COVID-19 confronted NHS teams and individuals with demands that were unprecedented, and understandably this has taken its toll.

The Health and Wellbeing Centre will act as a central hub for staff to easily access health and wellbeing services; it will contain exercise facilities, quiet rooms for relaxation and wellness and rehabilitation services and activities.

The health and wellbeing centre benefits from a beautiful garden area easily accessible from the main building and via its own side entrance.

The garden will be essential in supporting the ongoing emotional wellbeing of staff, as well as providing both the physical and psychological benefits of exercise, socialising and gardening. Our hard-working staff will be better equipped to not only cope with the professional demands placed on them but also generally have greater life satisfaction.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic:

• 74% of all helpline calls to the Employee Assistance Programme in the last 12 months have been mental health related, with anxiety and low mood the top two reasons for calling
• The demand for employee health and wellbeing has increased significantly, creating an unsustainable pressure on the RBFT occupational health team and supporting functions
• The limited staff schemes previously offered received good evaluations but feedback indicated that more could be done with the current provision being insufficient to match current and emerging demands