Health In Mind

Mental health charity Health in Mind has been able to continue providing all staff with valuable learning opportunities at a time of immense pressure on the third sector, thanks to OU skills training.

For charitable organisation Health in Mind, The Open University (OU) in Scotland provided a vital source of flexible training at a time of significant demand for services due to the cost-of-living crisis. The organisation was fortunate to access Scottish Government funding for the training.

Health in Mind promotes positive mental health and wellbeing through a wide range of services and courses to support people and enable them to make a positive difference in their lives.

Flora Henderson, Alliance Manager, comments: “The cost-of-living crisis, as well as ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in a tremendous increase in demand for support. At the same time, staff are affected by workload and a continued impact on staff absence levels."

‘OU support to make a collective impact’

As an OU graduate herself, Flora was confident that the flexibility, quality of written materials and interactive online learning environment provided by the OU in Scotland would meet a range of individual needs across the charity.

Access to OU courses is a valuable part of the offer and how important it is that educational qualifications are relevant, benchmarked and delivered in a format that suits our workforce.”

“It was also an opportunity to access training that was aligned with the skills and competencies that were important to us as a service,” she says. “We understood the value of courses and qualifications which recognise standards of learning achievement and may be of value to colleagues’ own career plans.”

Aligned with Health in Mind’s strategic purpose and organisational values, all members of staff have been encouraged to access professional development opportunities with the OU.

This has included managers accessing strategy and leadership courses, non-finance staff undertaking project management and accounting studies, and frontline staff benefiting from studying for mental health and coaching qualifications.

First partnering with the OU in Scotland in August 2021, Health in Mind’s training plans have evolved to take a more focused approach to the training offer that is made to all staff, aligned with the organisation’s overall strategy and objectives.

Flora explains: “The development of a training plan around the OU support offer helped us to clarify the collective impact we aimed for, which was to help staff be more confident in the face of a growing number of new pressures.

“For managers, we wanted to nurture and strengthen a connection between our strategy and governance, as well as operational delivery. A proportion of our managers were new to the role, and OU courses offered theory and management training so that individuals could apply learning to their own leadership practice.”

The charity can now take an annual approach to training planning and reviewing its impact.

‘Flexible and cost-effective’

Alongside supporting team members to progress to promoted posts, Flora highlights that the courses on offer from the OU in Scotland are also a draw in attracting new staff.

“Feedback from prospective employees indicate that access to training is a key part of attracting high caliber staff,” she adds. “Access to OU courses is a valuable part of the offer and how important it is that educational qualifications are relevant, benchmarked and delivered in a format that suits our workforce.”

She would like to continue Health in Mind’s relationship with the OU in Scotland in coming years, which has “provided a flexible and cost-effective way of upskilling our workforce.”

Flora moves on to conclude: “I have only been impressed by the quality and sincerity of support offered by each OU colleague who has supported the partnership.”

Photo by Neil Hanna.