Wellbeing Wales Network E-Bulletin April 2010

Opportunities at the Centre for Occupational and Health Psychology

The KESS Post-graduate studentships available at Cardiff University’s Centre for Occupational and Health Psychology were highlighted in the February Wellbeing Wales Network Bulletin.

Director of the Centre, Professor Andy Smith feels that there are a number of opportunities for Wellbeing Wales Network members in the Centre.

"We still have the KESS Post-graduate Studentships. These are to fund collaborative research between organisations in the convergence areas and Welsh Universities. I think well-being would be an excellent topic for a studentship and I would encourage people to get in touch."

"We also do a lot of work on research into in the area of well-being at work. We will be validating an indicator tool for wellbeing in the workplace in the autumn and we’d be interested to hear from organisations who are willing to work with us on this."

If you are interested in participating in any of the above, please contact Professor Andy Smith on 02920874757 or through emailing smithap@cardiff.ac.uk

Small Award Scheme – Coming Soon!

Public Health Wales has a Professional and Organisational Development function to support national workforce and professional development across the whole of the public health sector in Wales. In order to achieve this, Public Health Wales is setting up the Small Award Scheme to be launched later on this year.

The Small Awards Scheme will look to fund opportunities for increasing capacity and capability in public health across a range of sectors in Wales. Awards made through the Small Award Scheme will be used to promote and support the development of public health skills and competences in the ‘public health’ workforce. Public Health Wales is expecting applications from a wide range of backgrounds, not just from individuals or organisations from a traditional health or public health background.

For more information, please email: Kelly.McFadyen@wales.nhs.uk.

Wellbeing Wales Network Away Day

January 2010 saw 35 people invest a lot of their time and effort in an extremely useful away day for the Wellbeing Wales Network. The idea of the day was to evaluate the success of the Network to date, but also try to consider the best way forward.

The day started with an extremely interesting presentation by Professor Sir Mansel Ayward on the "enticing pursuit of health, happiness and wellbeing," which set the rest up the day really nicely. For more information open here.

Delegates felt that the Wellbeing Wales Network was giving the topic of wellbeing credibility, providing a theoretical background, sharing best practice and providing a platform for sharing information. They also felt that the Network needed to raise its own profile and target organisations like the NHS and Public Health Wales.

The Network Coordinator then went on to challenge the delegates to think about the activities the Wellbeing Wales Network could be doing in the future that would help them do their own bit to improve wellbeing in Wales. Their conclusions were:

· The Network should to continue its role as a networking organisation, but also needs to be more innovative about getting people together.

· The Network could become a centre of excellence or reference for wellbeing.

· Wellbeing as a concept needs to be marketed more effectively, so that others can be inspired to become engaged and play their part.

At the end of the day, participant’s decided that the Network and its partners could:

· Work together to get Wales higher up international measures of wellbeing and progress;

· Be more proactive on wellbeing research in Wales;

· Use the resources of the Network to evaluate the wellbeing outcomes in public policy;

· Have specific events on issues of interest;

· Develop a wellbeing award.

All of these points will feed into the ongoing development of the Network. If you feel you want to add to this discussion, please contact the Network Coordinator, dafydd.thomas@wellbeingwales.org