Richmond Fellowship, members of Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, is a national mental health charity which has been Making Recovery reality for 60 years.​

​​Their approach to learning and development, is to empower staff to feel confident in delivering the service to their customers at a high level. Richmond Fellowship organise a range of mandatory training and enhance this at a local level to meet the needs on the front line. They recently completed Dementia Friends Training and will soon be completing Equality Competency and Humility Training.​

Each staff member has an individual learning plan where they discuss on a 1-2-1 basis, what they feel they need to do their job effectively, and then the management work to put these into place. Each staff member is different, and it is vital to approach learning and development in accordance with individual needs rather than having a one size fits all approach. Staff can then confidently develop and deliver all areas of the service to customers at a high standard, allowing them to provide a safe, quality, and efficient service that supports customers to achieve their goals.​​

​​In addition, they also offer employer engagement to local employers and organisations, to help them develop wellbeing and mental health understanding in the workplace and become confident in supporting staff. Richmond Fellowship’s approach is the same as it is for their team – they want to empower those they support by ensuring they are giving individualised learning opportunities based on their needs, rather than using a one size fits all model. For example, they were recently approached by an early year’s education provider as their staff team were struggling with their confidence, having difficult conversations with parents regarding safeguarding, bullying, and learning progress. ​​

​​Richmond Fellowship liaised with the employer to ensure they understood exactly which areas the staff were finding challenging, and then created a Handling Difficult Conversations Programme that they delivered to the team in person. They used examples and scenarios from education setting environments, gave room for discussion and questions, and gave the staff chance to implement the models and tools they provided, in a safe space and with support.

Richmond Fellowship’s approach helps to ensure that the service is suited to the needs of those they are supporting. It means that they can play to the strengths of the staff, whilst promoting development. Results are shown as the service has now been retendered twice, and consistently meets the outcomes set by commissioners. Most importantly, it shows in the positive feedback they receive from customers, and their achievements in reaching their goals. ​​

​​As they move forward, they will continue to further focus on staff development in response to customer feedback and needs, staff feedback, and external provider feedback. The team focus for upcoming months, is going to be on increasing training, knowledge, and confidence in the staff team around employer engagement. This is so they can further extend the individualised support that they offer to employers and organisations in the area, helping them promote wellbeing and mental health in their workplace and feel confident when supporting staff teams.​

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