The Healthy Working Lives award programme helps organisations to identify issues and improve health, safety and wellbeing in a structured and productive way.

The principal outcome from the Bronze Award is knowing that everyone in the organisation has become more aware of how their health, safety and wellbeing affects them and their work. This ensures that the work employees undertake will not adversely affect their health and indeed can improve their mental, physical and social health.

The Association undertook a Wellbeing Survey to identify employees’ concerns and areas where the Association could improve its approach to employee wellbeing. This enabled the development of a programme of health improvement activities and information campaigns tailored to the staff teams’ needs. All staff were engaged throughout the programme, taking on the role of “champions”, disseminating information and arranging activities.

The team have organised and taken part in a whole host of diverse information campaigns and activities including healthy eating, mental health awareness, tobacco free campaign, suicide awareness, alcohol awareness, breast cancer awareness, oral health and breastfeeding.

On hearing of the successful accreditation, the Association’s chairperson Victoria Phelps said: “The Association being awarded a Bronze Award in Healthy Working Lives is a great achievement. Well done to our staff team who have all individually and jointly contributed to planning, organising and facilitating our Health Working Lives initiative at Pineview.  We will continue to promote a health conscious culture to achieve our objective to be an employer of choice.”

Director Joyce Orr added: “While the Association is aware that each individual has a responsibility for their own health, safety and wellbeing, as an Association we believe it is important to facilitate good information and systems within the workplace to help support this and the HWL programme has helped us to achieve this aim.

“I am extremely proud of all the work that our entire staff team has undertaken to achieve this recognition. We will now look to maintain this award and investigate the options for increasing our commitment and aim for Silver!”