#GoodToTalk is a campaign currently being run by Care Talk to help encourage a national conversation for the social care workforce.

“COVID-19 has had a huge impact on us all and not least the care workforce who have worked tirelessly in often difficult circumstances to deliver high quality care and support to people in our society. The Care Provider Alliance welcomes the #GoodToTalk campaign as an important vehicle to encourage peer to peer support and open conversations within the care workforce. This should provide an opportunity for staff to share their experiences to allow the healing process from COVID to take place.” Kathy Roberts, Chair of the Care Provider Alliance

The wellbeing of your workforce is a priority especially when their job is to look after some of the most vulnerable people in our society. The benefits of peer to peer support have been widely documented. Evidence shows by speaking out and being supported by colleagues can have a dramatic impact on mental health and wellbeing.

#GoodToTalk aims to support care staff with their mental health during and following on from COVID. Care Talk aims to create a National Conversation amongst care staff, encouraging peer to peer support and allowing the healing process from covid. It is already apparent that teams support one another on a daily basis both at work and outside. It is also known that a culture of caring for carers exists with care providers, and through running this campaign there have been some fantastic examples of how care providers are supporting their staff with good mental health.

How do you set up peer to peer support networks in your care organisation?

• You can use feedback surveys and meetings to understand what staff wellbeing needs are needing to be addressed
• You should understand that the approach to wellbeing at work cannot be a one size fits all strategy as team dynamics vary massively in social care
• You can create wellbeing working groups to help implement initiatives within the workplace; wellbeing groups could involve representatives from various departments within the company to communicate their teams feedback and gain a wider perspective
• You could then use the wellbeing group regularly to share different views and opinions
• You can use anonymous surveys to gather suggestions on how to improve wellbeing directly from your team
• You can use the feedback gathered to identify priority areas across the board and initiate productive conversations about these issues amongst peers
• You can use the feedback gathered to start to develop a toolkit of resources to drive staff wellbeing regularly using your team to be the promoters of this
• You could offer safe spaces for your staff members to talk openly to one another about their wellbeing

If you would like any more information on the above, please let us know. To get in touch, please email recruitment@ajrecruitment.com or call us on 03305 552233!

As a specialist, family run recruitment business, we provide a proactive and consultative approach to recruitment. We help organisations to target issues such as continuity of staffing, reducing spend where you have a high volume of agency usage and supporting those who have specific talent requirements or are in hard to fill locations. We can help with any immediate staffing requirements or longer-term recruitment projects to ultimately save you time and money on agency spend.

Click here to see what our clients say about how we have supported them throughout the pandemic.