Following a series of successful wellbeing initiatives at NHS Midlands and Lancashire (NHS ML), our Deputy Director of Finance, Lyn Tallentire, was recently asked to speak at a one-day conference on “Workplace wellbeing in the NHS”.

As a health and wellbeing champion at NHS ML, Lyn spoke at the event organised by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), the professional body for finance staff in healthcare, and Future Focused Finance (FFF), the national programme designed to develop, connect and support the NHS finance community.

Together with Emma Stewart, Head of Finance at NHS ML, Lyn has pioneered several initiatives across our finance team encouraging people to find the time to look after their health and wellbeing.

Examples of their work include:

• Weekly ‘Monday Check In’ survey for all staff – to proactively reach out and speak to people who are struggling
• A Microsoft Teams site to bring the finance community together with a dedicated wellbeing channel
• Regular wellbeing challenges
• Musical Christmas advent calendars and year-end happy tunes
• Creating virtual team offices
• Coffee and catch-up virtual sessions
• Virtual team away days including scavenger hunts, dance sessions, quizzes and origami.

Both Lyn and Emma have also supported staff within the team with personal challenges including struggling with working from home, offering support to staff with Covid who lived on their own and people with wellbeing challenges. They both proactively share their knowledge and experience with the wider finance community.

The conference which took place on 7 October brought together leaders in workforce policy as well as a selection of NHS case studies identifying areas of good practice in areas such as health and fitness, diversity and inclusion, mindfulness and building resilience.