BNU staff and NHS staff standing outside Wellbeing Hub

BNU Aylesbury hosts one of the UK’s first coworking spaces for health and wellbeing professionals

Last Thursday 1 June, Countess Howe, His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, cut the ribbon and opened the doors to one of the UK’s first coworking spaces dedicated to health and wellbeing professionals, at The Buckinghamshire New University’s (BNU) Aylesbury Campus.  

The space, named the Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub forms an important part of the University’s contribution to a nationwide commitment to integrated care systems (ICS) the Government strategy to bring together placed-based partner organisations to support the health and wellbeing of local citizens and has been created in partnership between the University and Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy. 

BNU staff and NHS staff standing outside Wellbeing Hub

The new hub is designed for use by health and social care professionals and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) providers and features, bookable desks and PC’s, meeting spaces and private consultation pods for conversations with peers or patients. Also available are social breakout areas, a shared kitchen, and a regular programme of wellbeing activities and awareness sessions such as Talking Cafes, Dementia Friends training, and mental health support groups.   

Some of the roles of those anticipated to make use of the hub include social prescribing link workers and health & wellbeing coaches from primary care, counselling psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals, and community support workers from across the county.  

As Karen Buckwell-Nutt, Director of the Institute for Health and Social Care at Buckinghamshire New University explains “The Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub will enable professionals from across the health and social care sector and beyond, to come together to learn, exchange specialist knowledge, and opportunity to provide outreach to clients and patients. The hub introduces additional capacity to the sector, a professional resource, as well as providing the social and personal wellbeing support that we know is so vital to the personal health of practitioners and the wider community today.” 

Juliet Anderson, Director of The Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy continues “The hub closely aligns with the purpose of the Health and Social Care Academy to optimise the education, training, and skills development of the health and social care workforce through partnership working and this has been exemplified through the enormous support and involvement of our colleagues in health, social care, and the voluntary sector to launch the hub. Our partners have participated in the co-design from the very start and will be instrumental in the hub’s successful delivery to support practitioners while also improving the wellbeing of our communities.”  

The Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub forms an important part of BNU’s wider commitment to the local community and civic engagement, helping to enhance the local healthcare experience. Other contributions include the University’s Institute for Health and Social Care welcoming residents from ethnic minority communities to discuss and help overcome the challenges they face in accessing health information and services, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University’s nursing staff joined forces with the NHS and Buckinghamshire Council to provide 21,820 vaccine doses, with the Aylesbury Campus opening its doors to the community

As Melanie Hayward, Associate Professor of Education at the BNU Institute for Health and Social Care  explains “As a University with an ever-growing portfolio of health, wellbeing and social care related courses and project work, the wellbeing hub will be an addition to our commitment to co-creation and provision of education to meet local workforce need, sharing of innovative health care technology and collaborative research all with the aim of improved care outcomes.”   

Staff standing together and smiling in the wellbeing hub

By offering a friendly and free to use collaborative space for a huge range of professionals, many of whom otherwise work alone, remotely, or are regularly required travel extensively across the county to meet with peers and patients, the Buckinghamshire Wellbeing hub has the potential to benefit both patient and practitioner’s wellbeing in equal measure. 

Over time the hub will evolve to allow BNU learners’ access too, providing placements primarily to the students for the health, wellbeing and social related schools and enabling others to shadow professionals and volunteer at the Hub as part of BNU’s new curriculum. Students will also be able to engage in training alongside health and social care professionals as well as accessing support for their own health, wellbeing and social needs via a referral pathway from BNU Student Hub/wellbeing services. 

The Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub is managed by a dedicated, full-time member of staff employed by BNU and is located immediately next door to the Bucks Digital Hub and where similar coworking spaces are available for those in commercial roles and organisations, helping to engender even more of a sense of community.  

For more information about the hub contact Claire Tilson – Bucks Community Wellbeing Hub Manager – BNU Institute for Health and Social Care at bcwh@bucks.ac.uk