Health and Wellbeing Coaches (HWBCs) will predominately use health coaching skills to support people with lower levels of patient activation to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their self-identified health and wellbeing goals. They may also provide access to self-management education, peer support and social prescribing. HWBCs will use a non-judgemental approach that supports the person to self-identify existing issues and encourages proactive prevention of new and existing illnesses. This approach is based on using strong communication and negotiation skills, supports personal choice and positive risktaking, addresses potential consequences, and ensures people understand the accountability of their own decisions based on what matters to the person. They will work alongside people to coach and motivate them through multiple sessions, supporting them to self-identify their needs, set goals, and help them to implement their personalised health and care plan.
Workforce Development Framework
Meet our health and wellbeing coach – working alongside GPs to meet patients’ healthcare needs.
Follow a manual added link
Click HERE for the Health and Wellbeing Coach Welcome Pack:
An induction guide for health and wellbeing coach workers in primary care networks.
Follow a manual added link
Click HERE for the Recruitment Pack
| Key roles and responsibilities | Education and training requirements |
Recommended minimum supervision |
|
Undertaking or qualified from appropriate four-day health coaching training as accredited by the Personalised Care Institute. | A named first point of contact in the PCN (including a GP). Should have access to monthly supervision from an appropriate member of the MDT including an advanced practitioner and health coaching mentor. Group coaching supervision is also encouraged.
Further guidance on supervision, education and training can be found in the workforce development framework for health and wellbeing coaches. |
Training/Development
- Click HERE for the Minimum Training Standards & Recommended Additional Training
- The Personalised Care Institute will set out what training is available and expected for HWBCs. Further information will be provided when published. HWBCs will be required to be trained in health coaching in line with the NHSE/I Implementation and quality summary guide
- Training will include understanding the basics of social prescribing, plus an accredited health coaching skills programme (minimum of 4 days) and documented practice hours, along with opportunities for reflection and follow up activities
- Ongoing regular supervision from a health coaching mentor is required. Any health coaching provider will have to be accredited by the Personalised Care Institute (PCI).
Making a Difference webpage
Research published in September 2022 by King’s Business School, King’s College London, shows how Health and Wellbeing Coaches (HWbCs) are inspiring lifestyle changes in patients and having a positive impact in general practice in north east London.
The report ‘Making a difference’ – An evaluation of Health and Wellbeing Coaches in North East London looks at the role of HWbCs and their effectiveness in addressing health inequalities and better outcomes for patients.
https://www.northeastlondonhcp.nhs.uk/ourplans/making-a-difference.htm
Benefits to patients
- Interventions that ‘coach’ or actively support people to self-care.
- It is person-centred and empowering and based around a person’s own aspirations and goals.
- There is an increased patient activation and increases in preventative behaviours and self-management.
- Shown to improve two-way communication and partnership working.
- Overall improved health outcomes
Benefits to PCN’s
- Patient activation is associated with fewer visits to general practice.
- Support for people to self-manage their own health is increased and reduced demand for care due to improved patient wellbeing.
- There is seen to be increased efficiency due to quicker discharge from caseload and potential to cut waiting times.
- Less waste identified from unnecessary tests and medication.
- Long term sustained benefits in terms of cost reductions and service development.
- There are reported increase in job satisfaction amongst health and care professionals actively using the approach.
Benefits to the wider NHS
- An independent evaluation showed that, of over 5,000 referrals to Healthy Change (Nottingham Public Health team) in the first year: – The service successfully referred over 80% of clients to lifestyle change services. This enabled over 75% of members to achieve one or more additional goals at end of the coaching period. Service was rated as good or better by over 85% of members.
- There was a reduced “Did Not Attend” rates for specialist lifestyle services as well as supporting lifestyle change; and improved self-care.
- Coaching shown to address lifestyle factors that are key determinants of health inequalities.
RESOURCES
| Health & Wellbeing Coach Welcome pack – The welcome pack is designed for newly appointed health and wellbeing coaches in primary care networks. |
| Sign up to our Health and Wellbeing coach mailing list. –This will help any new HWBC to be supported by the peer network of HWBCs in London |
| Health Coaching guide and technical annex
Designed to support the delivery of health coaching. This guide should be used when commission and when deciding what can or should be counted and reported as health coaching in a local area. |
| Health & Wellbeing Coach recruitment pack The resource includes: Sample job description; person specification; job advert; interview questions |
| Useful webinar recordings:
Spotlight on Health and Wellbeing coaches (the role, how they are working across London, how best to support and embed them) |
| Health and wellbeing coach Future NHS platform |
| Health and wellbeing coach training providers: KYOH; The Health Coaching Academy; Peak Health; TPC |
| HWBC Workforce Development Framework coming soon! |
| Measurement and evaluation within supported self-management
This guide describes the steps for planning hot to use measurement within supported self-management, based on evidence and good practice. |
| Health and Wellbeing FAQ’s |
| Health & Wellbeing Coach Network Manager for London: Jennifer Brooks (jennifer.brooks14@nhs.net) |
NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the February edition of the London HWBC newsletter. Within this instalment you will find the following topics:
- London Peer Support
- Other Events
- Past Event Recordings
- Workforce Development Frameworks
- Training
- Supervision
- Resources
- Sign up form
As always, if you have any questions or are looking for any resources in particular, please post on the health and wellbeing coaches forumhere.
