RSPH HEALTH AND WELLBEING AWARDS
RSPH Health and Wellbeing Awards 2013: recognising the contribution of health promotion to public health The contribution of health promotion to public health continues to be significant, and each year, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) provides organisations with an opportunity to demonstrate good practice in health promotion and make initiatives whose work too often goes unrecognised more visible. The RSPH Health and Wellbeing Award has at its heart the principles of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion.1 We are essentially looking for organisational commitment to health improvement through clear top-level leadership, robust strategies that tackle a wide array of health promotion issues – including health inequality – and development of an appropriately trained workforce with the capacity and capability to deliver health improvement related outcomes on the ground. This year, the Award winners have clearly demonstrated they are improving the health of the population at various levels. The commitment, innovation and professionalism that these organisations have shown is truly exceptional, and below we provide readers with a short overview of their achievements.
WORKPLACE HEALTH Effective workplace health promotion programmes which are worker-centred have the potential to significantly benefit employers, employees, their families and the organisation’s clients. This year, two RSPH Award winners have presented commendable case studies in this area. The first is the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the world’s largest professional union of nurses and health-care support workers with a membership of over 400,000 and 850 staff in the United Kingdom. The RCN wholeheartedly believes that investing in the health and wellbeing of staff is key to its overall vision of improving the health and working environment for all its membership. Since the start of the implementation of their Health and Wellbeing Programme (2008), RCN has seen its lowest ever sickness absence rates (2.3%) and highest ever staff engagement levels (85%). In 2012 and 2013, the RCN was named in the Sunday Times as one of the Top 100 Companies and Best Companies to Work For, rated as high as 14th in 2013. The RSPH Award for the RCN was given in recognition of its commitment to employee health and wellbeing through its health-promoting initiatives in the workplace. Similarly, Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (DCH) recognises the importance of staff health and wellbeing, and of the consequent benefits in health promotion for patients and their carers. As one of the largest specialist community services providers within England, with 4,400 staff who manage 1.8 million patient contacts each
year, DCH is implementing a series of workforce health and wellbeing initiatives as part of their Pathfinder Trust Project. These include an Occupational Health Service, a Resolve Counselling Service, a Health Promotion Service and a Workforce Health and Wellbeing Team with 35 workplace Health Champions actively promoting good health within the organisation. The Award for DCH relates to its investment in promoting health among its workforce and the impact this has had upon staff wellbeing and attitudes to health, which underpins a high-quality health service for their target communities.
THE NHS STILL HAS A ROLE IN PUBLIC HEALTH Despite the shift of public health provision to local authorities, Award winner Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (LCH) understands that there is still a crucial role for the NHS to play in public health. LCH’s team is made up of around 3,000 staff – 80% of whom are practising health professionals delivering community health services to people in their own homes, in over 100 locations including health centres and clinics, five Walk-in Centres and intermediate care bed-based services within the acute sector. The opportunities to influence a cultural shift in thinking and behaviour in the population through the Trust workforce are huge, and the Trust strongly believes that Every Contact Counts to maximise opportunities to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities. The RSPH Award for the LCH is based upon its commitment to public health at a corporate level and the clear commitment to a sustainable approach for the development of its workforce.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH As stated in The Marmot Review, local government is pivotal to addressing health inequalities in our communities. With a population of 80,000 people, Forest of Dean District Council (FoD) embraces its role and is committed to the health and wellbeing of families and communities in their area, especially those at most disadvantage. The Council’s Award was presented for a case study about their environmental health project e-Bugs in schools project. The e-Bug2 is a European-wide school health literacy intervention for primary and secondary schools that aims to improve young people’s understanding of the importance of microbes and antibiotic resistance as well as the spread and prevention of infection. On Global Handwashing Day 2013, FoD’s e-Bug initiative participated in the event that won a Guinness World Record for the largest hand hygiene lesson (held at multiple venues).
January 2014 Vol 134 No 1 l Perspectives in Public Health 7 Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NORTH DAKOTA on June 7, 2015
RSPH HEALTH AND WELLBEING AWARDS
HELPING PEOPLE TO EXERCISE MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN HEALTH This year, the RSPH winners showcased exemplar work around supporting, empowering and nurturing the health of individuals, families and whole communities. For instance, Body & Soul, a charity promoting respect, dignity and wellbeing for those affected by HIV, uses a community-led approach to shape its services and a social ecological model3 to structure its interventions. As a result, its members’ needs are at the centre of the organisation. Indeed, the term member is employed due to the direct influence that users have in determining, shaping and delivering service content. Body & Soul has succeeded in taking up the challenge of responding to the complex needs of people living with and affected by HIV through the direct delivery of comprehensive, evidence-based interventions. All of this is led by a defined programming and intervention strategy which advises the overall service provision focus on: mental health, physical health, psychosocial wellbeing, practical support and maximising productivity. The RSPH Award for Body & Soul was in recognition of its well-evaluated training programmes and resources for people living with, or affected by, HIV. Also providing a person-centred and fully integrated model of care and support to individuals with lifethreatening and life-limiting illnesses and for those experiencing social exclusion is Freshwinds, a charity which since 1992 has provided a wide range of community support services in Birmingham. Freshwinds has a very successful community engagement strategy based on their Community Health Champions (CHC), a peer-to-peer network of community-appointed, trained volunteers, to encourage positive lifestyle choices. In the last year, over 8,500 people have accessed Freshwinds’ services, and around 60,000 people have received one-off and community-level advice. Approximately 50% of users are from ethnic minority backgrounds. The Award for Freshwinds is in recognition of its development and
continuing support of community health champions in Birmingham. In the same way, our Award winner StreetGames dedicates its work to promote health by providing equal access to sport and physical activity and working within the 20% most deprived areas of the United Kingdom. StreetGames delivers doorstep sport: that is, sport delivered at the right time, the right place and in the right style to engage young people who do not have access to more traditional opportunities. With a network of 230 local organisations delivering to around 50,000 young people each year, StreetGames strongly believes that everyone deserves an equal chance to take part in sport, and that taking part in sport is beneficial for health and education at an individual level and for community spirit. The RSPH Award for StreetGames is in recognition of its well-evaluated education programme that provides volunteering, life skills and physical activity training and where health messages are widely promoted. Also working to improve the wellbeing of young people is Wirral Metropolitan College with its programme Spreading Health. The College uses the Government’s Green Paper Helping Children Achieve More (Every Child Matters) as a framework to track its health agenda. This is a challenge that involves helping children to fulfil their potential by reducing levels of educational failure, ill health, substance misuse, teenage pregnancy, abuse and neglect and crime and antisocial behaviour among children and young people. Enabling people to learn to prepare themselves for all stages of life and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is crucial. This has to be promoted in school, home, work and community settings. Action is required through educational, professional, commercial and voluntary bodies, and within the institutions themselves. The Wirral Metropolitan College was granted the Award by RSPH for its work in taking up this challenge; for example, since the project was implemented, there has been a significant reduction in the number of teen pregnancies – in one curriculum area alone the decrease was 20%.
8 Perspectives in Public Health l January 2014 Vol 134 No 1 Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NORTH DAKOTA on June 7, 2015
RSPH HEALTH AND WELLBEING AWARDS NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING AS HEALTH DRIVERS The promotion of good health through nutrition and healthy eating is key for the prevention of poor diet–related illnesses. However, achieving a healthier diet can be a challenge for people with poor eating habits. Indeed, research suggests that this may be due to tastes acquired in childhood and preferences for sugary, salty and/or fatty foods.4 Award winner Purely Nutrition strongly believes that early education on healthy eating can help tackle this problem – the earlier we can influence choices about food, diet and physical activity, the better the chance children have to become healthy later in life. Purely Nutrition is a private sector organisation dedicated to improving children’s understanding of food and nutrition through their flagship PhunkyFoods programme. PhunkyFoods is an early years and primary school programme of healthy lifestyle curriculum activities, lesson plans and resources. Over 1,500 primary schools have taken part in the programme involving over 390,000 children and their families. This is the second time PhunkyFoods has achieved the RSPH Award, and it is granted in recognition of the continuing focus on children’s health and wellbeing. Also working on tackling diet-related health issues is RSPH Award winner Food Nation, a social enterprise based in Newcastle upon Tyne delivering food and nutrition experiences to disadvantaged communities. Food Nation’s work includes a wide range of primary and secondary prevention community-based settings services, such as education and advice for children and their families to improve diet and nutrition, and support those already struggling with their weight or other diet-related issues (e.g. stroke survivors). Over the past three years, Food Nation has engaged over 6,500 children and adults with their projects. The Award for Food Nation relates to its commitment to overall health improvement in the most disadvantaged communities in Newcastle.
THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTH IMPROVEMENT Technology is increasingly playing a large role in individual lives and within society. With 36 million adults (73%) in the UK accessing the Internet every day, 20 million more than in 2006 when directly comparable records began, the Internet has great potential to become a source of health promotion interventions.5 RSPH Award winners Patient.co.uk and RoadtoHealth Group are a clear example of what can be achieved using online platforms to improve health. Patient.co.uk is the United Kingdom’s leading independent health information website receiving more than 8.5 million visits a month from both individuals and health professionals nationwide. Created in partnership with RoadtoHealth Group, their MyHealth provides individuals with an accurate analysis of their health and enables users to set and track their own health goals. Over 73,000 people have already taken the
test, and 98% of those have gone onto setting their own healthy targets. The RSPH Award for Patient.co.uk is in recognition of the innovation and development of its MyHealth programme. Meanwhile, Award winner DC Leisure Management Ltd has successfully integrated the use of technology in their health improvement Swim4Health programme. Swim4Health provides a supporting structure and an aquatic pathway to increased fitness, which includes the access to swimming facilities, swimming lessons, ongoing support and the use of a SWIMTAG, a device that accurately measures aquatic activity and can be linked to an online profile and social media forums to share progress. The project results have shown that the users of SWIMTAG have been encouraged to undertake motivational challenges and competitions via social networking. Overall, Swim4Health increases the time spent in the pool and physical activities undertaken per week. This year alone, 3,000 individuals have taken part in the programme. The RSPH Award for DC Leisure Management recognises both its Swim4Health programme and also commends its innovation and strategic approach in meeting challenging health improvement targets for Local Authority partners.
PUBLIC HEALTH IS EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS! It is now widely recognised that organisations and professionals from all sectors have a role to play in improving the health of the population. However, the transfer of public health functions from the NHS back to Local Authorities has generated an important opportunity to materialise this with new and creative partnerships. All the 2013 RSPH Health and Wellbeing Award Winners are playing a role already, and RSPH is looking forward to following their progress over the coming years. For more information about the Awards and how to take part, please contact Nelly Araujo on [email protected] Nelly Araujo RSPH Development Co-ordinator
References 1. Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. World Health Organization, adopted on 21 November 1986. Available online at: http://www. who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/index. html (Last accessed 7th November 2013). 2. e-Bug. Global Handwashing Day 2013. Available online at: http:// www.e-bug.eu/; http://www.forestleisure.org.uk/ (Last accessed 7th November 2013). 3. Social Ecological Model. Available online at: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Social_ecological_model (Last accessed 7th November 2013). 4. James WP. The fundamental drivers of the obesity epidemic. Obesity Reviews 2008; 9(Suppl. 1): 6–13. 5. Office for National Statistics. Internet access – Households and individuals. Statistical Bulletin. Available online at: http://www. ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access-–households-andindividuals/2013/stb-ia-2013.html (Last accessed 8th October 2013).
