Carlisle City Council has been recognised for its work in supporting staff’s wellbeing.
The authority has been given a Continuing Excellence in the Better Health at Work Award – a step up from its existing Gold Award.
The award recognises the council’s achievement in supporting employees to maintain their own wellbeing through raising awareness and providing access to wellbeing activities.
The Better Health at Work Award, supported by all of the participating local authorities and coordinated by the Northern TUC, recognises the efforts of employers in theNorth East and Cumbria in addressing health issues within the workplace.
There are five levels of the award – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Continuing Excellence and Maintaining Excellence.
Organisations are given up to a year a level. All organisations have to start at bronze level.
Assessors said that: “Both lead health advocates are clearly very committed and passionate in their substantive and additional roles – and it looks as though this has translated further and they have managed to bring the organisation and staff with them, even under the most challenging of circumstances.”
The city council has 15 trained health advocates.
“An advocate is someone who is passionate about health and wellbeing, wants to help raise awareness of health topics, and contribute to developing a positive wellbeing culture in the workplace.
The award will help focus wellbeing initiatives on issues employees want to know more about, allowing support for colleagues to be well in and out of work.
Jason Gooding, Carlisle City Council’s chief executive, said: “In any circumstance the health and wellbeing of our staff is our top priority.
“During this pandemic we have put in place a range of additional safety and support measures to ensure that we are doing all we can to protect and help our workforce; those working from home and our frontline teams.
“The mental health and wellbeing of our staff is also really important. We have sought to maintain regular contact with all our staff using video communications and phone calls. We have also encouraged our staff to keep in contact with colleagues, their family, and friends.
“We don’t want our staff to feel isolated and they are frequently reminded of the free professional support available via the Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health.
“We have also held mental health drop-in chat sessions using Microsoft Teams and workshops relating, to among other things – financial wellbeing, coping with anxiety and alcohol and drug awareness. We also held a virtual wellbeing day tackling sleep deprivation, stress and mental awareness.”
The authority is now working towards the next level, which is the maintaining excellence award.
