member

WLP is pleased to introduce a new colleague David McLean to the team. David brings skills and experience that broaden and deepen our offer to SMEs. Two new areas of support he brings to the WLP portfolio are:

𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. Optimising your product/service line-up and pricing structures to better meet your customers’ needs and improve your margins.

𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Getting a better deal with your suppliers and customers through effective negotiation, and upskilling your staff to achieve better outcomes.

Keep any eye out for posts and articles on the WLP website and LinkedIn page from David on these topics. Or if you want to get ahead of the competition and start discussing them now, why not get in touch with David today? David.McLean@w-l-p.co.uk

Greater Anglia is showing its support for World Suicide Prevention Day, on September 10, by training more staff in suicide prevention to help keep people safe on the railway.

Greater Anglia staff have already helped to save 20 lives so far this year, through interventions where they have helped vulnerable or distressed people at stations across the network.

In the last three years, 141 staff have completed Samaritans’ managing suicidal contacts course, which is a one-day course tailored specifically to people working within the rail industry.

The course focuses on the benefits of a short conversation with someone who may be experiencing suicidal feelings and the techniques required to sensitively support that person and help begin their recovery.

These first aid skills are also beneficial when responding to family and friends who may visit the location following a loved one’s death and when supporting a colleague affected by trauma. In addition, they are valuable in our personal lives, listening to friends or family in need.

The aim is to continue to increase the number of staff who have completed the course.

The course is now delivered in-house by Greater Anglia’s learning and development facilitator, Dan Ribbits. A session will take place at Norwich railway station next Wednesday, which is planned to take place the day after World Suicide Prevention Day.

Greater Anglia has recently introduced a Lifesaver award for colleagues who have completed a suicide intervention. As part of this, staff receive a certificate and a badge to thank them for their efforts.

Georgia Payne, Greater Anglia’s Safeguarding and Community Safety Manager, said:

“We work in partnership with the Samaritans, British Transport Police and Network Rail to prevent suicides on the railway.

“We are doing everything we can to keep people safe while using our rail network. More staff than ever before have completed the Samaritans’ managing suicidal contacts course, which helps train rail staff to approach vulnerable or distressed people.

“For every life lost, six are saved and we are very proud of our colleagues who have carried out interventions. The Lifesaver award is a nice scheme to show our appreciation for what may be the hardest part of the job, and it has been well received so far.”

Anyone who needs to talk can call the Samaritans on 116 123.

To hear more about how Greater Anglia is supporting World Suicide Prevention Day, listen to Georgia Payne’s interview on the Life On Rails podcast.

Wingfield Consultants have won another global awards this year with a ‘Stevies’ Silver at The International Business Awards. This time an Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility award.

The name ‘Stevie’ is taken from the name Stephen, which is derived from the Greek for ‘crowned’!

Simon Wingfield, Founder of Wingfield Consultants, said: ‘This is our second global award recognition in 2024. We are so proud that the work we do for local communities, charities, and social enterprises in our home county of Norfolk has been rewarded with this silver award by the international judges.’

This is the ELEVENTH award win, finalist, shortlist or nominee recognition for Wingfield Consultants in 2024. It follows the CorporateLiveWire Global Awards 2023-24 win for Business Consultancy of the Year – UK win, The National Mentoring Awards – Excellence in Mentoring Award win (for Simon Wingfield), the SME News Business Elite Awards win for Best Business Growth Solutions Consultancy (East of England), the StartUp Awards finalist for Business Consulting & Management StartUp of the Year (East of England), the British Business Awards finalist for Small Business of the Year, the Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards finalist for Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year (East of England), a previous shortlist position for the Business Awards UK awards, the Business Awards UK Newcomer Business Consultancy of the Year win (Norfolk), the Business Awards UK CEO/Director of the Year win (Norfolk – Simon Wingfield), and a South Norfolk Community Awards nominee for Business in the Community.

Useful Links:

The International Business Awards® Recognize Achievements of Organizations Worldwide (stevieawards.com)

Achievement Winners | Stevie Awards

To reduce social contact, the Government has ordered certain businesses and venues, including non-essential retailers, to close or restrict how they provide goods and services during the national lockdown.

Non-essential retail includes clothing and homeware stores, betting shops, tailors, tobacco and vape shops, electronic goods and mobile phone shops, and market stalls selling non-essential goods. 

Non-essential retailers can only continue to operate for pre-ordered click-and-collect, mail order/phone order and delivery services. Council officers are visiting premises to provide advice and check regulations are being followed. If you wish to trade in this way, please remember:  

• Customers must pre-order goods, either online, by phone or by post, and must be given a future timeslot for socially-distanced collection or delivery.
• Goods must be collected or delivered off the shop premises and social distancing must be maintained.
• Customers are not allowed to enter the shop at any time.
• Shop doors or market stall shutters must be kept locked except to allow the temporary passage of goods for pre-ordered socially-distanced collection or delivery.
• Signage should be placed on the shopfront to say it is closed and only operating for pre-ordered click-and-collect, mail order/phone order and delivery services. Feel free to download this signage and put inside your window.