January 2014 Vol 134 No 1 l Perspectives in Public Health 9 Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NORTH DAKOTA on June 7, 2015
RSPH Health and Wellbeing Awards 2013: recognising the contribution of health promotion to public health The contribution of health promotion to public health continues to be significant, and each year, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) provides organisations with an opportunity to demonstrate good practice in health promotion and make initiatives whose work too often goes unrecognised more visible. The RSPH Health and Wellbeing Award has at its heart the principles of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion.1 We are essentially looking for organisational commitment to health improvement through clear top-level leadership, robust strategies that tackle a wide array of health promotion issues – including health inequality – and development of an appropriately trained workforce with the capacity and capability to deliver health improvement related outcomes on the ground. This year, the Award winners have clearly demonstrated they are improving the health of the population at various levels. The commitment, innovation and professionalism that these organisations have shown is truly exceptional, and below we provide readers with a short overview of their achievements.
WORKPLACE HEALTH Effective workplace health promotion programmes which are worker-centred have the potential to significantly benefit employers, employees, their families and the organisation’s clients. This year, two RSPH Award winners have presented commendable case studies in this area. The first is the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the world’s largest professional union of nurses and health-care support workers with a membership of over 400,000 and 850 staff in the United Kingdom. The RCN wholeheartedly believes that investing in the health and wellbeing of staff is key to its overall vision of improving the health and working environment for all its membership. Since the start of the implementation of their Health and Wellbeing Programme (2008), RCN has seen its lowest ever sickness absence rates (2.3%) and highest ever staff engagement levels (85%). In 2012 and 2013, the RCN was named in the Sunday Times as one of the Top 100 Companies and Best Companies to Work For, rated as high as 14th in 2013. The RSPH Award for the RCN was given in recognition of its commitment to employee health and wellbeing through its health-promoting initiatives in the workplace. Similarly, Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (DCH) recognises the importance of staff health and wellbeing, and of the consequent benefits in health promotion for patients and their carers. As one of the largest specialist community services providers within England, with 4,400 staff who manage 1.8 million patient contacts each
year, DCH is implementing a series of workforce health and wellbeing initiatives as part of their Pathfinder Trust Project. These include an Occupational Health Service, a Resolve Counselling Service, a Health Promotion Service and a Workforce Health and Wellbeing Team with 35 workplace Health Champions actively promoting good health within the organisation. The Award for DCH relates to its investment in promoting health among its workforce and the impact this has had upon staff wellbeing and attitudes to health, which underpins a high-quality health service for their target communities.
THE NHS STILL HAS A ROLE IN PUBLIC HEALTH Despite the shift of public health provision to local authorities, Award winner Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (LCH) understands that there is still a crucial role for the NHS to play in public health. LCH’s team is made up of around 3,000 staff – 80% of whom are practising health professionals delivering community health services to people in their own homes, in over 100 locations including health centres and clinics, five Walk-in Centres and intermediate care bed-based services within the acute sector. The opportunities to influence a cultural shift in thinking and behaviour in the population through the Trust workforce are huge, and the Trust strongly believes that Every Contact Counts to maximise opportunities to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities. The RSPH Award for the LCH is based upon its commitment to public health at a corporate level and the clear commitment to a sustainable approach for the development of its workforce.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH As stated in The Marmot Review, local government is pivotal to addressing health inequalities in our communities. With a population of 80,000 people, Forest of Dean District Council (FoD) embraces its role and is committed to the health and wellbeing of families and communities in their area, especially those at most disadvantage. The Council’s Award was presented for a case study about their environmental health project e-Bugs in schools project. The e-Bug2 is a European-wide school health literacy intervention for primary and secondary schools that aims to improve young people’s understanding of the importance of microbes and antibiotic resistance as well as the spread and prevention of infection. On Global Handwashing Day 2013, FoD’s e-Bug initiative participated in the event that won a Guinness World Record for the largest hand hygiene lesson (held at multiple venues).
