Health and wellbeing champions

The health and wellbeing of NHS staff is of great importance. Health and wellbeing affects every member of NHS staff, it is therefore vital that all our NHS people have access to talk to someone when they need to. Most of the time NHS staff are unaware of what they can access to support their wellbeing. Training staff to champion your organisations wellbeing offer, can have a significant impact on raising awareness of what is on offer and will help support and improve their wellbeing.
What is a wellbeing champion?
NHS England (NHSE) defines health and wellbeing champions as: people at all levels of the NHS who promote, identify, and signpost ways to support the wellbeing of their colleagues.
A wellbeing champion is a member of your workforce who supports the wellbeing of staff within NHS organisations. Wellbeing champions know their work areas and colleagues, and are best placed to recognise what may work best in their team's environment. They can also signpost to resources and support that their organisation has in place.
Having wellbeing champions in your organisation will be extremely beneficial to your staff as well as supporting your organisation's wellbeing strategy and the national wellbeing agenda.
Many NHS organisations may already have similar roles already in place but may use different names such as; wellbeing allies, advocates, and officers.
The role of a wellbeing champion
Champion roles may vary across organisations however, some roles and responsibilities may include:
- acting as a role model for promoting positive health and wellbeing practice within your organisation, team and department
- linking in with the health and wellbeing leads or the person responsible for delivering the health and wellbeing strategy in the organisation
- listen to colleagues when appropriate
- signposting staff to the wellbeing support that is available to them
- providing support to health and wellbeing leads
- encouraging colleagues to take breaks and to look after themselves, for example: drinking plenty of fluids, lunchtime walks, taking up hobbies
- making sure that colleagues are taking time to reflect and be aware of their physical and mental health.
Please note: Wellbeing champions are not expected to provide advice to colleagues. Wellbeing champions are there to listen and signpost colleagues to the services your organisation provides, including if they require mental health support.