Supporting the primary care workforce during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is a priority for the national NHS England and NHS Improvement Primary Care team. Rapid engagement with frontline staff at the start of the pandemic enabled a service to be designed around their needs, utilising coaching as an intervention to support psychological wellbeing and resilience.

#LookingAfterYouToo and #LookingAfterYourTeam are innovative and accessible one-to-one coaching offers. They provide direct access to free and confidential support to all staff working across primary care, understanding their needs and responding in a flexible way that is tailored to their individual or team circumstances.

Jill is a Practice Manager from Preston, Lancashire. As a newly promoted manager, she accessed the #LookingAfterYourTeam coaching support for primary care managers and leaders, coming away with a positive outlook and greater confidence:

I had previously taken part in another coaching scheme offered by NHS England a few years ago, which I found to be very beneficial at the time. I’ve been aware of a range of support for managers in primary care and when I saw this opportunity as a newly promoted manager I jumped at the chance! I knew the #LookingAfterYourTeam coaching would be of a similar high quality and was excited for my first session with my coach.

I had expectations based on my previous experience with coaching and I knew what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to be able to reflect on the last 12 months, allowing myself time to process events and decisions and to self-reflect and analyse my performance. I knew I needed to support my team and was conscious of how they saw me as a leader.

My coach, Jane, discussed with me a range of leadership styles that I could apply in my role and some helpful suggestions moving forward. The sessions gave me the confidence to feel that I could be a strong and confident leader for my team – at a time when they needed it most.

The coaching gave me valuable time away from the day job to assess my thought processes. It reminded me to continually take a step back and to give myself credit where it was due. I now feel more confident that I’m doing everything to the best of my ability and have a deeper understanding of my role and position within the team. I can now look at my role objectively and ask myself the right questions, enabling staff to feel that we can achieve the impossible.

I’ve taken away many new highlights from each session, whether it’s looking at how I communicate proactively with the team or remembering to reflect on my day and finding the positives. It’s sometimes difficult to find the time to reflect in such a busy role, and at such a turbulent time for us all, but I’ve learned it’s an important part of looking after myself and my wellbeing. This has been a positive experience that I would highly recommend.

Jane is a coach working on the #LookingAfterYourTeam coaching offer. She has been a coach for 12 years and has helped Jill and many other primary care staff to develop practical strategies and make small improvements to support themselves and their teams:

As a coach, it’s important to quickly establish trust to enable the coachee to share whatever is important to them. Every session  is a new experience with an individual and as such I pay attention to them and establish the conversation on their terms. Using various coaching techniques, I support a coaching conversation and establish a rapport in a supportive and confidential environment.

Topics vary hugely, from dealing with multiple demands and responding to rapid change, supporting staff in their wellbeing, resilience and new ways of working, workload and boundaries and communication across teams, both at practice level and at wider system level. Sessions are led entirely by the coachee – using their narrative and following their interest to discuss whatever is on their mind, I actively listen and reflect.

The goal is to help explore how to proactively support them to develop practical strategies, often aimed at making small improvements and most importantly helping them to recognise the importance of their role and work, which is something that Jill benefitted from.

I ask the coachee what they would like to achieve in our coaching conversation and use questioning to explore the reality of their situation, discussing strategies and actions that arise from our discussions to establish what they intend to do next.

If anyone is interested in a session, before meeting I would advise coachees to:

• have a quiet five minutes before the session starts, to gather thoughts
• ensure you won’t be disturbed and will not be worried about distractions
• have a notebook or piece of paper and pen handy, in case you want to write anything down such as intentions, actions or references to look up afterwards
• build some time in after the session for quiet reflection, so you can decide on next actions
• check your internet connection and choose the method of meeting that works best for you – we are available on Zoom, Facetime, WhatsApp, it’s your choice.

Coaching is just one element to provide crucial support to the workforce, there are also lots of helpful resources available online at Our NHS People and elsewhere. I often send reminders and links, depending on what we have talked about and if the coachee has shown an interest.

I advise coachees to share the information with their teams and colleagues and encourage others to access the coaching sessions for themselves. We’ve had some brilliant feedback and it’s wonderful to know we’re making a difference. The #LookingAfterYouToo offer is also available for individuals across all of primary care – we’re here to help and hope our service can provide a safe space for some positive discussions and outcomes.