Wellbeing & Support Resources
Resources, guides, and support available for supporting frontline staff
We have collated some helpful resources here to give you an idea of where to start with your own staff support work. Feel free to get in touch for further information, to discuss, or if you have any suggestions of best practices and resources that your organisation has found useful.
Starting Out:
Helpful basic intros to emotional wellbeing and stress.
Unilever ‘Emotional Energy’
- Short one-page PDF outlining what emotional energy is, and how it can impact our daily lives. A helpful tool for those who may not have considered it too much in detail before. It contains a great ‘emotional energy quadrant model’ as a self -audit tool to help with self-check ins for regulating emotional energy.
NHS ‘Stress Buster’ Tips
- 10 actions to help cope and reduce stress: nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/reduce-stress/
- Whilst many of them are the more obvious suggestions (regular exercise, try to avoid unhealthy habits, etc.), there are two short 7-minute videos at the end of the page focusing on ‘Unhelpful thinking’, and ‘Sleep Problems’ which may be useful.
Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP)
There are external support programmes that you can subscribe to, as well as a variety of independent counsellors working in the sector to offer support.
Health Assured
- Program of support offered as an employee benefit programme. EAP is intended to help employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their work performance, health and wellbeing. EAP generally include assessment, short-term counselling and referral services. https://www.healthassured.org/employee-assistance-programmes/
- Standard ‘Essentials’ package includes: 24/7 counselling, legal & information helpline, medical info line, management support line and counselling, and limited structured telephone counselling sessions.
- Any organisation up to 60 employees can join for around £500p/a.
- Happy to source a quote for you if you are interested, just email [email protected].
Legal-Sector Specific Resources
Some resources are available specifically for the legal community. These are not specific to the free legal advice sector, but may offer some more tailored support for fee earners etc.
LawCare
- LawCare promotes and supports good mental health and wellbeing in the legal community.
- They offer a helpline, as well as support via email, webchat, and a one-to-one peer support network.
- There is a specific Information Hub which anyone can access.
Solicitor’s Regulation Authority
- An interesting ‘Workplace Culture Thematic Review‘ covering how workplaces can create a positive culture.
- From 2020, a collaboration from LawCare, Byrne Dean and Wellbeing Republic, created a 15-page guide on ‘Supporting Employee Wellbeing During the Pandemic’. It still has many relevant points applicable to the current situation, and is very visual and easy to follow.
The Solicitors’ Charity
- Information about financial and professional wellbeing, mental health, and a Hardship Fund for solicitors in need of support. Read more about all the available resources here.
Remote Working
Guides and support tailored to working from home.
‘Supporting your people while working remotely’ webpage from SCVO has a dedicated section on tips and best practices to promote staff wellbeing.
- Suggestions to promote staff wellbeing include: promoting healthy boundaries, keeping diaries/calendars actively updated and checking before contacting team members who are ‘offline’, keeping emails written outside of core hours in drafts until an appropriate time to send, encouraging breaks and outdoor time if possible.
‘Tools for keeping in touch’ webpage suggests that clear communication is vital for a happy team but this can be difficult to maintain remotely. This webpage provides tips and resources including a ‘Slack vs Teams’ resource to help you choose if you are still sourcing an internal communication platform.
- Three key actions:
1. Limit virtual meetings and plan them carefully – virtual meetings can seem like an obvious answer but these can be fatiguing and time heavy so should be limited and be planned carefully.
Take care with email overload
3. Use a communication platform, such as Slack or Teams
Mental Health
Mental Health at Work have loads of useful toolkits and guides available:
- Suggestions for ‘frontline staff’ wellbeing (sadly nothing tailored to the advice sector just yet): https://www.mentalhealthatwork.org.uk/resource/coronavirus-and-your-wellbeing/?read=more.
- There is a handy succinct guide designed for line managers to support team members returning to work after a mental health-related absence.
- Practical tips and strategies on How to ensure your office space promotes Mental Wellness
Mind
- Wellness Action Plans can help check in with team members and keep mental health on the agenda. There are downloadable guides for line managers, and for working from home. You have to register with them to download, but it is free to do so.
Short videos for staff
- Salesforce has some 30-minute videos on a range of wellbeing topics which are a great resource to share with your team.
- Diverse selection from health to relationships: salesforce.com/resources/future-of-work/employee-health-and-wellbeing/#!page=1.
- There is a whole series of short videos specifically on Wellbeing, Resilience, and Mental Health which may be helpful for staff.
Covid-19 specific resources:
- Toolkits and guides around Covid-19 and working from home.
- Mind’s general tips on ‘Coronavirus: supporting yourself and your team’ including: checking in with team members regularly, maintaining work/life balance.
- There is also a dedicated Mind page for useful Coronavirus contacts broken down into categories of practical support, mental and physical wellbeing, and parents and carers. It lists places to access therapy and counselling, as well as activities to do if isolating at home (including games and puzzles).
- NCVO have a detailed page on supporting staff working throughout Covid, including tax implications.
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Please be aware that we are not able to provide legal advice. Please visit advicelocal.uk to find support in your area, or advicenow.org.uk for practical information.