CIPR Health & Surrey Police/Sussex Police: Embedding wellbeing at work

Embedding wellbeing at work Surrey Police and Sussex Police case study Emily Rockey works for Surrey Police and Sussex Police, leading the collaborative People Services communications team. She shares what the pandemic taught them about supporting mental health and wellbeing in extraordinary circumstances.

Wellbeing is not ‘one size fits all’ In policing, we face unique challenges. We see things, hear things, read things that most of the public don’t. Our job is to run towards danger, and that has a mental health impact – whether it’s immediate or delayed.

As employers we have a responsibility to look after our officers and staff in whatever ways we can. This includes me and my colleagues in the Corporate Communications departments within Surrey Police and Sussex Police. We have a duty of care to deliver the best service to the business, so they can be at their best, to deliver the best service to the public.

Whether you’re on the frontline or part of an enabling team, we can deal with a range of traumatising situations and exceptionally high workloads. On top of that, when you’re dealing with a major incident, you’re working longer hours and doing whatever you can to support colleagues. It can be physically and mentally draining.

That’s why, as an organisation, we have a clear wellbeing strategy place. It’s built around five core themes: mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, workplace wellbeing, financial wellbeing and resilience at work.

Escaping the intensity Quite honestly, the Covid-19 pandemic was a massive shock to the system, and in our Corporate Communications teams we didn’t get our approach to mental health and wellbeing quite right to start with.

Normally, a major incident tends to be days, maybe weeks. And you can switch off outside work hours. With Covid-19, it was 12 weeks plus with very little downtime because it was also impacting us all personally. You went home, you turned on the TV, you spoke to your friends and family – it was there.

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Yes, we had our wellbeing strategy, with brilliant tools like mental health first aiders and support from Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service, but we soon realised we needed to create opportunities to reconnect people and have human contact.

For example, line managers were not able to provide as much one-to-one support due to being in the major incident structure, which we saw had an immediate impact. To tackle this, we introduced a dedicated welfare manager whose sole role each day would be to call, check on people and trouble-shoot their issues, especially those who others had any concerns about.

It was a turning point because we were breaking down barriers, encouraging people to share how they were feeling. We also rotated this role so people connected with others they may not previously had a close working relationship with.

People were also anxious because they were unsettled by the lack of routine. You’re used to coming into an office and seeing on the board who’s in, who’s on leave, who’s doing what. But at this point, jobs were changing daily. So we introduced a duties manager who shared that information with people online, helping give clarity and provide some normality.

We also recreated those social connections – those watercooler moments – that bring people together at work. And they didn’t need to come from managers or cost anything. People were empowered to run their own activities, from virtual catch-ups to fitness challenges which built that connectivity and brought people together for a common purpose.

While we as communicators weren’t on the front-line dealing with the pandemic, we still had to deal with and share sensitive and difficult information. This also included, for some, working long hours and a high demand to support the business. So we needed to think about the impact on our mental health too.

The teams had meetings every morning, where we’d share our activity, our stresses and the things we were proud of achieving. We held a ‘comms cuppa’ where we’d get together virtually to unwind and have a chat about anything and everything – just nothing to do with work! And, when we could meet in groups of six, one of the team organised wellbeing walks in Sussex, which were really popular.

Encourage and empower After the initial lockdown, we had a debrief with all the Surrey Police and Sussex Police Corporate Communications teams about lessons learned.

We discussed how there’s no ‘one size fits all’ for wellbeing. Organisations need to listen to what people need. And they need to encourage and empower people to take responsibility for their own wellbeing, so they can get the support that’s right for them.

For us, it’s not about promoting access to services. It’s about normalising them. Some people are reluctant to use, for example, mental health schemes because they think there’s a stigma attached. It’s leaders’ responsibility to share their experiences and show that it’s OK to access support.

But, while we must normalise talking about mental health and wellbeing, we mustn’t normalise the issue itself. At the moment, one in six people suffer with their mental health each week. It’s not OK that so many people are struggling. We need to invest as much time in looking after our minds as we do our bodies.

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Profile Organisation: Sussex Police and Surrey Police Who we employ: Nearly 9,000 police officers and staff across the two forces Our approach in a nutshell: Empower people and remove barriers – everyone has different needs when it comes to wellbeing. Help people to create local support that works for them.

Relieve the pressure – look for opportunities to give people downtime and check in with each other, even if it’s only a 15-minute call.

Normalise support – leaders should share experiences and show that it’s OK to access mental health tools and support.

Emily’s top tip “You don’t need to spend money to practise good wellbeing. For me, it’s not compromising on ‘my time’. When working remotely, it’s very easy to be always on. But switching off is so important. I make time so that from the moment I pick up my son from school to when I put him to sleep, I don’t work. It’s massively helped my mental health and ensures I am truly present with him.”

For more resources and guidance around supporting mental health and wellbeing in your workplace, visit the CIPR website: https://cipr.co.uk/CIPR/Our_work/Policy/Mental_Health.aspx

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