Communications & Engagement

As part of this year’s Carers Week and Disability Awareness Day activities the Health and Wellbeing team delivered a series of on-line Drop-ins. The sessions, which had over 100 officers and staff in attendance, aimed to prompt thinking around how our people might look after their own health and wellbeing, the daily challenges they face in doing so and how they might overcome these. The team also shared the details of the support available. The session was very much driven by themselves and their willingness to engage and share experiences was fantastic. Some comments shared with the team are provided below:

• Finding some time to speak with others in a similar position has been helpful

• I was part of the wellbeing teams call. I would be keen to get involved with lived experiences series even though I’m sure my story isn’t that unusual/different.

• Would it be possible to have a regular group session/forum in order to allow people to share experiences/advice on processes/support that are out there?

A main focus at present is the refresh of the Wellbeing Champions Network. Police Scotland currently have 130 Wellbeing Champions throughout the organisation, due to a number of retirements we have seen the number slightly drop over the last year. The refresh, for which HWB now have approval from the HWB Governance Board and SLB, will include a new recruitment and note of interest process, an ongoing schedule of CPD for champions and embedded monitoring and evaluation methods and platform (interactions, themes within the interactions, signposting and support provided, awareness sessions delivered and impact).

The network aims to fully equip our champions with the skills and confidence to support our people in terms of their health and wellbeing when needed. Recruitment to the refreshed network will begin with a focus on the existing champions and will commence in Q2.