Growing Stronger Together

Its aim is to look after the wellbeing of our people and teams and enable our recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic and transition into a 'new normal'.

Our programme is divided into five key priorities.

Meet the immediate need for rest and recovery

The focus of this priority is to meet the immediate need for rest and recovery. This includes a supportive Wellbeing Check-in for each member of staff about the impact of their work and to identify further wellbeing support that might be needed.

We are working with Oxford Hospitals Charity on a programme of updating our staff rooms and putting in rest and relaxation equipment.

We have also established a group of Wellbeing Leads across the Trust. They attend forums every fortnight where they get all the latest information on our wellbeing initiatives as well as a chance to share and discuss wellbeing successes and challenges in their areas.

Build the culture of learning, compassion and inclusion

We are putting in place Trust-wide opportunities to re-establish social connections, share stories, and mark, reflect and recognise individual and team contributions, as well as developing a range of ways to say, 'thank you'.

Our book, 'Beyond Words... Images from the COVID-19 Pandemic', published in January 2022, is a permanent record of images to mark an extraordinary time in the personal and professional lives of all our OUH staff.

We are also looking forward to our Trust Recognition Awards celebration in the summer of 2022.

Facilitate post traumatic growth

The Trust and our Charity have co-funded a team of psychologists and psychiatrists who form our Staff Support Service and work with individuals and teams across the Trust.

They have been running a very-well received set of team workshops called R3P (Recovery, Readjustment and Reintegration). These workshops are being offered on an 'opt-in' basis to provide space to have in-depth discussions about a team's experience of working during the pandemic.

Support sustainable service recovery and workforce planning

Our Divisions continue to develop plans which balance service recovery and individual and team recovery.

Build working lives that have more flexibility and autonomy

One of the benefits that we would like to retain from the COVID-19 pandemic is remote and flexible working leveraging digital technologies for virtual ways of working, including Attend Anywhere for our patients and MS Teams and Office 365 for our people.