London Peer Support:
The next London Peer support session is on: Weds 8th March 13.00-14.00 . You should already have the calendar invite – let me know if you haven’t got it.
The agenda is attached. This month we are focussing on how to evolve the support for Health & Wellbeing Coaches in London. We would love to hear from you in this session so that we can find out what you want & need so we can brainstorm the potential solution together. This will help our discussions in the future with the training hubs and ICS leads.
At the last peer support session in February we focussed on smoking cessation. We heard from Reshma Ali on the addiction cycle and nicotine replacement therapy and we also heard from Rebecca Nix who is a Health and wellbeing coach and a stop smoking practitioner. I have attached the slide deck from Rebecca andbelow please find the Nicorette professional site where you can find the useful resources:-
If you click that you are a healthcare clinician on the link above you will have access to all the resources which you can download or print. If you would like physical resources then please get in contact with Reshma: reshma.ali@iqvia.com.
Other Events:
- Conversations Inviting Change: Hearing and helping with narratives of pain. Tues 28th Feb 12.00-13.00. Sign uphere.
Pain impactson relationships, livelihoods, identity, physical functioning, confidence and much more. Living with pain can be a very lonely, scary and isolating experience and getting the care we need is often challenging. Stories of people feeling unheard, un-validated and not listened to are common. Narrative practice can be used to support people living with pain and clinicians in creative ways, using approaches from the humanities, helping people to explore creativity, meaning-making, self-discovery and perspective taking. The model of interactional skills called ‘Conversations Inviting Change’ is a form of narrative practice that can be applied in clinical encounters to achieve shared understanding by both patients and practitioners.
- Long COVID – where are we now? Tues 7th March 12.00-13.00. Sign uphere.
Over 2 million people in theUK are living with Long Covid. These people are attending health and social care services asking for help. The PCI will present current evidence about Long Covid, including the range of symptoms and possible theories about causes. The PCI will discuss current management strategies that can help people living with Long Covid manage their symptoms and highlight resources and high-quality sources of information for both practitioners and patients
- Targeting green social prescribing to address Health Inequalities and improve physical & mental health. Sign uphere
-
National Share & Learn Session: 29th March at 13.00-14.30. Sign up here . Topic: capturing outcomes and gathering evidence
Past Event Recordings:
- Jan Share & Learn: Health inequalities:Recording, slides here
- PCN support session: Spotlight on Health and Wellbeing Coaches.Recording, slides and FAQ here.
- PCN support session: Embedding the three personalised care ARRS roles:Recording here
-
PCN support session: Using your personalised care roles effectively:Recording here
-
Bridging two worlds – holistic community centred interventions for Long term conditions (Bromley by Bow Centre)Recording.
- 30 min presentation about the three personalised care roles for people looking to apply or employ. Recording.
Workforce Development Frameworks for all three roles Launch
We are creating summaries of these frameworks to support use of them and highlight key messages.
Ourtoolkitto support managers, GPs and the system, complements these frameworks. It goes into more detail about how the roles can tackle inequality and work within the system.
We have also created one-pager documents summarising each of the three roles:
Training:
- Leading an MDT – 8 funded places in London – please see flyer attached. (deadline for applying is March)
- New Free Online Course – Introduction to Leadership for Personalised Care. Enrolment is now open and can be accessed here
- Mental health first aid training – free
- Free shared decision making eLearning refresherto respond to changing patient expectations. (30 min) – For all roles in Primary Care
- All Our Health e-learning sessions have been developed to provide a bite-sized introduction to the wide range of topics including adult obesity, alcohol and healthy aging. Within these sessions, you’ll find signposting to trusted sources of helpful evidence, guidance and support.
- There is awealth of free training available related to health inequalities by fairhealth. It covers:
- What inclusion health groups are – some groups that you may focus on as a HWBC
- Practical guide to health inequalities in primary care
- Adverse childhood experiences
- Trauma informed care
- LONDON LEADERSHIP LEARNING ZONE. A wealth ofE-learnings to supportyour leadership, including coaching, resiliance, stress management, unconscious bias, by the NHS leadership academy.
Supervision:
Myself and 3 others in London are currently training to be coaching supervisors for Health and Wellbeing Coaches. This means we will be able to supervise HWBCs around their health coaching practice. We are currently running practice group & 1-2-1 supervision sessions. If you haven’t signed up already and are interested, then please email me atcaroline.haines1@nhs.net.
Resources:
- CASE STUDY:How Community Connectors in Fromeare working with Social Prescribing Services and communities, which has resulted in decreased hospital admission
- Headspace, a meditation & mindfulness app is available for free for all NHS employees. Details can be found here
-
Coaching for all primary care staff: You can access three different types of coaching for free- 1. You and your wellbeing 2. You and your team 3. You and your career. Sign up here.
-
Guidance about the three roles supporting High Frequency Users by NHSE. Film by Dudley showing their work supporting HFU with social prescribing.
-
North East London: Safe connections suicide prevention hub & helpline. See attached flier
Sign up form:
If you are a HWBC and you have not filled in this form, then please do so to be kept up to date with any info and events happening. Please pass on to any new HWBCs that start in your PCN too.