Case Study: Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust reduces staff stress and anxiety with NHS Employers

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust - Customer Case Study

NHS Employers worked with Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust to address the challenge of two separate teams, Occupational Health and Health and Wellbeing, working in isolation. This siloed approach led to potential duplication of work and created a barrier for staff who were wary of the Occupational Health team's association with HR, fearing a lack of confidentiality. Staff were not receiving the full scope of support available, and the trust needed a unified strategy to better care for its employees.

The solution from NHS Employers involved merging the two teams into a single, multi-disciplinary Health and Wellness team. NHS Employers supported this process by facilitating team integration and using a quality improvement matrix to define roles and eliminate duplication. The results were significant, with the trust's sickness absence rate due to work-related stress and anxiety more than halving to 0.5%. Furthermore, a partnered weight loss program showed major improvements in staff mental and physical health, including a more than 20% increase in staff reporting no anxiety and an average weight loss of 10kg per person.

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust