Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing

Introduction

S4S are committed to supporting Schools/Trusts/MACs, school leaders, teachers, support staff and pupils in ensuring that their mental health and wellbeing is prioritised. We recognise that positive employee and pupil mental health and wellbeing is essential towards creating a healthy School/Trust/MAC, and supportive environment.

When it comes to providing this support we understand that every school is unique, therefore we fully accept that what works will vary according to each individual setting. Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Service Offer is therefore tailored by a team of specialists to support your needs and priorities. This in turn will enable you to develop and embed positive mental health and wellbeing provisions for your employees, pupils and the whole school community.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Engaging employees and improving their wellbeing has never been more important or more of a challenge to the pressures faced by Schools today. At S4S, we believe in creating a culture of positive employee engagement through offering confidential support to your employees if and when it is needed. To enable you to achieve this S4S have partnered with Medigold Health who are a leading supplier of employee wellness and occupational health solutions. All employees and any family member (living at the family home and aged over 16) will have access to a wide range of support on physical and mental wellbeing issues such as mental health, relationship or family concerns, childcare, or financial challenges.

An invaluable support service that provides extremely good value for money, which is available around the clock for your employees to access in school, or within the privacy of their home, enabling immediate support mechanisms for all staff members whenever an issue arises.

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Enhanced Wellbeing Package

Our Enhanced Wellbeing Package provides School’s/Trust’s/MAC’s with the opportunity to improve the health and wellbeing of employees in additional by engaging and motivating staff through employee incentives. To enable you to achieve this, S4S have partnered with Paycare (formerly Patients Aid). A notfor-profit organisation and one of the UK’s most respected health cover providers, Paycare’s passion lies in ensuring that individuals across the whole of the UK benefit from optimum health and wellbeing.

The Enhanced Wellbeing Package offers a fantastic range of effective wellbeing services and employee incentives designed to look after your employees’ physical, mental and financial health, including:

• A confidential support and counselling service, enabling employees to access assistance on a wide range of topics including everything from dealing with depression, stress and anxiety, to alcohol and drug abuse, family or relationship issues and even legal or tax support. An invaluable service available around the clock (24/7), therefore providing the opportunity for your employees to access this support either in school or within the privacy of their own home enabling immediate
support mechanisms to all employees whenever an issue arises.

• MyPocket GP provides a virtual GP surgery in the palm of your hand. With increasing GP waiting times and busy lifestyles it can be difficult to find time to obtain confident medical advice. Whether you want to speak to a doctor during your coffee break or need medical support in the middle of the night, the MyPocket GP app provides employees with access to a qualified GP 24 hours a day. Your employees will have immediate access to easily book appointments, attend a remote consultation via telephone or video link, and even receive private prescription medication delivered to their door.
• Paycare Perks is an employee incentive scheme rewarding your employees with discounts on everyday experiences and purchases. Designed to help employees to look after their financial health, Paycare Perks is a fantastic discount scheme offering savings on gym memberships, Merlin Entertainments, cinema tickets and hundreds of high street, leisure, and health and fitness products and services. Whether it’s a meal out with friends, the weekly grocery shop, or renewing car insurance, Paycare Perks has a reward that can save money for everyone, allowing employees to spend quality time with their family without breaking the budget.

Crisis Counselling

It is unfortunate that at times schools may experience a crisis caused by a traumatic event such as the sudden death of a colleague or pupil, or a situation or event in which an employee may feel overwhelmed or has difficulty coping. Crisis counselling assists towards helping employees and pupils to develop coping skills to deal with the immediate crisis through reducing the emotional pain, whilst providing emotional support, in addition to making sure that employees are safe. This is achieved through supporting employees with strategies for reducing stress, coping with the situation, and positive thinking. Our Crisis Counselling Service Offer
will provide you with a qualified counsellor who will be available within your school setting to provide support and guidance to individuals or groups of employees or pupils should they wish to access it.

