Syngentis Impact Report Our work: how we make a difference to improve the fitness, health and productivity of the UK s working age population Syngentis works in partnership with NHS Health at Work, the network of occupational health teams committed to ensuring that the NHS has a healthy, motivated workforce that is able to provide the best possible patient care.
A letter from our Chair Keeping your staff healthy makes sound business sense and having good occupational health services helps companies become more productive and save money. Keith Johnston What is sometimes forgotten is how access to support is also vital for the individual. For all of us, work is not only a source of income but provides a feeling of self-worth, fulfilment and value within our communities. We know that if you have prolonged sickness absence from work, you can feel socially excluded and find it difficult to return to work. Occupational health professionals help prevent illness caused by work, prevent unnecessary sickness absence and support people back into work when they have been off sick. Syngentis can provide you with impartial, independent advice to improve the quality, performance and productivity of service delivery. We facilitate access to NHS occupational health advice, provide consultancy support and offer MoHaWK, a state of the art clinical benchmarking and audit tool. We are not profit driven our goal is to improve the fitness, health and wellbeing of the working age population. Any surplus that we make is reinvested into improvements in health at work including research, audit, education, guidance, and new services. In the following pages, we provide a brief overview of how we work and how we make a difference. Please get in touch if you would like to hear more about our work. Keith Johnston Chair, Syngentis (the Health and Work Community Interest Company) Call 07584 269322 or email info@syngentis.co.uk
Syngentis who we are Syngentis is a not for profit Community Interest Company that provides expert health and work advice. Set up to progress the work of NHS Plus, the Syngentis team have specialist knowledge of occupational health in the NHS and public sector and have been responsible for advising Government on work and health issues. The team is committed to improving the fitness, health and productivity of the working age population. Syngentis can enable your organisation to access and locate appropriate occupational health services delivered by the NHS. We can offer advice and support so that you get the right service that meets your business and employee needs. We also enable commercial providers to work in partnership with NHS teams to deliver frontline care. A key part of our work is to support NHS Health at Work; the network of occupational health teams who ensure the NHS has a healthy motivated workforce that is able to provide the best possible patient care. As well as providing management, communication and administrative support, Syngentis has played a key role in promoting NHS occupational health, disseminating best practice and improving standards of care. We also manage the organisation of the Network s conference that every year reports 100% satisfaction levels from delegates. Our team is also focused on driving up clinical standards through the MoHaWK benchmarking system that supports clinical audit. Increasingly, commercial providers and in house and public sector occupational teams who operate outside the NHS are seeing the value of this service and joining the MoHaWK community. The Syngentis team continues to progress the work of the Government funded project NHS Plus, which was instrumental in driving up the quality of health and work services delivered by the NHS and supporting the Government s Health, Work and Wellbeing Strategy. This means providing expert impartial advice and consultancy on health and work matters to a range of stakeholders.
How we make a difference Syngentis enabling industry to access first class occupational health through the NHS The NHS has a network of occupational teams across the country that can provide businesses with an excellent, cost effective solution. Good occupational health is not about getting the cheapest deal. We know that when the NHS provides occupational health they deliver an excellent service, that workers trust. Syngentis assists businesses to access and locate appropriate NHS occupational health and get the right service that meets their needs. We also enable commercial providers to work in partnership with NHS teams to deliver frontline care. Syngentis provides a single easy point of contact that can help your business access the right NHS occupational health service for your needs. The NHS network of occupational health teams offers: Occupational health services offered by professionals working in the NHS Representation from every geographical region in England Experience of providing OH services to every industry sector An excellent range of competencies NHS occupational health teams bid for contracts independently, join together to offer a greater geographical reach and also work in partnership with commercial providers.
Case Study Oliver Bonas/Whittington Hospital NHS Trust Oliver Bonas is a high street retailer with 56 stores across the UK as well as an online store. Selling women s clothing and accessories, jewellery, things for the home, furniture, unusual gifts, plus the odd item that resists categorisation. The company s motto is Work Hard, Play Hard & Be Kind and they were the first high-street store to pay their staff the living wage. They also wanted to ensure that their staff had access to a quality occupational health service and saw the NHS as having similar values. They approached Syngentis and we sourced an appropriate Network provider, and then provided support and advice to the NHS team about the best way to manage the service for them. The partnership between Syngentis and NHS Health at Work Network enabled our service to be quickly made aware of this opportunity so that we were able to bid. Andrew was really helpful in advising us how to tailor the occupational health offering to suit the specific needs of Oliver Bonas. The end result a successful contract. Thank you Syngentis. Cathy Ferguson, Head of Occupational Health & Wellbeing Service, Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Syngentis driving clinical improvement with MoHaWK the national online benchmarking tool that supports clinical audit Recent reports have highlighted variations in clinical services and the need to improve quality. Occupational health, like other medical specialties, needs to demonstrate that it is collecting good quality data and continually striving to drive up standards. Syngentis develops and manages MoHaWK (Management of Health and Work Knowledge), the online benchmarking tool that supports clinical audit. It allows occupational health teams to measure clinical outcomes and processes against evidence based standards and improve health services at work. The system captures information on local practices and provides a framework that allows teams to benchmark with their peers. Individual units can then use the data to drive successful improvement or make the case for additional resources. The system has now become firmly established within the occupational health community and there is now clear evidence that the MoHaWK system is driving improvement with Over 90 OH teams from the public and private sectors regularly using the system Local action plans embedded in the system to support clinical audit System recognition by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine as a key part of their quality improvement strategy Syngentis is currently investing in the future direction and development of the MoHaWK tool and improving the tool for service users. This work includes developing a new user friendly interface and specific audit programmes for OH services. MoHaWK is now really assisting services in varying aspects of service delivery.
