered nurse after securing a position as senior clinical support worker. Building on the success of the project the Health and Care system, coordinated by the Leeds One Workforce launched a further recruitment campaign in February focussing on supporting residents from East Leeds, specifically two priority wards - Seacroft and Killingbeck and Richmond Hill and Burmantofts.

“The purpose of the latest campaign is to engage with, recruit and develop the Health and Care workforce from our local communities - reducing inequalities and tackling poverty” explained Michelle. Partners across the health and care system will work together to remove barriers to employment, to significantly improve the life outcomes of people in Leeds. Through targeted recruitment it is also an opportunity to ensure that the workforce across the health and care system is reflective of the communities in which we all serve.

During early February the team were taking a bus into East Leeds to directly engage with people there including stops at St Peters School, Shakespeare Primary School, Brownhill Primary School, Boggart Hill Drive Shops and The Community Hub, Seacroft. They were speaking to individuals about the career and training opportunities available for them to “get in” to health and care. These people will then be supported to undertake training and given advice that’s specifically tailored to their own needs, which we hope will remove some of the barriers they face when applying for roles.

Help on hand for Trust staff living with Long Covid

While many people feel better in a few days or weeks from Covid, and most will make a full recovery within 12 weeks, for some people symptoms can last longer. For those people the disease can cause symptoms that last weeks or months after the infection has gone, known as Long Covid. Symptoms can vary, including fatigue and shortness of breath, to problems with memory and concentration (brain fog) and joint pain.

Janet Murray (65) is an Administrative Officer who has worked in adult therapy sending letters out to patients since April 2019. She caught Covid in January 2021 as a person living with diabetes. Janet was taken ill with Covid badly: “I’ve had flu” she says “and I’ve had pneumonia, but this was nothing like that. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy!”

Janet Murray Over a year later Janet still has many Long Covid symptoms including worsening anxiety, fatigue and breathlessness, hair loss, dizziness and insomnia.

“I can’t exercise” she says. “You think you’re well and you start doing something - you’ve got a burst of energy - and then the next thing is your body is saying ‘no, stop!’” Janet came back to work in April 2021. “I had a phased return. I’ve never been off long term sick wherever I’ve worked. You think ‘I’m being a pain’ but you’re not because you physically can’t do it - along with the mental side of it. A lot of people put a brave face on things, and visibly you might look well, but you don’t know what’s going on in people’s heads. Nobody knows how long it will take to get better from Long Covid. “It helped to have support from the Trust and it was very positive once I got flexible working, so I didn’t have to worry about driving to and from work tired.”

The HR team have been working individually with staff living with Long Covid. The Health and Wellbeing Team have been running coffee morning support groups for people over the past six months, which Janet has been attending. “I’ve been going since day one. It’s nice to know people have the same sort of problems and you’re not your own. My GP also recommended I went to the Long Covid clinic - they’re very supportive and supplied me with information to give to my managers with recommendation of things to put in place.” If you are concerned about Long Covid there is more information on support available on the Staff Health and Wellbeing Support Network – find it on the internal section of the Trust website.