Dear Colleagues

May has offered us 3 wonderful Bank Holidays this year. The one that shouldn't go without a mention is the coronation of King Charles III. Royal supporter or not, it gave a welcome boost to the economy and more importantly gave millions of people a chance to connect with family, friends, and neighbours. A feast for the eyes and the ears too, with a wonderful concert at Windsor Castle, something for all ages to enjoy. 

So that's it for Bank Holidays until August now! June does however bring us the longest day offering us up to 17hours of sunshine, so use this month as a time to establish some work life balance and indulge your daily dose of vitamin D.  

We are bringing another newsletter this month bursting with great content and CPD for our Network Members and their teams, thanks to Andrew and Laura for their efforts in pulling this together on our behalf every month its much appreciated.

Check out our relaunched resource hub, a pool of resources to share best practice across our network. If you have examples of your work and processes that you would like to share, please do get in contact with the team.  

Many colleagues across the NHS and beyond are still feeling the effects of the pandemic and experiencing symptoms of Long Covid. If you'd like to find out more about what others are doing to support colleagues, be sure to tune into the webinar that's being offered by North Central London.

Lastly, a final shameless plug for the annual conference, which is fast approaching and with our speaker line up now confirmed, be sure to avoid disappointment and book your place.

Best wishes

Nicola Bullen

Joint Deputy-Chair, NHS Health at Work Network

In this edition:

1.    Save the Date: Annual Conference 13 & 14 September

Registration is now open for the NHS Health at Work Network Annual Conference 2023! We have some brilliant speakers lined up – see our conference flyer.

The conference is taking place on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 September 2023, at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Old Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 2LD.

For those of you who are members and have subscribed to the conference package, we have already written to you with the relevant registration forms.

We also have a limited number of remaining 24-hour places available to book on a first-come, first-served basis, at a heavily discounted rate for members, as well as an unlimited number of day-places available for Thursday 14 September. Please contact our conference organiser, Anna McNeil (cc’d) at forumconferences@btinternet.com if you would like to book conference places. 

2.    On-line Resource Hub for Network Members Relaunched

Full Members of the Network have access to our relaunched resource hub which contains a wide range of good practice documents and links in our Clinical Guidance section. This includes our recently published Good Practice Guide on ‘Exposure Prone Procedures Clearance for Healthcare Workers’.

Thanks to all of you who contributed a wide range of OH and related job descriptions. These are available to members in our Shared Practice section of our website, and will hopefully save you some time when writing new job descriptions, person specifications and recruiting to new posts!

3.    Webinar: Work Support Options for NHS Staff with Long-Covid

On 6th June between 4pm and 5pm, the North Central London post-COVID Syndrome Service will be presenting a free webinar on the importance of providing specialist work support for NHS staff experiencing post COVID syndrome / long COVID. 

Please find more details and sign up here: Work Support Options for NHS Staff with Long Covid webinar Tickets, Tue 6 Jun 2023 at 16:00 | Eventbrite

4.    Follow Us!

To get the latest updates from the Network and to keep abreast of what’s happening in Occupational Health follow us on our socials:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NHSOHNetwork

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NHSOHNetwork/

For Network members only, join our Facebook group to Ask-A-Question, get feedback and share your knowledge with peers on all things relating to OH:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nhshealthatwork     

5.    National School of OH: Five-Year Strategy

The National School of Occupational Health have released their five-year Strategic Plan, available here.

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6.    Member Case Study: North West London ICS

As the North West London ICS began to take shape, the four acute, two community and one mental health trust within the ICS, with support from the NW London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), identified that their staff would be best served by a single OH provision. This model also had potential for the 360 GP practices in the area and eight local authorities to join in the future. Read the case study, and others on our website

7.    HSE Asbestos and You Campaign

The Health and Safety Executive’s Asbestos and You campaign urges tradespeople working in construction to be aware of disturbing asbestos. Two new free resources have been launched for workers to test and enhance their knowledge about asbestos and the risks associated with it:

• find out if you know enough to protect yourself and others from exposure to asbestos fibres by taking the Asbestos and You quick quiz
• a recent webinar in partnership with The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), which is now available to watch for free on YouTube

To access more resources and find out more about the campaign, visit the Asbestos and You website.

8.    Network Board Vacancies: East Midlands and West Midlands Regions

We have two vacancies on our Network Board – one covering the East Midlands region and the other the West Midlands region. Applications are invited from Network Member colleagues working in these regions, to join our Network Board. For an informal discussion and/or an application form, contact Andrew Gilbey, General Manager at admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk and submit your application by no later than Friday 30 June. 

9.    MoHaWK – Round 23 is on its way! 

Round 22 will be closed on 30^th June and then Round 23 opening on 1st July 2023 for data input. As per previous rounds we will leave this open until the commencement of the following round as this appears to have worked well for many services who are still balancing work demands  and allows greater flexibility of when you submit data. Please find the briefing notes for Round 23. If you have any specific queries please contact hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk

10. Courses and Resources

North West Region - Community of Practice - Linda Lewis, our North West region Board representative, has been working with NHS England regionally on the ‘Growing OH Strategy’ and would like to set up a community of practice network for members in the Northwest. If you are interested in joining please email Linda direct: linda.lewis8@nhs.net

Your NHS Health at Work Network Board met in May. The key messages are available here.

The National School of Occupational Health be holding this research-based workshop at the SOM FOM conference this year

https://www.som.org.uk/book-now-som-and-foms-annual-conference

Work + Health Question Time webinar: 26 April 2023. The Council for Work and Health recently held a webinar on the practicalities of research in a work and health setting, with lots of good discussion, information and advice. A link to the recording for those who were unable to attend is available here

The National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Academy has announced new initiatives that will expand its provision of training and career development opportunities for health and social care professionals. More here

A toolkit for colleague suicide management in the NHS.

Achieving a Culture of Candour: Freedom to Speak Up virtual conference which I believe will be of interest to the NHS Health at Work Network. Friday 13 October 2023, Virtual Online. Book here

Take part in the University of Nottingham’s research into the ‘Experiences and knowledge of pharmacists, nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists certifying fit notes.’ This study aims to explore the barriers and facilitators to the certification of fit notes. Find out more here

Record numbers not working due to ill-health – BBC article here

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The NHS Health at Work Network brings together all OH teams providing health and wellbeing services to NHS OH staff.  It is dedicated to providing consistent, high quality health at work services to all NHS staff through collaborative working.

Members of OH teams in NHS Health at Work Network member organisations can receive the bulletin and access the restricted areas of the website as a membership benefit – if you are not sure of your login details email admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk   

Please share this bulletin with colleagues and encourage them to register to receive it regularly.  Non-Network members can also register to receive the monthly bulletin here.

You can contact the Network through your regional representative or as shown below.  Please get in touch if you have any queries or comments, if there is anything you would like to see in future issues of the bulletin, or if you have news to share.

Hilary Winch, Chair                                                 hilary.winch@nnuh.nhs.uk

Andrew Gilbey, General Manager                       admin@nhshealthatwork.co.uk  

Postal address: NHS Health at Work, PO Box 857, York YO31 6F