Host for the day: Helen Kemp, Chief Executive, Leeds Mind

10am

Welcome and introduction to the week ahead

• Helen Kemp, Chief Executive, Leeds Mind
• Tom Riordan, Chief Executive, Leeds City Council
• Michelle Scally Clarke, poet
• Laura McCullagh, Coordinator of Leeds Mindful Employer Network

10:30am – 11:45am

COVID-19, employment and mental health: an unequal landscape

Learn about the relationship between COVID-19, employment and mental health from national and local perspectives, with a focus on the inequalities that the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated. With speakers including:

• Emma Mamo, Head of Workplace Wellbeing, Mind
• Pia Bruhn, Parminder Grewal and Chris Ingham, Leeds City Council Public Health
• Emily Turner, Women’s Lives Leeds Voices Coordinator, Leeds Women’s Aid

12pm – 12:45pm

Sounds of lockdown: personal reflections

Space2 collaborating with local poet, Michelle Scally Clarke will provide a valuable opportunity for personal reflection and creative expression, highlighting the important role of the arts in helping us to re-connect, recover and re-build our resilience for the future.

Don’t miss this session for an introduction to our postcard project – a collaborative activity to capture our learning and experiences from the week.

1:30pm – 2:45pm

Supporting staff mental health through a pandemic

Join our panel of speakers to discuss the experiences of employers in supporting staff mental health during the pandemic.

With speakers including:

• Mindful Employer Network members
• Carole Sayer, Senior Adviser/Conciliator, Acas
• Mark Poole, Mindful Employer Lead, Devon NHS Trust

3:00pm – 4:00pm

Networking and problem-solving sessions

Your opportunity to meet others doing a similar role to yourself: join an informal session to share experiences, challenges and ideas.

Host for the day: Catherine Ward, Health Improvement Principal, Public Mental Health Lead, Leeds City Council

10.00am – 11.30am

Leadership and communication: Lessons from 2020

Join our panel of local leaders as they share their personal reflections from 2020: the challenges, the learning and the long-term implications for leadership.

With speakers including:

• Helen Kemp, Chief Executive, Leeds Mind
• Susan Gee, Group Manager of Occupational Health, Yorkshire Water
• Adam Ogilvie, Chief Executive, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm
• Lisa Rowlinson-Brown, People Director, Symingtons
• Jodie Hill, Founder and Managing Partner, Thrive Law
• Others to be announced

11:45am – 12:45pm

Leading through COVID and beyond: Who cares wins

A workshop with Juliette Alban-Metcalfe, Chief Executive, Real World Group

Organisations have been forced to transform rapidly over the last year, on top of what was already an ever-changing global environment. This has caused significant additional stress for employees who were already under huge pressure in most sectors. Looking forward, we cannot expect things to become calm and stable, which means that successful leadership now more than ever rests upon ensuring that people are ready and able to embrace change. To achieve this, leaders need to focus as much on individuals as they do on strategy and operations, and engage in key behaviours that will help their teams stay well and resilient.

This session will cover:

• How to lead people effectively over coming months and years
• Reflection by participants on the extent to which their current leadership approach is likely to serve them well and how they might adapt it
• Suggestions for further reflection after the event.

1:30pm – 2:30pm

Interactive workshops

These sessions are capped to allow maximum participation for attendees. Please let us know if you can no longer attend the session(s) you book so that your place can be offered to someone else.

Session 1: Being an authentic leader with Emma Baylin, Director at Shared Harmonies CIC

Join this session to learn about:

• Leading through challenging situations
• Feeling the fear – authentic leadership
• Working in ‘flow’ state
• Unifying vision and voice

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees.  Please click the button below to reserve your place via EventBrite.

Session 2: When home isn’t a safe place – taking an organisational approach to domestic abuse and violence with Mell Handley, PARS Support Worker, Behind Closed Doors

Join this interactive workshop to explore:

• the potential impact on domestic violence and abuse (DVA) on your employees and your teams
• some of the signs of DVA and how to approach someone you may be concerned about
• the specialist services that can help and how to signpost people confidently
• how to embed an organisation-wide approach to tackling DVA

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. Please reserve your spot for this specific session via the button below (opens EventBrite).

Session 3: Managing conflict to enhance wellbeing with Sue Alderson and Sharon Klein, Directors at Azure Consulting.

Join this interactive workshop to gain an understanding of:

• The link between conflict and wellbeing in the workplace
• How to create the conditions to prevent conflict from arising
• How people react to conflict and how to work with different conflict-handling styles
• Practical tools and techniques to resolve workplace conflict

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. Please reserve your spot for this specific session by clicking the button below (opens EventBrite).

3:00pm – 4:00pm

Interactive workshops

Session 1: The benefits of creative team building with Anna Ridley, Community Arts Coordinator, Inkwell Arts

Creative Team Building can be extremely effective in promoting employee happiness, retention and productivity. Now, more than ever, it is so important to bring our teams together and to promote healthy wellbeing and positive communication around our mental health. Team building exercises don’t have to be expensive or time-consuming and can be offered remotely or face-to-face.

• Discover how creative team building activities can help productivity and improve overall staff wellbeing and happiness.
• Take part in a short creative exercise as an example of what you can do with your teams.

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. Please reserve your space via the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 2: Mindfulness for leaders and managers with Laura Smith and Uddyotani Doherty, Leeds Mindfulness Cooperative

Join this session to practice and understand a number of ways in which mindfulness can work to support resilience and kindness in the workplace, thinking about the particular pressures experienced by people in leadership positions

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. Reserve your spot for this specific session via the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 3: Getting started with a wellbeing strategy – introduction to the Mindful Employer Ten Steps Toolkit with Laura McCullagh, Leeds Mindful Employer Coordinator

This workshop is aimed at smaller organisations and those new to wellbeing at work.

Feel confident making a start on your wellbeing strategy and leave with practical steps and resources to help you along the way.

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To reserve your spot for this specific session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Host for the day: Alison Lowe, Chief Executive, Touchstone

10.00am – 11.30am

Attracting and retaining a diverse workforce

Our host for the day, Alison Lowe, will talk us through Touchstone’s journey to becoming one of the most diverse and inclusive employers in the UK today, explaining the numerous wellbeing benefits experienced by her staff.

Following Alison’s talk our panel will discuss the experiences of a range of groups that are often underrepresented within our workforces. They will offer practical tips to employers on how to attract and retain the best staff.

Our speakers include:

• Patricia Cranswick, Employment Specialist, Workplace Leeds
• Linda Glew, Programme manager, Leeds Older People’s Forum
• Kate Dean, Director, Enable Disability and Inclusion Consultants
• Corrina Lawrence, Chief Executive, Feel Good Factor
• Others TBC

11:45am – 12:45pm

Building a culture of psychological safety for all

Join our panel to discuss the psychological impacts of exclusion, discrimination, racism and bullying within the workplace. Gain practical tips on how to build and embed a positive culture where all staff feel safe, happy, healthy and productive.

Chair: Alison Lowe, Chief Executive, Touchstone

• Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Job Centre Plus
• Luke Rosser, Business Psychologist
• Nicki Eyre, Director, Conduct Change
• Abdullah Adekola, Peer Support Worker, Leeds Mind
• We will also hear from an employee’s perspective, from someone with lived experience of dealing with mental health at work

1:30pm – 2:45pm

Interactive workshops

Session 1: Rethinking flexibility and work-life balance

COVID-19 has forced many of us to reassess the relationship between our work and personal lives. Join this session to explore the opportunity to rethink flexibility and work-life balance in order to create workplace cultures that are truly inclusive, healthy and as productive as possible.

This session will feature three unique perspectives from:

• Madlen Sayer, Working Carers Coordinator, Carers Leeds
• Katie Gleghorn, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, Charlotte Sweeney Associates
• Robert Kilner, Workers’ Lunchtime

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To secure your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 2:  Making conversations about mental health the norm: Implementing Wellness Action Plans

Join Leigh Staunton and Astrid Copeland, Job Retention Specialists at Leeds Mind’s Workplace Leeds to explore how Wellness Action Plans can be used as an important tool to:

• help employers take a positive approach to supporting the wellbeing of their staff
• help make conversations about wellbeing the norm, leading to improved awareness and reduced stigma around mental health at work

Discuss practical tips for how to implement Wellness Action Plans and use them as the basis for effective conversations about wellbeing in a 1:1 context.

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To reserve your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 3: Tackling stigma through storytelling with This is Me Yorkshire

This is Me Yorkshire is a campaign to end mental health stigma within Yorkshire workplaces.  Join Jodie Hill, This Is Me Yorkshire’s Chair to:

• Learn more about this is Me and how to get involved
• Discover the power of storytelling to tackle stigma
• Take away practical storytelling tips
• Discuss how to implement This is Me within your business

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To save your spot on this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

3:00pm – 4:00pm

Interactive workshops

Session 1: Using technology to support inclusion and wellbeing with Kate Dean, Director, Enable Disability and Inclusion

‘Are you sitting comfortably?’

What does your home office look like? Which room do you use? What impact has this had on the rest of the house? How have your working hours changed over the last year? Are you more or less productive now than when you were based in an office?

A year after dining tables and breakfast bars became makeshift offices, and the 9-5 had to become more flexible, we will reflect on what we have learned and how our homes and lives have evolved to shape a new workspace. This session will explore how digital and remote working has increased inclusion for team members with disabilities and long-term conditions, and the opportunity this presents to redefine our working methods to support wellbeing and productivity for all.

This interactive session will help you to:

• identify any signs of discomfort when working that may be impacting on your concentration or productivity;
• understand how our new workspaces encourage inclusion;
• learn about free and readily available tools and assistive technologies;
• implement quick wins that will enable us all to work to our strengths and support our wellbeing.

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To reserve your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 2: Trans-equality in the workplace delivered by Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale, Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Job Centre Plus

Trans people regularly experience some of the worst forms of stigma and discrimination within UK workplaces. Join this workshop to explore:

• attitudes towards the employment of trans people
• the specific barriers faced by trans people in the workplace
• how to create a trans-inclusive environment through policy and good practice

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To reserve your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 3: How to diversify your workforce – making a start with Business Psychologist, Luke Rosser.

