Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2024

Our vision for health and wellbeing is that the University will: create a culture in which we can talk openly about health and wellbeing; commit to supporting our staff and students to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a firm focus on prevention and reducing ill-health; and drive societal change by testing and disseminating research based interventions for the good of our broader global community. 

Bangor University Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020 – 2024 

Accessible PDF Version of Strategy Diagram

1. Positive Environments

• Build, improve and maintain positive and supportive working and learning environments across Bangor University. We will:
  • Provide clear leadership in relation to health and wellbeing and support mechanisms that foster an open culture, reducing the stigma associated with raising health issues, in particular those associated with mental health.  
  • Create and embed a network of wellbeing champions to promote well-being across Colleges and Professional Services at Bangor University. Work with the Students’ Union and Student services, to learn from their excellence and further build on the provision for the student community (e.g. Connect@Bangor student volunteers).
  • Create governance around our health and well-being strategy to enable the development of health and well-being across Bangor University.
  • Use the 2020 staff survey results to develop a staff health and well-being strategy, aligning with the student-led mental health and well-being strategy 2020-2022, to enable a whole University approach to health and well-being by 2024.

2. Promotion and Engagement

• Create an understanding of, and engagement with, health and wellbeing across Bangor University.  We will:
  • Gain a shared understanding of health and well-being
  • Raise awareness of current provision
  • Develop a range of initiatives (e.g. events, campaigns) to engage the promotion of wellbeing activities and behaviour
  • Develop a communication plan outlining how we will promote the health and well-being work and activities taking place. This will also include the channels we will use to reach the various target audiences (e.g. website, social media, email, printed material) and will reflect both internal and external comms
  • Make it easy for staff and students to gain access and engage with the provision through policy development and support, as well as clear signposting to resources, along with simple access (e.g. having a single online repository) 

3. Prevention and Active Health

• Enabling every individual to realise their potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and able to make a contribution to their community (WHO).  We will:
  • Provide outstanding health and wellbeing support to staff and students by offering a range of resources and expertise focused on providing sector leading education, prevention, early intervention and where required, referral to external agencies 
  • Provide interventions and initiatives with a focus on four main themes, mental and emotional well-being, physical activity, contemporary health issues (e.g., healthy and sustainable foods, substance use and misuse), and sustainable environments
  • Develop health and well-being training for line-managers to enable compassionate leadership and discussion with staff on health and wellbeing, while balancing the responsibility of the employer and ownership by the individual
  • Empower staff and students to independently take steps to support their own health and wellbeing

4. Population Research and Policy

• Lead and contribute to local, national and international health and wellbeing research and policy. We will:
  • To surface and celebrate this work. Furthermore, relevant research projects at the University will provide vehicles to pilot and evaluate health and well-being initiatives. One example of this is CALIN (http://www.calin.wales/en/), a WEFO-funded ERDF project which will provide health and wellbeing R&D for organisations in Wales and Ireland. Such projects add capacity to enable research to be undertaken and woven into the University strategy. 

A set of key performance metrics will be developed in agreement with the University Executive, Council, Staff and Students’ Unions. The co-ordination of Health and Wellbeing activity will come from existing roles from the four key areas of Human Resources, Student Services, Colleges, and Health and Safety. Activities will be brought together under the remit of the Healthy University Group. Where required we will co-opt individuals from key Institutional strategies (e.g., sustainability) to draw in required expertise and ensure alignment of strategies across the University. Wider institutional oversight of our Health and Wellbeing Strategy will be through an annual report produced by the PVC/Dean College of Human Sciences to the University Executive and through existing committee structures for specific Monitoring and Delivery of strategic programmes of work.

• High level KPIs:
  1. Awareness and willingness of staff to talk openly about health and wellbeing
  2. Evidence of staff and students taking action to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a firm focus on prevention and reducing ill-health
  3. Analysis and dissemination of research-based interventions for the good of our broader global community
•  Cluster KPIs for strategic aims:
  1. Positive environments
  2. Promotion and engagement
  3. Prevention and active health