The Only National Awards For Non-Medical / Non-Clinical NHS Staff & Volunteers

Nomination

Award Category:

Corporate Services

Individual or Team Nomination?

Team

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

Occupational Health service leads across the Cheshire and Mersey (C&M) region recognised the need to work innovatively and collaboratively to drive efficiency, improved quality and consistency across the network in order to improve the lived experience of service users and reduce the risk of litigation against the employer. The operationalisation of these shared economies of effort really came into play during COVID when through mutual support we provided a 7 day service to employees for the duration of the pandemic so staff had access to advice and support for things like, swabbing, testing, results and infectivity. The C&M OH leads forum was created to form a professional collaborative enterprise whose main focus is to drive safe effective care that benefits the employee and the employer through carefully planned interventions that drive system efficiency and economy of effort whilst improving quality and homogeneity across the region. As a direct result of this focussed collaboration, we have streamlined the transactional services for our region including the use of a single Pre Employment Health Questionnaire that is cited on current legislation. The Management Referral Form is also a single version across all C&M Trusts that use NHS OH services. There has been an innovative experiential training programme in relation to effective case management delivered by members of the C&M forum from LUHFT and S&O Trusts to share best practice and promulgate a streamlined model of delivery. Cognisant of fiscal challenge and the need to show a return on investment aligned to national drivers for workforce investment and resilience, the C&M OH leads forum saw the importance of working as one to meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities presented by NHS People Promise through the commitment of looking after our NHS people with quality OHWB services that are value for money and novel in its approach. Aligned to the exciting opportunities that Growing OHWB yields, the C&M OH Managers forum have forecast the development opportunities that are of benefit to our people across all roles within our respective organisations. The group have also looked at interoperability in the delivery of flu and covid vaccinations for HCWs to exploit efficiencies and reduce individual Trust burden. The ultimate impact of this approach is a streamlined and quality approach to all of the transactional and transformational elements that OH lead on across the region benefiting employees to feel looked after and supported, to reduce the potential of occupational injury or illness and to expedite efficient RTW and to reduce potential for presenteeism and to assist in an individual to remain well at work with early access to specialist OH services including that provided by the wider MDT. We are one NHS. We have an egalitarian approach and see the tangible benefits from working in this way. Our innovation is directly aligned to the need to work as one in gaining competitive advantage and to realise the benefits of sharing workforce assets and knowledge that have the widest beneficial reach to service users and key stakeholders.