Projects

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, NHS England (NHSE) and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to conduct a series of three Snapshot Surveys of the Primary Care Workforce to provide a ‘temperature check’ of the wider workforce at key moments. The findings of these surveys offered valuable insight for NHSE and NHSEI into the wellbeing of the workforce as it coped with the demands the pandemic had on services. The purpose of this piece of work is for IES to assist NHS England in continuing to understanding the wellbeing of the Primary Care workforce over time. IES will conduct three bi-annual online surveys of the Primary Care Workforce at approximately six-month intervals to provide a ‘snapshot’ of wellbeing, resilience and burnout levels, and intention to leave, within the workforce.

We will be focusing our research on the mental health among secondary school pupils in the Sussex Learning Network, the nature of the issue in Sussex compared with the South East and England, the factors that may influence student mental health and the impact that it has on attainment.

The GLA wishes to understand the scale and nature of mental health needs in its FE student population. This is a much under-researched area, althought evidence from earlier and later phases of education suggest these needs require consideration. IES will lead a programme of qualitative and quantitative research which will seek to provide information on the scale and nature of needs, as well as effective practices that FE institutions have put in place to address these.

The project aims to make a Virtual Life Coach (VLC) available to every member of UK Defence. Led by Daden Ltd, this innovation project is being developed and delivered in partnership with IES, Altruist Enterprises and the University of Worcester. The VLC is a chatbot which can help with day to day personal, employment and career issues, maintaining motivation and supporting retention. Having previously matured the concept into a working prototype, in Phase 2 the partners are trialling the system at an RAF base.

IES is running two online surveys for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) that will provide a snapshot of the current state of the veterinary surgeon and veterinary nursing professions. The 2019 results will be compared with previous surveys carried out by IES, the most recent being in 2014, and be fully reported on.

This project involves developing a dedicated screening tool (self-report questionnaire) specifically designed to recognise and support employees at risk of job absence or loss as a result of anxiety and depression. This questionnaire, similar to other work instability scales, will enable HR, occupational health and line managers to work collaboratively with employees at risk in order to identify specific adjustments that could help people to remain in work, well before they reach the point of being unable to work as a result of their mental health condition.

This project involves developing a dedicated screening tool (self-report questionnaire) specifically designed to recognise and support employees at risk of job absence or loss as a result of anxiety and depression. This questionnaire, similar to other work instability scales, will enable HR, occupational health and line managers to work collaboratively with employees at risk in order to identify specific adjustments that could help people to remain in work, well before they reach the point of being unable to work as a result of their mental health condition.

IES evaluated Mind’s latest Blue Light initiative which involved mental health and wellbeing training for new recruits in the emergency services. The work involved training observations, qualitative interviewing, focus groups and a census-type survey. We explored issues specific to new recruits in order that Mind could tailor its training to this cohort.

IES is conducting: a review of mental health training to determine the best topics to train line managers in, the best method(s) of delivering the training and the best means of measuring beneficial impacts; and an evaluation of two types of training selected on the basis of review recommendations, using a control group for comparison. The training will be based on existing training packages and samples of participants will be drawn from various areas of the rail industry.

IES has conducted an online survey of optometrists in the UK on behalf of the Association of Optometrists. Students, pre-registration and fully-qualified optometrists are included, the latter category incorporating employed optometrists, franchisees and independent business owners. A particular focus is the future career plans of optometrists, and the extent to which they are prepared to move around the UK to achieve their aims. The survey is now closed and the data are being analysed; in addition, follow-up interviews will soon take place with around 20 participants, to add some illustrative detail to the survey findings. This survey complements other surveys of professions conducted by IES on behalf of professional or membership bodies in recent years, other examples being barristers, veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses.