Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service - running focus groups with employees
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is Scotland’s largest legal sector employer - and part of the See Me in Work programme.
COPFS, which has approximately 2,305 employees in Scotland, joined the See Me in Work programme as they wanted to ensure that:
- Their employees and managers are aware of the potential impact of mental health stigma and discrimination in work.
- Staff feel confident and safe to approach managers to talk about mental health problems.
- Staff feel supported.
- The organisation helps to promote communications and campaigns that help to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination.
After carrying out the See Me in Work staff survey COPFS decided to use the guidance embedded in the See Me in Work Portal to run focus groups with key groups of staff that were identified as underrepresented in the survey responses, as well as exploring some of the findings in more depth and supporting more effective development of an improvement plan.
The process
The Portal provides detailed guidance to allow engagement leads to facilitate focus groups effectively and safely within their own organisations regardless of previous facilitation experience.
Step 1. The HR Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager at COPFS used the guidance provided to create a plan for the implementation of the focus groups that was shared and agreed with the COPFS Corporate Health and Wellbeing Committee, which consists of senior leaders and managers and Trade Union Representatives.
Step 2. The committee authorised communications to line managers across the organisation that made it explicit that any staff wanting to attend the focus groups should be allowed time during their working day to do so.
Step 3. COPFS Mental Health Ambassadors and Committee members provided feedback on the questions that would be used in the focus groups to generate discussion and developed additional questions that were more tailored to the organisation.
Step 4. The focus groups were facilitated by two COPFS staff from the HR Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing team with one Mental Health First Aider also present in each group.
How it went
Facilitators had no previous experience in facilitating mental health focus groups with colleagues but felt confident to do so because of the guidance provided.
Feedback from attendees was that the groups provided a safe space for open and honest feedback. A good part of the reason for this was that participants were sent an information sheet and consent form after expressing an interest in joining the focus groups for agreement. Additionally, guidelines, boundaries and respecting confidentiality were highlighted clearly prior to the discussion commencing.
The discussions captured from each group were summarised into key points that provided clarity and confirmation for COPFS around what actions were a priority for the improvement plan. It was found that there are significant gaps about how employees understand mental health at COPFS compared to managers. The ways in which this gap is bridged may suggest how we could deal with long term, stress related absence.
“As a workplace mental health ambassador and first aider, I was delighted to be invited to take part in a See Me focus group. All attendees were made aware of support available at the very outset. The questions were thought provoking and all attendees were encouraged to provide views and given the time and space to consider and explore topics individually and collectively. As a public service provider, myself and colleagues require to be alert to vicarious trauma, alongside mental health issues and stress. The discussion was valuable, meaningful, and inspiring!” – Anonymous COPFS employee
With the positive feedback, we would look to use focus groups again in the future to gather feedback after the plan has been implemented as a review.