Embedding sustainable workplace wellbeing into everyday practice: CEIH and WCHN partnership

The CEIH and the Women’s and Children’s Health Net­work (WCHN) con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate on an applied research part­ner­ship that is bring­ing the CEIH Build­ing Sus­tain­able Work­place Well­be­ing frame­work to life in an acute health­care setting.

Since our August 2025 update, the part­ner­ship has moved beyond ear­ly engage­ment and insight gath­er­ing to the prac­ti­cal work of embed­ding the framework’s core organ­i­sa­tion­al ele­ments. This shift marks an impor­tant mile­stone demon­strat­ing our shared com­mit­ment to address­ing the work-relat­ed fac­tors that influ­ence staff expe­ri­ence, well­be­ing and burnout risk in ways that are evi­dence informed, prac­ti­cal and embed­ded in every­day business.

A key focus has been strength­en­ing gov­er­nance and esca­la­tion path­ways. By inte­grat­ing the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and man­age­ment of work-relat­ed psy­choso­cial risks into exist­ing organ­i­sa­tion­al process­es, the part­ner­ship is sup­port­ing a more sus­tain­able mod­el — one where issues affect­ing staff well­be­ing are rou­tine­ly iden­ti­fied, pri­ori­tised and addressed through estab­lished deci­sion-mak­ing and account­abil­i­ty struc­tures, rather than through one-off or reac­tive initiatives.

Putting data to work 

The work is also draw­ing on a rich mix of qual­i­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive data to inform work redesign. Insights from project activ­i­ties includ­ing the Lead­ing EAST mea­sure, ​‘Ask & Lis­ten ses­sions’, and themed co-design work­shops, are being con­sid­ered along­side exist­ing work­force and busi­ness data. This inte­grat­ed approach helps pin­point where redesign efforts can make the great­est difference.

As part of the applied research pro­gram, a val­i­da­tion study of the Lead­ing EAST tool has been com­plet­ed, con­tribut­ing to the grow­ing evi­dence base on how to mea­sure and mon­i­tor work-relat­ed risks and pro­tec­tive fac­tors in health­care work­force wellbeing.

Ground­ed in the CEIH framework’s ground-up method­ol­o­gy, more than 600 health­care work­ers have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the study.