January 2014 Vol 134 No 1 l Perspectives in Public Health 7 Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NORTH DAKOTA on June 7, 2015
RSPH HEALTH AND WELLBEING AWARDS
HELPING PEOPLE TO EXERCISE MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN HEALTH This year, the RSPH winners showcased exemplar work around supporting, empowering and nurturing the health of individuals, families and whole communities. For instance, Body & Soul, a charity promoting respect, dignity and wellbeing for those affected by HIV, uses a community-led approach to shape its services and a social ecological model3 to structure its interventions. As a result, its members’ needs are at the centre of the organisation. Indeed, the term member is employed due to the direct influence that users have in determining, shaping and delivering service content. Body & Soul has succeeded in taking up the challenge of responding to the complex needs of people living with and affected by HIV through the direct delivery of comprehensive, evidence-based interventions. All of this is led by a defined programming and intervention strategy which advises the overall service provision focus on: mental health, physical health, psychosocial wellbeing, practical support and maximising productivity. The RSPH Award for Body & Soul was in recognition of its well-evaluated training programmes and resources for people living with, or affected by, HIV. Also providing a person-centred and fully integrated model of care and support to individuals with lifethreatening and life-limiting illnesses and for those experiencing social exclusion is Freshwinds, a charity which since 1992 has provided a wide range of community support services in Birmingham. Freshwinds has a very successful community engagement strategy based on their Community Health Champions (CHC), a peer-to-peer network of community-appointed, trained volunteers, to encourage positive lifestyle choices. In the last year, over 8,500 people have accessed Freshwinds’ services, and around 60,000 people have received one-off and community-level advice. Approximately 50% of users are from ethnic minority backgrounds. The Award for Freshwinds is in recognition of its development and
continuing support of community health champions in Birmingham. In the same way, our Award winner StreetGames dedicates its work to promote health by providing equal access to sport and physical activity and working within the 20% most deprived areas of the United Kingdom. StreetGames delivers doorstep sport: that is, sport delivered at the right time, the right place and in the right style to engage young people who do not have access to more traditional opportunities. With a network of 230 local organisations delivering to around 50,000 young people each year, StreetGames strongly believes that everyone deserves an equal chance to take part in sport, and that taking part in sport is beneficial for health and education at an individual level and for community spirit. The RSPH Award for StreetGames is in recognition of its well-evaluated education programme that provides volunteering, life skills and physical activity training and where health messages are widely promoted. Also working to improve the wellbeing of young people is Wirral Metropolitan College with its programme Spreading Health. The College uses the Government’s Green Paper Helping Children Achieve More (Every Child Matters) as a framework to track its health agenda. This is a challenge that involves helping children to fulfil their potential by reducing levels of educational failure, ill health, substance misuse, teenage pregnancy, abuse and neglect and crime and antisocial behaviour among children and young people. Enabling people to learn to prepare themselves for all stages of life and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is crucial. This has to be promoted in school, home, work and community settings. Action is required through educational, professional, commercial and voluntary bodies, and within the institutions themselves. The Wirral Metropolitan College was granted the Award by RSPH for its work in taking up this challenge; for example, since the project was implemented, there has been a significant reduction in the number of teen pregnancies – in one curriculum area alone the decrease was 20%.