In this week’s episode James and Mark talk about ways businesses can increase sales performance during lockdown and extended furlough. As usual they end up with 3 top tips, and along the way they make reference to Toy Story 4, Kurt Cobain and, yet again, the film The Matrix!

You can subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, or listen below.

Don’t forget, if you have missed the special interview episode with Sue Liburd MBE, and Andy Nicol, on diversity in the workplace, this unmissable episode is still available to listen to Listen here

Haswell Training are passionate about supporting mental health and well-being in the workplace and have been working in the background to develop and deliver a service that is responsive to the needs of our clients.  Research has shown that employers see a return of £5.30 on average for every £1 invested in staff mental health.  But above all else, support for employees shows that they are valued and recognised (Deloitte, 2022).

We are delighted to announce the official launch of the wellbeing element of Haswell Training Limited. Our Head of Well-being, Charmaine, is a qualified Occupational Therapist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council bringing 14 years’ experience to the team.

She will be available to support the training needs of your team through the delivery of the following Qualsafe accredited (and Ofqual regulated) qualifications:

Level 1 – Introduction to Mental Health in the Workplace (Half day) – regulated and nationally recognised qualification for people who wish to raise their awareness of mental health and improve their mindfulness in work and everyday life.

Level 2 – Understanding Mental Health in the Workplace (1 day) – regulated and nationally recognised qualification that has been specifically designed to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of common mental health conditions in the workplace and how best to offer support and guidance to colleagues.

• Level 3 – Mental Health First Aid in the Workplace (2 days) – regulated and nationally recognised qualification that has been specifically designed for those who would like to become a Mental Health First Aider in their workplace.

In addition to this, Charmaine will be available to work in partnership with you to create a bespoke package – responsive to the needs of your workforce.  This could include:

• Continuing Professional Development Sessions – upskill your workforce and help increase their confidence and confidence to identify, talk about and promote their own well-being and that of others. Sessions could include topics around – sleep, alcohol/drugs misuse, anxiety, depression, stress, etc.
• Mental health and well-being sessions – moving away from the education side to focus on team well-being and strategies to support this. Sessions based around the NHS 5 Ways to Well-being.  Perfect for a short session within the working day.
• Support and/or supervision for mental health/well-being champions in the workplace
• Drop ins – a dedicated time and place for people to feel listened to and supported and offering signposting to additional services.
• Consultancy – to support businesses to identify and address the bespoke well-being needs of their workforce and use this to underpin a responsive mental health policy.

For more information, please contact us on 01603 394352 or email us info@haswelltraining.co.uk

(Credit: National Rail Awards)

At the annual awards event last Thursday night, Greater Anglia (GA) also won the Fleet Achievement of the Year award for its successful transition to a complete fleet of new trains (in one of the biggest fleet replacement projects delivered in the UK over the last 30 – 40 years, completed successfully despite added complications caused by the pandemic), while Cambridge won the Large Station of the Year award.

In addition, GA was highly commended in the Customer Service Excellence award for both its We’re All Ears customer feedback programme and for the customer-focused design and delivery of its Stadler-built intercity, Stansted Express, and regional train fleets. Meanwhile Bures and Norwich were finalists in the Small and Large Station of the Year awards, respectively.

Jamie Burles, Managing Director, Greater Anglia said:

“Everyone at Greater Anglia is very proud to have won the Passenger Operator of the Year award for the second time in three years. Right across our company, colleagues are passionate about doing their best for the customers and communities we serve. With excellent performance, a commitment to customer service, high quality new trains, and effective partnerships with other rail industry organisations and wider stakeholders, we’re fully focused on maintaining our high standards.

“It was also pleasing to see further recognition with our Fleet Achievement award, our Large Station award for Cambridge and commendations in Customer Excellence for our We’re All Ears customer feedback programme and, with Stadler, for the customer-focused features of our intercity, Stansted Express, and regional trains. They illustrate again our efforts and achievements in providing the best possible service for passengers across our network, day in, day out.

“We’re also grateful to key partners, such as Network Rail, the Department for Transport, Stadler, Alstom, community rail partnerships, station adopters, other rail industry organisations and regional stakeholders who all play a key role in helping us provide a high-quality service. We will continue to work to keep up our high standards and keep on improving – always focused on delivering the best train service we can for customers, communities, and wider stakeholders across our region.”

Judges’ citations for GA’s other award wins were as follows:

Fleet Achievement of the Year: “A ‘hands down winner’, owing to the strong focus on passenger benefits and close coordination between operations and engineering teams during the operator’s fleet replacement programme.”

Large Station of the Year – Cambridge: “This city station has improved even further since it last won the category back in 2017, adding a multi-storey cycle hub, more ticket gates and bigger ticket office. The judges felt it provided a modern welcome to the famous university city without compromising the historic atmosphere.”