Learning from wellbeing hubs

The BPS has published a new report on key lessons from the 40 wellbeing hubs which were set up to support NHS and social care staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. The report uses these lessons to inform eight principles to consider in the development of future wellbeing and mental health support for staff in the NHS.

The wellbeing hubs, launched in February 2021, supported staff mental health during the unprecedented challenges which emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, and later evolved to address systemic issues including staff retention and turnover, sickness levels, workforce wellbeing, suicide risk and burnout. Despite a BPS campaign to maintain funding for the hubs, it officially ended last March with some hubs closing and others being maintained through short-term interim funding.

The Learning from the NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs report takes the knowledge gained from those hubs to inform eight key principles for future staff mental health and wellbeing support in the NHS. This work aims to align with the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan which asks integrated care systems to invest in wellbeing services for staff.

The eight principles for future staff wellbeing support are – system-wide ownership, positive system-wide engagement, independent and confidential, psychologically-informed expert services, psychologically safe, inclusive and accessible, consistent, persistent promotion and outreach, monitoring and evaluation and long-term sustainable investment. 

The report also made recommendations based on those eight principles – including a need for integrated care boards to consider how they endorse and promote system-wide ownership of staff mental health provision, discuss how mental-health provision could support wider system priorities, and ensure any wellbeing services are led and staffed by highly qualified and experienced psychologists.

The report also shares two case studies from hubs in Northamptonshire and North Yorkshire. The NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Care Partnership is working to build on and adapt its hub model which provides confidential support for staff with non-work-related problems, trauma-informed support and a rapid response to work-based trauma, this group has found that the hub model could also lead to cost savings.

Stronger Together in Northamptonshire developed a four-session psychological consultation model which aimed to deliver brief but impactful interventions in a move away from a traditional stepped care model. This service, which included seven clinical and counselling psychologists and an assistant psychologist, used a model whereby staff could self-refer for any area of concern they wanted to discuss and service users could decide on the frequency of their sessions – either having a concentrated number of sessions or having sessions over a longer period. They found this model led to significant positive changes in wellbeing for the majority of staff.

Read the full report.