Further Detail

Health and Wellbeing Priority Areas

• Bring the health and wellbeing of our people to the top of the organisation’s agenda.
• Develop a coordinated national approach to health and wellbeing, which is robust and driven by investment.
• Proactive engagement of our people in an ongoing health and wellbeing conversation through listening and understanding their needs.
• Recognising the significant pressures on our people and develop the support of our people enabling them to achieve a better work/life balance.
• Adopt a person-centred approach to all support pathways and programmes, i.e. Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Occupational Health (OH), Trauma Risk Management (TRiM), Wellbeing Champions.
• Prevention to become a primary focus.
• Reduce the stigma which still exists around health and wellbeing, particularly mental health and seeking support.
• Development and training of all officers and staff, with a specific focus on those in line management, senior ranks, and probationers.
• Recognise the importance and role of peer support amongst our people.

Health and Wellbeing Framework Model

The Health and Wellbeing Framework is driven by our core aim which is to support our people through a positive working environment, enabling them to serve the public. The proactive, preventative, and person-centred approach intends to understand and consider what our people are experiencing both inside and outside of work. Recognising the impact of significant moments, both work and personal, on people’s lives and providing ‘fit for purpose’ tools and support which empower and enable our people to take positive action in relation to their health and wellbeing.

Monitoring and Evaluation - Independent Health and Wellbeing Evaluation and Review

The ‘Independent Health and Wellbeing Evaluation and Review’ is now underway with Thrivewise, specialists in organisational health and wellbeing. By way of summary the key objectives of the evaluation and review include but are not limited to:

• Undergo a full review of the current health and wellbeing approaches within PS/SPA.
• Report on the current health and wellbeing approaches and whether they are deemed to be appropriate and effective.
• Provide recommendations for any adaptations to current health and wellbeing approaches.
• Provide expert insight and guidance on a proposed future structure for ongoing measurement of the impact that the wellbeing service is having on our people/service delivery.

The aim is to have the review completed by early March which will then allow us to present a paper on the review findings at the next People Committee in May 2024.

HWB Learning, Training and Development - Lifelines Facilitator Programme

Our Lifelines Scotland Facilitator programme continues to progress with more officers and staff undertaking the training to enable officers and staff to facilitate crucial Lifelines resilience, self-care and post-trauma support training through a Police Scotland and peer support lens.

We are now moving towards having 110 officers and staff within the organisation who can facilitate Lifelines Scotland sessions within their own areas. The increased capacity is allowing us to utilise facilitators in areas such as probationer training and as part of an ongoing CPD programme for our refreshed wellbeing champions’ network.

We are currently developing a workforce mental health action plan to present to the SPA People Committee in May 2024. The Lifelines Scotland Facilitator Programme is very much at the core as we strive to create a mental health informed workforce. We feel this will be a critical part of developing the organisation’s culture around mental health.

Wellbeing Champions Network

The relaunch of our wellbeing champions network continues to progress with 63 of the existing cohort committing to the network as we move into 2024. The recruitment for remainder of the network is firmly underway with a further 156 officers and staff from across the organisation commencing their role as wellbeing champions from the 1st February. As previously reported, we have been working to a ratio of 1 wellbeing champion to every 100 officers and staff to ensure that there is proportionate representation across all divisions and departments. Features of the network now include an MS Teams channel for the network to communicate and share good practice, an ongoing CPD programme which will initially take the form of Lifelines Scotland training delivered by our own facilitators, but we are also in conversation with our Learning, Training and Development and See Me colleagues on the development of some bespoke sessions around communication. The champions will also have a new monthly online network check- in and a wellbeing champions SharePoint site where champions can access information and track their proactive activity.

Professional Health and Wellbeing Support - Occupational Health

The contract award recommendation has now been approved at all levels and it can be confirmed that Optima Health will be the providers of our occupational health services from the 1st April 2024. Regrettably there was a prolonged delay of final approval of the award from Scottish Government, with confirmation not being received until 29th January 2024. This delay has impacted our implementation plans and timelines which we are now working to adjust accordingly. We will be able to provide a comprehensive overview of the contract and services at the next SPA People Committee due. However, we have provided a summary of some of the non-financial benefits associated with the contract below:

• Robust specification using the framework specification to build the scope of requirements which results in much greater emphasis on continuous improvement and ensure the service delivered is current, and in keeping with market standards.
• Long-term contract to allow for innovations and continuous improvement to be implemented throughout the term of the contract.
• Robust contractual clauses in relation to annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) uplifts, which provides the Authority with more control over the uplifts and places a higher burden of proof on the supplier.
• Robust KPIs and SLAs which are proportionate and appropriate to the nature of the service to ensure delivery of effective and efficient service coupled with escalation and complaints process providing greater clarity and accountability.
• Delivery of community benefits as standard via the Framework through the creation of employment, skills and training opportunities as well as funding and sponsorship in connection with the contract.
• Improved services compared with the current provision which are improvements on like-for-like services, for instance:

- In-house online Occupational Health IT system that providesan interactive solution to record, allocate and track all occupational health activity in real-time.
- Workplace Needs Assessment
- Complex case reviews
- There are a range of optional additional services available through the contract which can be taken up at the sole discretion of the Authority and are subject to budget availability. These are in areas such as physiotherapy triage, neurodiversity, wellbeing checks and HWB support.

