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30 October 2008

Date: 16 to 18 November 2008
Venue: Feather Market Convention Centre, Port Elizabeth

The purpose is to launch the Employee Health and Wellness (EH&W) Strategic Framework, consult on four EH&W policies and identify policy gaps related to EH&W as a strategic human recourse function.

Background
For the past six years the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has been hosting learning sessions referred to as "The Public Service Indaba". The IzIndaba have evolved over time from being a consultative forum in 2001 to being platforms for shaping policy directions in 2004.

The past IzIndaba discussed the development of a comprehensive EH&W Strategic Framework. This Draft Employee Health and Wellness Strategic Framework for the Public Service was launched by the Minister for Public Service and Administration, as a consultation document at the seventh EH&W Indaba on 21 October 2007 in Durban.

At the Public Service Indaba VIII the final Employee Health and Wellness Strategic Framework will be launched by the Minister for Public Service and Administration.

A decision was taken at the Indaba VII that the Public Service Employee Health and Wellness Indaba VIII will be hosted by the Eastern Cape province from the 16th of November 2008 to 18th of November 2008.

About the Indaba VIII learning session

This will be the eighth learning session convened by the DPSA. Because the first three sessions all had a specific HIV and AIDS related focus, they were referred to as "Public Service HIV and AIDS Indaba". From the Indaba IV held in 2004, the focus has shifted to a more comprehensive employee health and wellness approach. In line with this expanded focus, the learning sessions are being called "Public Service Employee Health Wellness Indaba". Consequently, it is proposed that the next session continue to be called "Public Service Employee Health Wellness Indaba VIII".

The theme of this year's 2008 Indaba will be "Repositioning health and wellness as an integrated strategic human resources role".

Objectives

As reflected above, the main objectives for the proposed learning session can be summarised as follows:
* to launch and present the final draft of the Public Service Employee Health and Wellness (EH&W) Strategic Framework
* to provide the basic skills required to initiate department specific EH&W programmes
* to consult on key four policies (HIV and AIDS and TB, Health and Productivity, Safety, Health, Environment, Risk and Quality (SHERQ) Management, and Wellness Management)
* to discuss organisational support systems for successful implementation of EH&W Strategic Framework including monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
* to discuss an integrated health risk management system for the Public Service
* to share best practice.

Target groups

The expansion of the focus to embrace a comprehensive health and wellness approach means that some practitioners who were previously outside the target group will now have to be included. This is because some of the programmes being consolidated through this process have been in place for some time in some departments. These were implemented as stand-alone and sometimes even competing programmes. It is thus important, in the interest of consolidating the programme, that these practitioners also be included. This means that the target group for the learning session will increase from the previous 500 to an estimated 600 and will include:
* Senior managers tasked with employee health and wellness responsibilities
* HIV and AIDS co-ordinators
* occupational health nurse and medical practitioners
* special programmes officers (gender and disability programmes).
* employee assistance practitioners
* strategic private sector institutions
* peer educators
* South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
* national and international experts
* people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA)
* people living with disabilities (PWD)

Outcomes at the end of the Indaba VIII

It is envisaged that there will be:

* one EH&W Strategic Framework for the Public Service launched for implementation
* inputs from public servants on four policies will have been provided
* implementation guides, organisational support systems
* one EH&W monitoring and evaluation framework to be applied across the public service will be in principle agreed upon.

Registration

For registration please contact Eastern Sun Events, contact persons are Tanya Smidt and Denise Kemp:
Tel: 041 3745 654
Fax: 041 3732 042
E-mail: admin@easternsun.co.za
The registration form is available on the DPSA website at http://www.dpsa.gov.za/documents/ehw/register.pdf.

Programme

The draft programme is available from the DPSA website at http://www.dpsa.gov.za/documents/networks/ehw2008/ehwprogramme.pdf.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
30 October 2008
Source: Department of Public Service and Administration (http://www.dpsa.gov.za/)