8 Perspectives in Public Health l January 2014 Vol 134 No 1 Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NORTH DAKOTA on June 7, 2015
RSPH HEALTH AND WELLBEING AWARDS NUTRITION AND HEALTHY EATING AS HEALTH DRIVERS The promotion of good health through nutrition and healthy eating is key for the prevention of poor diet–related illnesses. However, achieving a healthier diet can be a challenge for people with poor eating habits. Indeed, research suggests that this may be due to tastes acquired in childhood and preferences for sugary, salty and/or fatty foods.4 Award winner Purely Nutrition strongly believes that early education on healthy eating can help tackle this problem – the earlier we can influence choices about food, diet and physical activity, the better the chance children have to become healthy later in life. Purely Nutrition is a private sector organisation dedicated to improving children’s understanding of food and nutrition through their flagship PhunkyFoods programme. PhunkyFoods is an early years and primary school programme of healthy lifestyle curriculum activities, lesson plans and resources. Over 1,500 primary schools have taken part in the programme involving over 390,000 children and their families. This is the second time PhunkyFoods has achieved the RSPH Award, and it is granted in recognition of the continuing focus on children’s health and wellbeing. Also working on tackling diet-related health issues is RSPH Award winner Food Nation, a social enterprise based in Newcastle upon Tyne delivering food and nutrition experiences to disadvantaged communities. Food Nation’s work includes a wide range of primary and secondary prevention community-based settings services, such as education and advice for children and their families to improve diet and nutrition, and support those already struggling with their weight or other diet-related issues (e.g. stroke survivors). Over the past three years, Food Nation has engaged over 6,500 children and adults with their projects. The Award for Food Nation relates to its commitment to overall health improvement in the most disadvantaged communities in Newcastle.
THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTH IMPROVEMENT Technology is increasingly playing a large role in individual lives and within society. With 36 million adults (73%) in the UK accessing the Internet every day, 20 million more than in 2006 when directly comparable records began, the Internet has great potential to become a source of health promotion interventions.5 RSPH Award winners Patient.co.uk and RoadtoHealth Group are a clear example of what can be achieved using online platforms to improve health. Patient.co.uk is the United Kingdom’s leading independent health information website receiving more than 8.5 million visits a month from both individuals and health professionals nationwide. Created in partnership with RoadtoHealth Group, their MyHealth provides individuals with an accurate analysis of their health and enables users to set and track their own health goals. Over 73,000 people have already taken the
test, and 98% of those have gone onto setting their own healthy targets. The RSPH Award for Patient.co.uk is in recognition of the innovation and development of its MyHealth programme. Meanwhile, Award winner DC Leisure Management Ltd has successfully integrated the use of technology in their health improvement Swim4Health programme. Swim4Health provides a supporting structure and an aquatic pathway to increased fitness, which includes the access to swimming facilities, swimming lessons, ongoing support and the use of a SWIMTAG, a device that accurately measures aquatic activity and can be linked to an online profile and social media forums to share progress. The project results have shown that the users of SWIMTAG have been encouraged to undertake motivational challenges and competitions via social networking. Overall, Swim4Health increases the time spent in the pool and physical activities undertaken per week. This year alone, 3,000 individuals have taken part in the programme. The RSPH Award for DC Leisure Management recognises both its Swim4Health programme and also commends its innovation and strategic approach in meeting challenging health improvement targets for Local Authority partners.
PUBLIC HEALTH IS EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS! It is now widely recognised that organisations and professionals from all sectors have a role to play in improving the health of the population. However, the transfer of public health functions from the NHS back to Local Authorities has generated an important opportunity to materialise this with new and creative partnerships. All the 2013 RSPH Health and Wellbeing Award Winners are playing a role already, and RSPH is looking forward to following their progress over the coming years. For more information about the Awards and how to take part, please contact Nelly Araujo on [email protected] Nelly Araujo RSPH Development Co-ordinator
References 1. Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. World Health Organization, adopted on 21 November 1986. Available online at: http://www. who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/index. html (Last accessed 7th November 2013). 2. e-Bug. Global Handwashing Day 2013. Available online at: http:// www.e-bug.eu/; http://www.forestleisure.org.uk/ (Last accessed 7th November 2013). 3. Social Ecological Model. Available online at: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Social_ecological_model (Last accessed 7th November 2013). 4. James WP. The fundamental drivers of the obesity epidemic. Obesity Reviews 2008; 9(Suppl. 1): 6–13. 5. Office for National Statistics. Internet access – Households and individuals. Statistical Bulletin. Available online at: http://www. ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access-–households-andindividuals/2013/stb-ia-2013.html (Last accessed 8th October 2013).
January 2014 Vol 134 No 1 l Perspectives in Public Health 9 Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NORTH DAKOTA on June 7, 2015
