Most people will know that the workplace is becoming an increasingly stressful environment, and union reps are always keen to support colleagues and find ways to reduce stress and its impacts.

Carol McGrath works in Adult Social Care at Leeds City Council and is also the lead ULR. To help staff at work deal with stress, and understand ways to minimise the impact of stress Carol set up a course titled ‘Stress in the workplace’. It covered the causes and symptoms of stress, strategies and methods to reduce stress and stress management techniques and included the practical use of a relaxation technique.

The course proved incredibly popular as Carol said:

The target audience was Leeds City Council staff from Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care. 23 staff attended and we had to develop a waiting list as demand for the session was high."

Though not directly involved the employer fully supported the session. A wide range of staff attended, including service managers. The sessions were offered to both UNISON and non-UNISON members in line with the Leeds City Council Learning Agreement.

Carol felt that it was a huge success in a number of ways and added:

We will be repeating the session again during Adult Learners Week and I am currently in the process of launching a reading group to promote reading for recreation in the workplace. The outcomes of the event are important as the session opened up opportunities for staff to access further learning, for example we had staff sign up for distance learning courses. It also prompted the role of UNISON with one attendee signing up for UNISON membership and two expressions of interest about joining UNISON."

Carol felt that an important factor in making the event such a success was that as a ULR she had access to a wide range of resources to support her in developing, planning and delivering the session. This included learning support staff and officers at UNISON and learning support staff at branch level, training materials, a Kick Start Grant and promotional material.

Though Stress was the subject of the training session, the organisation and event itself ran very smoothly and stress free - something that can make all the difference for a ULR.