Diageo OH uses MoHaWK to track our performance, both between rounds and against other OH providers. MoHaWK has enabled us to identify areas of potential improvement, and measure the impact of corrective initiatives. Alistair Scotland from Diageo OH We use the MoHaWK reports and look at our results during our team meetings. We discuss these with the whole team to see how well we have done in comparison to other rounds and also in comparison to other Trusts. We analyse the data and identify reasons why we have performed at this level during the reporting month and which measures we can put in place to further improve our performance or what we have done well to achieve good performance. Valerie Mohn, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Driving up quality and demonstrating good clinical practice in workplace health is critically important for better health outcomes, whether that be for workers or patients. Engagement in self-assessments such as MoHaWK is a key component of quality improvement and I hope that we can continue to see more teams across all the sectors choosing to participate. Dr Richard Heron, President, Faculty of Occupational Medicine
Syngentis providing expert consultancy services The team at Syngentis has an expert and unique understanding of occupational health in large complex organisations and is up to date with all of the latest evidence and Government guidelines and has specialist knowledge of the NHS and public sector. Andrew Gilbey, the Executive Director at Syngentis who leads on consultancy, has worked closely with Government on a number of health and wellbeing initiatives and was directly responsible for delivering the highly successful Health for Work Adviceline. After 10 years as a senior manager in business, Andrew successfully managed and developed an NHS occupational health team over 15 years and led an initiative that succeeded in reducing sickness absence costs by 1.2 million per annum. Case Study Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust The Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payments framework enables commissioners to reward excellence by linking a proportion of a Trust s income to the achievement of local quality improvement goals. Syngentis helped Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust develop their approach and project plan to make a bid for national NHS CQUIN money. Syngentis supported me in untangling the complexities of the CQUIN process to ensure success in the delivery of the Health & Wellbeing elements excellent work which reduced my anxiety levels considerably. Lizzie Wood, Head of Occupational Health &Well Being, Mid Yorks
Syngentis working with and advising the NHS, Government and other key stakeholders 99.9% of all private sector businesses in the UK are small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and 90% of these do not have access to occupational health. The Health for Work Adviceline was set up to address this issue and provided an innovative way for people to access web based and telephone support. The positive overall evaluation of the Adviceline led to the DWP incorporating the concept and adopting the approach into the specification for the new Fit for Work service. After managing the Health for Work Adviceline pilot for five years, Syngentis supported a smooth transition to the new Fit for Work Service.
Syngentis making a difference in the NHS Syngentis supports and works in partnership with NHS Health at Work the network of occupational health teams across the NHS. Administrative and management support enabling the Network to function and flourish. Writing the monthly bulletin which now is sent to over 1800 people and ensures all occupational health staff in the NHS remain up to date and informed with the latest information, guidelines, evidence and research. A national conference attracting around 200 delegates and top speakers from the field of health and work. Working in partnership with other bodies such as the Council for Work and Health, the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and SEQOHS. Working with the Network to influence Government, NHS England, NHS Employers and acting as a voice for NHS occupational health and contributing articles and comment to the media. Exhibiting and giving presentations at key conferences and events. Supporting NHS teams to influence and showcase their work and raise their profile within their Trusts Providing a briefing to Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England. Syngentis enables the Network to flourish. We have become a recognised body that others turn to when they want advice about NHS occupational health. Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England has recognised the Network and supported our conference. Anne de Bono, Chair, NHS Health and Work Network President Elect, Faculty of Occupational Medicine
Syngentis our strategic priorities Develop our relationships with key stakeholders as impartial experts in the health and work field Act as a broker for NHS occupational health teams to improve the numbers of commercial contracts secured Develop partnerships and provide consultancy advice to improve health and work services Continue to develop MoHaWK, our clinical benchmarking tool, and increase the numbers of participants Support the NHS Health at Work Network in achieving its priorities
Syngentis the health and work community interest company dedicated to improving the fitness, health and productivity of the UK s working age population. www.syngentis.co.uk