Cafcass wins HR Distinction Award for Health and Wellbeing

Cafcass was last night awarded for its holistic and evidence-based approach to employee wellbeing at the HR Distinction Awards 2018 in Birmingham. The award recognises outstanding strategies aimed at ensuring the mental, physical, emotional and financial wellbeing of staff.

Talking of the achievement, Cafcass Head of HR James Hyde said: “We’re delighted to have received this prestigious HR award, with some formidable and well-respected competition in our category. It’s testament to the commitment and hard work of Cafcass, and particularly our in-house team of Health and Wellbeing (H&W) Officers and champions, in developing outstanding strategies to promote health and wellbeing across our entire workforce.

“Our aim has been to create an organisational culture of physical and emotional wellbeing, supporting our staff to build resilience and excel at work, and in turn helping them to make lasting and positive differences to the children and families we work with.”

Julie Bury, HR Manager, Organisational Development added, “Our network of nearly 50 health and wellbeing champions, 19 Time to Change champions and 18 accredited mental health first-aiders have been fantastic in promoting health and wellbeing locally and increasing its reach. The work we’ve done around wellbeing to date and the recognition from the award has given us a great base to build from and we’ll be introducing more resources over the next 12 months to strengthen the support we provide.”

When judging the shortlist, the panel sought evidence of an innovative, holistic health and wellbeing strategy which has made a positive impact on the experience of employees.

The recognition comes after a series of landmark initiatives within Cafcass to promote and strengthen the health and wellbeing of staff. The judging panel commended Cafcass’ Health and Wellbeing strategy, which is embedded in research and tailored to meet individual staff and organisational need, for its holistic focus on activity, stress, sleep and nutrition.

The package of support made available promotes employee wellbeing, performance, work-life balance and supports staff to maintain high levels of resilience in what is a challenging area of work. This is also supported by excellent technology and professional autonomy to work flexibly.

Cafcass staff have consistently fed back positively on the impact the Health and Wellbeing strategy has made on their work and personal life.