Social Partnership working at its best

Overview

East Cheshire NHS Trust (ECT) was named winner of the HPMA Excellence in People Awards partnership working category 2024 for its comprehensive workplace project, developed between the trust and trade unions, to raise awareness and improve support for staff affected by menopause.

Early in 2022, the trust’s healthy workplace coach and staff-side chair started to formalise discussions they were having about menopause and its impact on staff. They identified that the organisation should be doing more to support staff given that 83 per cent of staff at ECT were women, 33 per cent of whom were aged 45 to 55, when menopause/pre-menopause symptoms are most likely to occur. 

They successfully got support from the trust executive board to prioritise and support a work programme on this topic and a male executive to champion it as it was important to normalise conversations about the impact of menopause regardless of gender.

Action taken

The trust’s healthy workplace coach and staff side chair gathered data on how menopause impacts staff and engaged directly with staff via surveys and outreach work. This included a winter staff advice and liaison service and a weekly wellbeing walkabout across the whole trust to talk to staff about all health and wellbeing issues. 

Following this, the healthy workplace coach and trade union chair set up a menopause working group comprising interested stakeholders across the trust. This group further developed to include external partners from the council and charity organisations. 

The working group:

• produced and launched a menopause policy and supporting guidance (taking into account NHSE national menopause guidance)
• developed an intranet page featuring a toolkit of practical and accessible menopause support, including information, training, education and leadership resources
• recruited and trained menopause champions in over 60 departments across the trust
• sent out weekly staff communications signposting to helplines and further advice
• ran online menopause cafes with a neighbouring trust
• developed menopause boxes for staff, which contain a fan, spare uniform, underwear, hygiene products, and information leaflets
• developed an occupational health offer and bespoke and specialist menopause support for staff
• worked to get menopause added as an absence category on the rostering system
• ran an annual Menopause Day and a Big Conversation Event with staff stories on the impact of menopause.

Results and benefits

Bespoke menopause staff surveys revealed staff are very happy with the support now offered and are now able to stay at work when they may not have thought possible. This is evidenced by a measurable reduction in unplanned absence of 2.08 per cent between March 2022 and March 2024 and a 1.62 per cent improvement in the staff survey metric relating to the organisation taking positive action on health and wellbeing (between the 2022 and 2023 survey).

NHSE’s menopause network recognised the trust’s successes in partnership working and the project, and as a result, the working group was invited to share its story and achievement with other trusts. Every one of the challenges or actions the trust and staff set out to do was achieved, and the trust is now expanding the working group to become the women’s working group, with the intention to explore wider topics to support staff. 

Social partnership working

Trade unions were involved from the onset in the work. The staff side chair had dedicated facility time to liaise with trade unions and colleagues across the trust to ensure resources and support were tailored to their needs and worked closely with the board, executives, communications team and all staff. 

Lessons learnt:

• Having a working group that engaged a wide range of stakeholders with board level support was important, along with having open and regular communication.
• Being open, inclusive and keeping staff at the heart of the project was core.
• Collecting evidence, using data, making the effort to go and listen to staff experiences directly as well as through trade union representatives was key.
• The importance of shared power within the working group, being empowered as well as supported when needed was invaluable and built trust. 
• Engagement and co production takes time and by allowing the project to develop in line with staff needs and not a predetermined project plan supported this process, as did the trust’s partnership working and facilities time agreements which ensured trade union reps had the time to be fully involved. 

Conclusion

• As a result of this project and the tangible benefit of working in this way this has been replicated within other areas of wellbeing including psychological safety at work, suicide prevention, sexual safety and mental health. 
• ECT will continue to embed partnership working approach for all future workstreams for the benefit of the workforce, including policy development and policy audits.
• The trust was named winner of the 2024 HPMA Excellence in People Awards partnership working category in October 2024 - recognising the success of the joint working between the trust and trade unions to develop and deliver this project.

Further information

For more information, contact Rachael Charlton, director of people and culture; or Karen Cashmore, staff side chair.