Earlier this month, we were pleased to be invited by the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) to deliver a mediation seminar to its members. The HPMA is the professional voice of HR in healthcare. It has over 7,000 members and its aim is to support and develop HR staff to improve the people management contribution in healthcare and thereby improve patient care.
Consensio was joined by Clare Ridout, Acting Resourcing Manager at Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Consensio supported Guy’s in setting up their internal mediation service. This is what Clare said about the seminar:
“It was a privilege to be asked to speak at the HPMA event with Consensio. At Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Trust, I am one of our Trust’s mediators and I have also been responsible for overseeing the mediation service the Trust provides. As a Trust, we have worked hard to embed our mediation service and we are really proud of the service that we offer. I was so excited to share the work we have done at the Trust as well as share my experience and passion for mediation and the benefits it can bring to individuals, their organisations and even myself as a mediator.”
The event was attended by a large number of Trust HR professionals as well as mediators who wanted to find out more about how to effectively embed mediation into their organisations. We shared some tips on how to raise awareness of mediation within Trusts, how to overcome some of the most common challenges of embedding mediation within the NHS, and how to create a culture of conflict management within NHS Trusts. In addition, Clare presented a case study on how her Trust is using mediation and she shared examples of the success of some of the mediation cases she has facilitated.
At Consensio, we have been working with the NHS since we were founded in 2007. It has been really positive to see how many NHS Trusts throughout the UK are embracing mediation as an informal, humane and cost-effective way to manage workplace conflict. We hope that more and more organisations in and out of the healthcare profession, will follow suit and look into mediation as a way to increase employee wellbeing.