More details to follow.

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To book your spot on this session, please use the button below.

Host for the day: John Bradfield, Peer Support Lead, West Yorkshire Police

10:00am – 11:30am

Peer support at work: doing it well

Our host, John Bradfield will share his experience of leading peer support within West Yorkshire Police: his learning over the years and the impact this has had.

Our speakers will add further discussion on the value of peer support from a range of perspectives and employment contexts.

Leave this session with clear tips for how to start and run peer support initiatives within your own workplace and some great examples of good practice to refer to.

Our speakers at this session include:

• Helen Saunders, healthy Minds, Leeds City Council
• Lucy Chaplin, Senior Communications Officer, Leeds Trinity University
• Roz Doherty, Peer Support Team Leader, Leeds Mind
• Andrea Wood (MSc Public Health)

11:45am – 12:45pm

Supporting people through periods of change and uncertainty

Join this interactive masterclass delivered by Rob Baker, Tailored Thinking

Overview: Building on ideas and research from the field of Positive Psychology, the session will provide actionable evidence-based ideas about how to manage yourself, and your colleagues, through periods of uncertainty and change.

The session will cover:

• Our brain’s response to uncertainty and change
• The benefits of being proactive in how to frame your day and approach your work
• What we know about wellbeing and boosting our buoyancy and resilience from an evidence perspective
• ctionable, research-informed ideas and activities to boost wellbeing & resilience;
• setting positive goals individually and with your teams.

1:30pm – 2:30pm

Interactive workshops

Session 1: Supporting people with isolation and loneliness

This session will explore how we can support people experiencing isolation and loneliness, including practical suggestions for how people can expand their social networks and seek opportunities to build meaningful relationships.

This session will feature perspectives from:

• Linda Glew, Time To Shine, Leeds Older People’s Forum
• Gary Blake, Voluntary Action Leeds

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To book your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 2: The role of the employer in preventing suicide

Join this session to hear three unique perspectives on how employers can help to prevent suicide among their workforce.

Our speakers for this session include:

• Steve Phillip, Founder, The Jordan Legacy
• Surinder Rall, Team Leader, Leeds and West Yorkshire Suicide Bereavement Service
• Damien Dawtry, Men’s Health Unlocked Coordinator, Forum Central

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To book you spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

3:00pm – 4:00pm

Interactive workshops

Session 1: Managing Stress – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for workplace wellbeing delivered by Vanessa Suttill and Jenny Walley, Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service

This will be an informational workshop, unpicking what stress is (spoiler: it can mean a whole range of things, and is really normal!) and how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can be used for self-help to better manage stress and mental wellbeing at work. The session will cover:

• What is stress?
• What is CBT and how you can use to when working in the face of a pandemic
• Managing the physical symptoms of stress
• Sleep
• How stress effects the way we act
• The impact of stress on the way we think and how to manage this
• Tips for working from home – how to improve mental wellbeing and resilience
• Signposting to useful resources in Leeds
• What we do in the Leeds Mental Wellbeing service and the referral process

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To reserve your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 2: Supporting people with grief and loss delivered by Leeds Bereavement Forum

This interactive workshop will cover:

• The impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on bereavement
• A brief introduction to some models & theories of bereavement
• Practical tips on speaking to colleagues/staff about bereavement
• Where to find further information on bereavement in the workplace
• Signposting to specialist bereavement support

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To reserve your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Session 3:Building personal resilience delivered by Jay Gadhia, Leeds Mind

This practical workshop will cover:

• What do we mean by resilience?
• The characteristics of a resilient person
• 10 ways to help build resilience – a practical guide

Please note that numbers at this session are capped to enable maximum participation and interaction between attendees. To book your spot for this session, please use the button below (opens EventBrite)

Host for the morning: Karen Fenton, Operations Manager, Volition, Forum Central

10:00am – 11.15am

Confident signposting: introduction to local services and resources

Knowing when and how to signpost colleagues to external resources and specialist support is a crucial element of promoting positive wellbeing and preventing poor mental health.

Join this session to hear from some of our key local services as they discuss:

• the signs that might indicate when someone is struggling
• how to approach conversations and the questions you could ask
• local services that can help
• how to signpost and refer people to support

Local services include:

• MindWell
• Behind Closed Doors
• Moneybuddies
• The Market Place
• Others to be announced!

11:30am – 12:30pm

Reflections, priorities and next steps

At our closing event, local poet, Michelle Scally Clarke will share a creative response to her reflections from throughout the week.

Our speakers will follow with their thoughts on priorities and next steps for the months and years ahead:

• The vital role employers can play in our collective recovery from COVID-19
• How we can ensure that COVID-19 leaves a positive legacy for mental health at work
• What our priorities need to be when creating mentally healthy workplaces for the future

Our speakers include:

• Jo Loughran, Director, Time To Change
• Paul Farmer, Chief Executive, Mind
• Victoria Eaton, Director of Public Health, Leeds City Council