About Swanswell

A large proportion of Swanswell’s executive team have previously worked in front line roles so they are clear about the expectations and pressures on front line team members. The organisation encourages team members to shadow others, especially at induction stage, to ensure a shared understanding of what everyone does, this is especially used for support and head office team members who may not have worked in this arena before. In addition, the corporate induction day is a really important opportunity for team members to learn about what others do and for the senior team and organisation as a whole to learn. All new team members attend these events. Swanswell offers a number of routes for support to understand the pressures and workloads team members have. Flexi time is offered for team members to work when pre-arranged with an executive team member. Occupational health and wellbeing support is available for all team members with a regular occupational health service and a confidential employee assistance programme. Access to a specialist stress management consultant for confidential support is also available within the organisation and Swanswell’s give monthly clinical supervision for front line team members and regular performance reviews with line managers for all team members.

Swanswell believe that investing in team members and their continual professional development is essential to retaining talented team members in present and in future. That's why they have a talent development policy and framework, with a full-time talent development manager and a talent development team dedicated to ensuring our team members continue to grow in their roles. Their team managers, skills audits, appraisals and performance reviews help to recognise team members' potential to develop. Where they spot potential to develop, Swanswell provide the necessary support to help. Their talent development team includes two full time senior practitioner trainers who provide ongoing specialist training to their team members. They offer an annual open course programme so that team members can access both essential training for their role and training which supports their career progression. Crucially, their training is specifically created to be interactive and engaging, working for all learning styles and providing an absorbing learning experience which delegates won’t forget.

Teams at Swanswell are all given the opportunity to undertake annual team building events. These are specifically focussed upon encouraging team work and team cohesiveness, but also have specific objectives dependent upon the team’s needs. One example is a team who came together following a TUPE process who wanted to get to know each other better and specifically talk about how they could improve the way they worked as a team. Another example is a team who specifically wanted to work on identifying their strategy for the future and how they could get there. As a result of their away day they identified what they needed to do as a whole, and individually their own personal development plans to support them.