What’s this project all about?
This activity is part of Healthy Working Life, a joint programme from the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, focused on helping people stay healthy, well and in work.
Leeds has taken a fresh approach to workforce wellbeing with the Thrive@Work programme, funded under Healthy Working Life.
Michelle (Shell) Stanley, Head of Leeds One Workforce, explains:
“We built this programme on strong partnerships and real workforce insight. We didn’t start from scratch. We used the trusted infrastructure we already had in Leeds.”
Thrive@Work operates through the Leeds Health and Care Academy’s Talent Hub, which already connects local people to careers, training and progression opportunities in health and social care.
“Using the Talent Hub meant we could move quickly. We already had reach into employers and communities. People knew us and trusted us,” says Shell.
Designed around people not symptoms
The programme was shaped by data, staff insight and system-wide co-design:
“We looked at what was really happening. We studied sickness absence data. We listened to staff. We asked managers what they were seeing. Then we designed support around that reality,” Shell explains.
Thrive@Work treats individuals as whole people. One staff member shared: “I feel seen for the first time.”
Shell reflects: “That comment stayed with us. It tells us we created psychological safety. People felt heard, not processed.”
Quick access to practical support
The programme offers four core services:
- Fast-track mental health support - early intervention to prevent escalation
- Fast-track MSK support - rapid help for musculoskeletal issues, a top cause of sickness absence
- Integrated coaching service - bringing together health coaching, work coaching and social prescribing
- Workplace adjustments and advocacy - independent support for workplace changes beyond statutory reasonable adjustments
“Health, work and life are connected,” Shell says. “You cannot separate them. Coaching helps people look at the whole picture.”
A central signposting service ensures staff are guided to the right support, even outside the programme.
Changing workplace culture
Thrive @ Work also focuses on culture. Its Workplace Promise helps build:
- confident leaders and managers
- psychologically safe environments
- organisational capacity for wellbeing
“If the workplace culture doesn’t change, support will only go so far,” Shell notes.
The results
Over 39 weeks, Thrive@Work received 994 referrals, with 77% self-referrals - a sign of trust and visibility. Early outcomes show improved return-to-work readiness, shorter sickness absence and stronger job retention.
“When people can stay in work or return well, their health improves too. That is the shift we are driving,” Shell says.
Treating root causes
The programme reveals that staff often present with symptoms rather than underlying issues, for example:
- MSK pain can mask psychological strain
- anxiety may be linked to workplace change or personal pressures
- mental health issues may mask neurodivergence
“Traditional, condition-specific interventions cannot meet complex reality. People are navigating physical, mental and social pressures at the same time,” Shell says. “When we design support around the whole person rather than the presenting symptom, we unlock a completely different level of impact.”
What’s next
Shell highlights key lessons: “Integration works better than invention. Strengthen what already exists before creating something new. Language matters. Non-clinical, plain language builds trust. And co-design is continuous - staff want to see us adapt and respond, not deliver a static model.”
The programme points to priorities for the future - centralised navigation, flexible pathways, whole-person support, psychologically safe communication and ongoing co-design with staff and employers.
“This programme is not just a response to need. It represents a fundamental shift in how we care for the people who care for others,” Shell concludes.
Thrive@Work shows workforce wellbeing works best when it is holistic, integrated and person-centred. By focusing on root causes rather than symptoms, we are helping staff stay well, return well and work well - offering a model for other health and care organisations across West Yorkshire and beyond.
You can also view this Leeds puts workforce wellbeing first with Thrive at Work programme case study as a PDF.