Professional Health and Wellbeing Support - Employee Assistance Programme

The Employee Assistance Programme contract award recommendation has now been approved and it is confirmed that Vivup will be the new providers from the 1st April 2024. We are currently working with the provider on the development and delivery of a full implementation plan to ensure the services and contract management structures are in place ahead of the launch date.

As with the new occupational health contract, we will be in a position to provide a full overview of the contract and service at the next SPA People Committee. Again, we have summarised some of the key features of the new service below:

- Telephone and face-to-face complex trauma, including PTSD and critical incident support services.
- Therapeutic interventions will be embedded within the service due to the high risk and traumatic nature of some job roles.
- Access to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT); Trauma Focussed CBT; Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR); and other approved and appropriate specialist interventions.
- Users who are identified as being at risk (‘red flag’) will be routed to a counsellor for immediate support.
- Freephone telephone advice line(s) 24/7, 365 days a year.
- Secure Online Portal available 24/7, 365 days a year.
- Mobile IOS and Android application access to the online portal services.
- Live chat function on their online portal.
- Triage services will include, but not be limited to: clinical assessment process; facilitated referral into the NHS; and structured ‘bridging wellbeing support’ to those who are not clinically suitable for short-term focused counselling whilst they await treatment through the NHS/Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT).

Professional Health and Wellbeing Support – IHR / IOD

As reported to members previously, a review of the Ill Health Retirement (IHR) and Injury on Duty (IoD) award processes was undertaken and following a number of improvements, the current IHR / IOD position is as follows.

Ill Health Retiral (IHR)

Looking back over the last 12 months (January 2023 – December 2023) there have been 96 IHR cases concluded (Retirement or Retention).

As at January 2024, we have 59 officers in the IHR pool at various stages of progress. For comparison in January 2023 there were 100 officers in the process. Of those 59 officers currently in the process, 23 have either had or have their SMP appointment scheduled.

For cases considered by the SMP in the last 12 months the average wait time to appointment was 6.5 months. In the previous 12 months, average wait time to appointment was 13 months.

For cases finalised by the SPA in the last 12 months the average time to conclude was 10 months. For comparison, in the 12 months prior to this the average time to conclude was 16 months.

Calendar year 2023 was provided to allow full 12 months annual comparison rather than quarter or specific points in time data. Future reporting to Members will be provided in both financial quarters and full financial years.

Injury on Duty (IoD)

Looking back over the last 12 months (January 2023 - December 2023) there have been 50 IoD cases concluded.

As at January 2024 there are 37 officers in the IoD pool at various stages of progress. For comparison in January 2023 there were 49 officers in the process.

For IoD cases finalised by the SMP the average wait time to appointment was 5.7 months. For comparison, in the 12 months prior to this the average wait time to appointment was 25 months.

For IoD cases finalised by the SPA in the last 12 months the average time to conclude was 9 months. For comparison, in the previous 12 months the average time to conclude cases was 28 months.

IHR-IOD Internal Audit Update

The six findings of the IHR and IoD internal audit presented to the SPA Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee on 7 November 2023 are being progressed and will be presented as part of the IHR/IoD review closure report in February 2024.

Simultaneous IoD & IHR Determinations

Ongoing work to look at improvements in the IHR / IOD process and guidance include the ability to initiate a trial of IoD assessments being carried out by an SMP during the same appointment as IHR is being considered. A trial of this approach will begin in March 2024.

Governance and Strategy - HMICS Review

Health and wellbeing continue to assist HMICS in the Wellbeing Frontline Focus Review. The review has included extensive field work within C3, Custody and north-east Divisions, one to one interviews with key stakeholders across both SPA and Police Scotland, as well as a comprehensive documents review. The timeline of the first draft report was provisionally set as the end of January 2024 but it has been delayed. We are hopeful that we will be in position to report back to the next SPA People Committee on the findings and recommendations of the review.

The overall aim of the review is to engage directly with frontline officers and staff to identify the issues they consider support or impact on their wellbeing and to assess the work undertaken by Police Scotland to improve wellbeing. Some objectives have also been identified; they are as follows:

• To engage with frontline officers and staff to assess their awareness of Police Scotland’s approach to wellbeing, associated activities and the effectiveness of this approach.
• To identify the factors which officers and staff consider support or impact their wellbeing.
• Highlight any identified good practice and initiatives.
• Assess the approach taken by Police Scotland comparable to recognised professional guidance and approaches elsewhere.