Organisations across the health and social care sector rely on a workforce that is well supported at individual, team and systemic levels.
Social workers, healthcare professionals and people working in social care must feel valued, supported and respected for the work they do, which often occurs in highly pressurised and stressful environments.
To address this need, the University of Bedfordshire, in collaboration with Research in Practice, will launch a new web application, the Integrated Systemic Organisational Resilience Tool (iSort), in early 2025. This application is designed to provide comprehensive support for both individuals and organisations across the sector.
Over the last five years, Research in Practice has been promoting the use of the Social Work Organisational Resilience Diagnostic (SWORD) across the social work sector. SWORD is designed to help organisations create the working conditions that support organisational resilience and wellbeing which, in turn, are likely to improve satisfaction and retention among workers.
SWORD is a well-regarded tool that has been used more than 60 times in the last five years by local authorities across the country to target change initiatives and enhance organisational resilience and practitioner wellbeing. However, it is primarily focused on social work and operates on a yearly cycle for the launch of the diagnostic tool and the provision of tailored feedback.
Building on this legacy, we have secured funding to develop iSort, a more inclusive and automated successor to the SWORD tool. Hosted on a dedicated website, iSort, will expand its support to include individuals as well as organisations across the health and social care workforce.
iSort has been co-produced with diverse groups of health and social care practitioners, ranging from trainees to senior leaders. It will offer both individuals and organisations a diagnostic tool to identify their unique pattern of resilience-building factors and areas for growth, along with a set of resources to support personal emotional resilience and the key dimensions found to underpin organisational resilience.
Supporting individuals and organisations
The organisational element of iSort aims to establish conditions that underpin resilience at a team and organisational levels across five dimensions, known as Key Foundational Principles (KFPs): secure base, sense of appreciation, mission and vision, learning organisation, and wellbeing.
The individual element of iSort provides practitioners in health and social care with evidence-informed practical intervention strategies that build personal resilience across five key dimensions, known as Foundations for Wellbeing (FWBs): safe and secure, self-confidence and self-efficacy, learning mindset, professional identity, and self-care and wellbeing.
Together, the KFPs and FWBs provide a holistic, integrated set of tools designed to support the conditions for an effective organisational culture that will support motivated, healthy and satisfied practitioners.
If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Claire Williams.
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