Health and wellbeing conversations

Health and wellbeing conversations guidance
The NHS People Plan asks that all NHS staff have a health and wellbeing conversation, and are supported to develop a personalised wellbeing plan, from September 2020.
Here are some ideas for things you might consider to ensure that quality health and wellbeing conversations and plans that best meet the needs of our diverse workforce are embedded within your organisation.
NHS England has launched its national training programme that has been designed to support NHS colleagues in having safe and effective wellbeing conversations, which line managers can book on to.
Who will hold the conversation?
In most cases, a health and wellbeing conversation may be held by a line manager or supervisor, but in some cases staff might want to have this confidential discussion with someone else. Whilst the main intention is for line managers to hold wellbeing conversations with their colleagues, we would encourage everyone within the team to support one another by regularly checking in.
Consider who else might have the skills, confidence and expertise to hold a sensitive conversation with colleagues – for example, mental health first aiders, members of your HR/OD function, other line managers in the same department, staff network leads, freedom to speak up guardians or wellbeing champions. It is also important to note that it is line managers who can make and implement changes for their staff so it is vital that line managers are kept informed to provide the appropriate support for their colleague.
How will you embed wellbeing conversations for all staff?
Health and wellbeing conversations should be held regularly and could be incorporated into existing processes, such as one-to-ones, appraisals or job planning discussions. Alternatively, you could think about developing a new stand-alone process. Consider how any actions to support your colleague will be recorded from the conversation, either using existing paperwork/systems or using a personal wellbeing plan.
What support, training and guidance will those hosting the conversation need?
Providing the right support to those hosting the conversations is important. You need to ensure the discussions are sensitive, open and valuable to staff members. Here are some elements to consider in your approach:
Guidance – line managers or facilitators will need guidance on what the health and wellbeing conversation should cover, what it shouldn’t cover, rules around confidentiality and safeguarding and to set the expectations of their role in the conversation and any follow up actions.
Skills - many people will already have the listening skills, emotional intelligence and sensitivity needed for this conversation, but others may need more support to feel confident having these conversations. See our web page on training for line managers.
Signposting – consider what additional information and signposting details would be useful. These conversations may cover a broad range of work-related and personal issues, can you provide signposting to support for potential topics? See our support available for NHS staff web page for an outline of free national support services for staff.
Support – it’s important that line managers/conversation facilitators know where they can go for support. In particular, you should consider what support mechanisms you have in place if it’s necessary to break the confidentiality of the conversation due to safeguarding concerns.
What support, information and guidance will staff need?
Staff members may also be nervous about discussing their personal health and wellbeing with others. You might want to consider the following in your approach:
Communications – how can you build trust and confidence in your workforce that these conversations are to support their wellbeing?
Diversity and inclusion - how can you understand more about your colleagues and are there any culturally appropriate approaches you may need to consider?
Guidance – as with facilitators, staff members should be given clear guidance as to what to expect from the conversation, the types of topics they will discuss, the confidentiality of the conversation and what happens after the conversation.
Building health and wellbeing into everyday conversations
In addition to implementing health and wellbeing conversations and plans in response to the NHS People Plan, line managers, teams and colleagues should regularly openly discuss wellbeing. This section outlines a few different ways wellbeing can be build into everyday conversations.