Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council

Organisation Name:  Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council

Sector: Public Sector

Size of Organisation: 470 employees

Thrive Lead: Ruth Copley-Jones

What They Do: Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is one of the larger district councils in the country and provides more than 270 essential local services. Their vision statement is ‘Good local services, a prosperous borough, and safe and welcoming places for all.’ In 1173 Newcastle was given Royal Charter of Incorporation status by King Henry II, making it a borough.

How Thrive at Work has impacted the organisation: Thrive at Work has validated the great health and wellbeing work the council were already doing and has provided structure and guidance to build upon this further; ‘Lots of things Thrive suggested were ‘why don’t we do that already’, why don’t we put this in place, it’s such a simple change and actually we could’ve done that years ago.’ 

As a result of utilising Thrive resources the organisation are developing a new training suite for line managers, including regular 5-minute learning sessions, and a mandatory training matrix, with courses being designed and implemented over the next 6-12 months. The council also fedback that there has been more employee interaction and engagement; utilisation of the Mental Health First Aider network has increased significantly whilst working towards the Thrive award, along with staff suggestions leading to new and improved peer support groups. 

Some employees described taking up yoga and pilates regularly outside of work following the workplace sessions, whilst others, following the blood pressure checks, went on a ‘health kick’ addressing concerns with their GP, with another taking on regular 5k runs. One member of staff benefited from a return-to-work wellbeing referral and continues to attend the gym and pool after the initial programme ended.   

As a result of the Thrive support meetings the organisation was able to develop new ideas and problem solve creatively in areas that had previously felt like a challenge.  

Ruth Copley-Jones, Human Resources Officer said: "The Thrive program really made us look at the health and wellbeing of our staff and what we as an organisation were doing to support this. With the help of the Thrive team we made significant changes to the way in which we supported staff and the way in which we promoted information to staff so they were aware of support available. Our staff survey results have improved in all areas and we believe this is in part to do with the changes that we have been making, we still have work to do but we are definitely heading in the right direction."

Accreditation Date: October 2023