Corporate report

Wellbeing dashboard (agenda item 10)

Published 22 December 2023

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

Paper 14/23

Purpose

1). To update the Executive Board on progress in the area of staff wellbeing for 2022/23 and to accompany the slides which will be presented at the meeting.

Background

2). The wellbeing dashboard aims to highlight some of the activities carried out by the Diversity and Wellbeing team during the last financial year and present some insights with regards to the usage of the occupational health service and employee assistance programme (EAP), and sickness absence.

Wellbeing activity 2022/23

3). Some of the activities carried out to promote staff wellbeing include:

a) Communications

During the last financial year, there were 47 wellbeing publications on Roots which received almost 22,000 views. These included 20 blogs, 19 notices and 7 news articles. 2 of the 5 most read blogs of the year were wellbeing blogs (links to staff intranet):

• Trying to eat a healthier diet by Tristram Hilborn, FE Chief Operating Officer
• What’s the worst that could happen? By Wellbeing Advisor.

b) Health kiosks

Between January and March 2023 health kiosks toured 15 sites attracting 362 users from across the Forestry Commission. The FC had the third highest usage among the Defra group, after Environment Agency and Core Defra.

c) Mental Health training

There are currently 160 Mental Health First Aiders across the FC and 45 Wellbeing Champions (FS/FE). An additional 60 staff members have received mental health training this year with more scheduled.

d) Mind Workplace Wellbeing Index

FE, FS and CO took part in the Mind Workplace Wellbeing Index 2022/23, which was launched in February. 588 staff participated in the wellbeing survey, resulting in 35% participation. FR did not participate preferring a different timeline.

As a result, the FC has been awarded Silver which is an improvement on the previous award of Bronze in 2018. Please note: this information is embargoed until after the Workplace Wellbeing Awards on 29 June.

A Silver award means we are making demonstrable achievements in promoting staff mental health, taking action across a number of key areas and demonstrating impact.

The Wellbeing and Diversity team will be reviewing the findings from the FC report and developing a plan for implementing the key recommendations.

e) Your wellbeing offer leaflet

A leaflet has been produced to promote what is available to FC staff to help them look after their wellbeing at home and at work. This is available on Roots.

Occupational Health 2022/23

4). The top 5 disease code outcomes – management referrals (compared to previous FY 21/22):

a) Neurological has increased by 5%, moving from fourth to first place. This includes referrals for migraine, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

b) Stress has increased by 5% and moved from third to second place. Defra are undertaking a deep dive into work-related stress (WRS), which the FC will collaborate on. The Diversity and Wellbeing team will continue to work with Health Safety and Technical Training to review WRS and what support is available to staff. Staff continue to be signposted to support available and a blog on stress was recently published.

c) Anxiety has decreased by 2% and has dropped from the number 1 disease code to number 3. This emphasises the impact of the wellbeing work on this topic such as blogs, regular EAP webinars, signposting at every opportunity to support available, utilisation of Mental Health First Aiders and Wellbeing Champions. Improvements in this area helped the FC to reach Silver in the Mind Workplace Wellbeing Index.

d) Back pain has remained the same percentage but dropped to fourth place. An internal campaign was launched by FE for Back Care Awareness Week earlier this year and a subsequent blog on taking care of your back that included videos of simple exercises.

e) Other upper limb disorder was previously number 5 making up 7% of management referrals but this has reduced and is replaced by depression which accounted for 6% of management referrals FY 22/23.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

5). FC average utilisation of 33.7% for 2022/23 is good compared to that for the whole Defra contract at 15% and to previously when we had annualised average utilisation of 13%.

6). EAP utilisation improvement can be attributed to its promotion, including on all wellbeing comms, which include how to get support. In addition, there are quarterly webinars with Defra on various topics which are well publicised and attended.

7). Anxiety remains the most common counselling call reason. On average anxiety accounts for approximately 21% of overall counselling engagement by the FC, which is a reduction from 29%. As mentioned, anxiety remains a focus for comms and this is benefitting staff.

8). FC advice calls at 12.1% are slightly lower than the Defra average of 16.6% and Health Assured’s benchmark of 16%. Staff continue to be educated on the range of support available through the EAP such as through the regular webinars. Within FC there are a variety of advice call themes, including employment, wills and probate, property, and divorce and separation.

Sickness absence and working days lost

9). The sickness absence graph shows total overall instances of sickness for the whole organisation on a month-by-month basis for 2022/23 and is broken down by division. The percentage of absences overall per month for the whole FC are shown above the bars.

10). We see that sickness is lower in August and September and higher in winter months, peaking in December. In November 2022, the winter wellbeing toolkit and financial wellbeing hub were launched and this may be the reason for the reduction in mental health absences by 50% the following month (December). January saw the start of the health kiosk tour and overall sickness figures decreased subsequently over the next 2 months.

11). The final graph shows the number of working days lost to sickness absences, taking into account the consecutive days taken per instance of absence. The decrease in days lost between October and November may be attributed to 470 staff receiving their free flu vaccination vouchers in October.

Future developments

12). The Diversity and Wellbeing Manager is working with workforce MI teams to bring costings on absences due to sickness in future. No date has been set yet.

Conclusion

13). The Executive Board are invited to ask any questions related to the presentation or the accompanying paper. Any further information relating to a specific division may be requested from the Diversity and Wellbeing team who will endeavour to provide it.

Diversity and Wellbeing Manager, 14 June 202