Profile of the Profession: Why do we ask you about your wellbeing?

Ensuring a healthy, sustainable profession is at the heart of our work, making it vital we understand as much as we can about our members' wellbeing, explains our Careers and Wellbeing Manager Olivia Moore.

Wellbeing is a major topic of conversation at the moment, with a vast upsurge in people openly speaking about their mental health, no doubt accelerated by the Covid pandemic. As a result, we have chosen to weave it into this year’s Profile of the Profession survey, our five-yearly means of gaining an indepth understanding of the make-up, experiences and opinions of our members.

We’re asking several questions in our Profile of the Profession survey relating to wellbeing and mental health, which broadly assess:

• What is the prevalence of mental health issues among our members?
• What are the root causes of mental health challenges and are these exacerbated by the workplace?
• What could, or perhaps should, employers be doing to better support members while they’re at work?

Most of the information relating to wellbeing among our membership is anecdotal, as I’m sure might be the case within your own workplaces. Running a large-scale survey, like Profile of the Profession, means we get strong data and visible trends. This in turn enables us to have more evidence-based discussions with our member employers about the support we feel is needed in the profession and initiate conversations for change.

We can report on any structural barriers to positive wellbeing in the profession. Or elements of the legal workplace that are leading to poor mental health, where employers aren’t acting effectively and it’s making people want to leave. Or if certain demographics experience higher levels of wellbeing issues than others. Conversely, we can share the examples of good practice.

These are all things we can find out in our analysis, because the Profile of the Profession survey collects such a wide range of data.

All of this will be a vital follow on from the large survey we ran in 2019 in partnership with See Me that focused solely on members’ wellbeing, which was the first survey of its kind. Based on the results of that survey, we produced a comprehensive report and multi-year action plan, which we continue to deliver.

Even with the interruption of a pandemic and inevitable change in people’s focus for a long time, some of the major achievements based on the feedback of participants have been:

• Establishing a Lawscot Wellbeing community, to promote events and key messages which can easily be shared with colleagues, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time.
• Running regular free events throughout the year relating to wellbeing, from how to prevent suicide, to why we all need to prioritise top-quality sleep.
• The launch of our first-ever funded training for Mental Health First Aiders, to allow members to get their qualification and deliver support to peers and colleagues throughout the profession.
• Ongoing engagement with various groups about wellbeing challenges, including new lawyers, employers and senior leaders.
• Developing a wellbeing peer-support forum for senior leaders in the profession.

The results that come from this year’s Profile of the Profession will only allow us to build on our support in this area, so we can provide more tailored support to members and more relevant guidance to employers.

At the heart of our work is ensuring the profession remains healthy and sustainable for the future.

How to take part in Profile of the Profession

Our independent research partners Taylor McKenzie are contacting all members directly by email to take part in the survey. Check your inbox for an email from them, which will contain your individualised link to the Profile of the Profession survey. The survey takes 15 to 30 minutes to complete and the link will allow you to save your progress. All responses will remain completely anonymous.

Find out more here.