Occupational Health

Occupational Health plays a key role in supporting the effective management of health issues within the workplace. At S4S, we believe by investing in improved and more proactive occupational health arrangements, efficiency savings will be realised in a relatively short timescale. A proactive occupational health service and a healthy and supportive working environment play an important part in preventing both work-related ill health and proactively managing common health problems in order to help employees remain at work. Our specialist practitioner will support you to achieve this through combining their medical experience with their knowledge of the working conditions within schools and the physical and mental wellbeing of staff. In addition to this they will provide a detailed robust report that will provide you with the information required to make an informed management decision.

Mental Health First Aid

Although the general perception of mental illness has improved over recent years, the stigma that surrounds it is still powerful, largely due to the lack of awareness and the tendency for people to attach negative stigmas towards mental health conditions at a far higher rate than to other diseases and disabilities. Mental health education empowers people to care for themselves and others. By reducing the stigma that surrounds mental health, at S4S we hope to break down barriers to the support that your employees stay well, aid recovery or the effective management of their symptoms enabling them to thrive in their roles and wellbeing.

Our Mental Health First Aid Instructor has been trained in the delivery of various mental health courses and is here to support you to manage wellbeing proactively and minimise the impact of mental ill health. At S4S, we will work alongside you to deliver training that complements and enhances your existing wellbeing strategy, if you have one. If you don’t, S4S will advise and put a strategy in place that meets your requirements. There are training options to suit a range of timescales and budgets, from basic mental health awareness sessions to a full Mental Health First Aider qualification. Working with Mental Health First Aid England, our training packages have been designed to benefit employees and line managers to meet the challenges of the workplace.

Two Day Mental Health First Aider

The two-day mental health first aid course is aimed at those wanting to become a certified mental health first aider for their School/Trust/MAC. Certificate holders will be able to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health illnesses and effectively guide a colleague towards the right support. The two day course qualifies delegates as a Mental Health First Aider. Mental Health First Aiders will gain:

• An in depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
• Practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues
• Confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress
• Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
• Knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support – whether that’s self-help resources, through their employer, the NHS, or a mix

The course will be delivered through a mix of group activities, presentations and discussions, each session is built around a Mental Health First Aid action plan. All delegates successfully completing the course will get an MHFA manual to keep and refer to whenever they need it, in addition to a certificate to say they are a Mental Health First Aider.

One Day Mental Health Champion

The one-day mental health first aid course is for those wanting to gain awareness of mental illness. Enabling delegates to understand common mental health illnesses to support their own mental health and the wellbeing of their colleagues. The one day mental health awareness and skills course qualifies you as an MHFA Champion. MHFA Champions will gain:

• An understanding of common mental health issues
• Knowledge and confidence to advocate for mental health awareness
• Ability to spot signs of mental ill health
• Skills to support positive wellbeing The course will be delivered through a mix of group activities, presentations and discussions, the course is built around a Mental Health First Aid action plan.

All delegates successfully completing the course will get an MHFA manual to keep and refer to whenever they need it, and a certificate to say they are an MHFA Champion. They will also receive a copy of the Line Managers’ Resource, an invaluable source of advice on how to support an employee experiencing mental ill health.

Half Day Mental Health Aware

The half day mental health first aid course is for those wanting to become more self-aware about their own mental health and to gain a basic awareness of mental health illnesses and how to help themselves and others around them. The half day course is an introductory four hour session. The course is designed to provide:

• An understanding of what mental health is and how to challenge stigma
• A basic knowledge of some common mental health issues
• An introduction to looking after your own mental health and maintaining wellbeing
• Confidence to support someone in distress or who may be experiencing a mental health issue

The course will be delivered through a mix of presentations, group discussions and workshop activities. All delegates successfully completing the course will receive:

• A manual to refer to whenever they need it
• A workbook including a helpful toolkit to support their own mental health
• A certificate of attendance to say they are Mental Health Aware

In House Health and Wellbeing Workshops

Our In-House Health and Wellbeing Workshops Service Offer provides a flexible approach for both employees and pupils alike. It is designed at the appropriate level, to develop understanding and provide strategies to improve and maintain employees and pupil’s health and wellbeing. Workshops can be tailored to half or full day sessions and include;

• Mindfulness
• Stress Reduction
• Suicide Workshop (Adults Only)
• Self-Harm Workshop
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Trauma Attachment (Adults Only)
• SEN ASD (Adults Only)