Many NHS staff just now are likely to be looking forward to some time away from work over the summer, maybe dreaming of a weekend away, or a week by the sea if they are lucky. Everyone needs a break now and then, to switch off from the demands of the workplace and to recharge the batteries for our return.

At some point whilst on holiday, our minds inevitably turn to going back to work and what will be waiting for us when we get back. If you are anything like us, you might make yourself a ‘to-do’ list for when you return. It might include some things to do differently in the future, either to improve the quality of our work or to improve our experiences of being at work. What we really want of course, is to bring back with us some of that holiday chill; that calmness, happiness, satisfaction with life, and embed it into our work and workplace.

Working with Hope For The Community CIC, NHS England and NHS Improvement have produced a resource pack for NHS staff and NHS organisations that might just help you with keeping that holiday vibe going, and also make your workplace a more compassionate place to be all year round.

In September 2018, we produced Towards commissioning for workplace compassion: a support guide that describes what workplace compassion is and why it matters to the NHS. Staff experience workplace compassion as a result of the thoughtful, caring, and empathetic actions of others. NHS England and NHS Improvement support a policy of compassion for all in the NHS, patients, carers and staff. We know that compassion in the workplace makes a positive difference. It’s a key component of staff experience and wellbeing and matters because:

the experience of NHS staff is strongly connected with the quality of care for patients
staff need to be consistently cared for themselves in order to care for patients
organisations that prioritise staff health and well-being perform better, with improved patient satisfaction, stronger quality scores, better outcomes, higher levels of staff retention and lower rates of sickness absence
NHS organisations can take positive action that improves support for staff and staff wellbeing.

This summer, to make compassion for all a reality in the NHS, we are launching the National Workplace Compassion Resource Pack. It includes free, ready to go resources to support you and your team to take practical steps to make your experiences more positive, to make your workplace somewhere you feel more supported by, and compassionate towards, your colleagues.

The resource pack includes sets of practical ready-to-go resources, designed for you to pick up and use with minimum effort. You can easily tailor them to your own local needs if you wish. It contains everything you need in order to run workshops, sessions at team meetings, resources to use in broader improvement activities, an ‘at a glance’ 2 sided handout that explains why caring for the people that care matters and supports making the case to your executive team, infographics, case studies and much more besides.

We are hoping that we have taken the hard work out of planning and designing staff experience or improvement events, to minimise your time and effort and to maximise the potential benefits of working towards workplace compassion.

The national workplace compassion resource pack will be launched in Taunton on 16th July 2019. It will then be made available to NHS staff in the usual places, or you can email us at england.staffexp@nhs.net and we will send you the resource pack.

So this summer, wherever you spend it, and when you get to thinking about returning to work from your precious time off, why not make a plan to look up the workplace compassion resource pack, and get some inspiration and (FREE!) resources to make your workplace a more compassionate place to be on your return.

Written by:

Dr Wendy Clyne and Dr Karen Deeny, Hope For The Community CIC

Kate Milton and Michail Sanidas, NHS England and NHS Improvement

Launching the National Workplace Compassion Resource Pack