John Stafford, The York Resilience Programme
Together with John Scott, John saw the need for and established The York Resilience Programme, which is provided through the University of York. The programme is for Chief Executives, HR & Operational Directors and senior managers working in high risk and critical occupations such as the health service, prisons and probation. The programme is delivered in a workshop and brings together the findings and recommendations from the international SPORE programme that examined resilience of criminal justice staff across Europe. Jo collaborated with the two Johns on the development of the programme and delivers the additional Challenge of Change component. John is a former Chief Executive of the multi-award winning Merseyside Probation Trust and was Secretary General of the Confederation of European Probation.
“I was interested in looking at resilience in high risk and critical occupations. There is a lot of resilience training available but it tends to concentrate on the individual rather than what organisations need to do. We wanted to look at an organisation’s strategic response as a means of increasing organisational and individual resilience. We approached Jo because she is a leader in the field of resilience and she agreed to work in partnership with us to develop the programme and deliver the Challenge of Change component. It has been very successful. We currently run at least two programmes a year, one in York one in Europe.
I’ve attended the Challenge of Change workshop myself and the core of what I learnt was the importance of being present and living in the moment, very simple but really good and life changing.”
John Scott, The York Resilience Programme
Co-founder of the York Resilience Programme, John was formerly a Senior Civil Servant with the Home Office and Ministry of Justice – with key posts in public protection and transformation. He was Chair and Secretary General of the European Probation Confederation and has held international consultancy roles in Europe and the Middle East.
“The York Resilience Programme supplies a range of smart services that address both organisational and individual resilience. We consider strategy, policy and procedures as well as how an individual reacts. Participants can learn to become more resilient through psychological interventions. Petros provides this component through the Challenge of Change training programme. We were attracted to working with Jo because of her strong academic background both as a researcher and practitioner of resilience. The training is unique in that it is soundly evidence based and has a proven track record of success in different countries and across different occupational groups - essential as we cover a number of markets.
The training is not only scientifically validated but it is also entertaining, fast paced and conceptually interesting. The self-assessment component is particularly helpful in explaining and understanding an individual’s resilience profile.
Following on from the York Resilience programme, Jo has successfully delivered the training to a number of organisations within the criminal justice sector, where its impact has been measured and proven to reduce sickness absence and improve other key staffing indicators."