HR Connect

• All managers of people at all levels have a key responsibility for the effective management and application of the health and safety arrangements in NHSGGC (and all staff have the responsibility to comply with those arrangements).

• Senior managers rely upon all their managers and teams to implement, review and monitor health and safety performance, to maintain safe places of work and to monitor and support the wellbeing of their staff. As a manager of people I am expected to be aware of the Health & Safety policies of NHSGGC and know my role and responsibilities for the reporting and managing of health and safety incidents and risks on the Datix system.
• In my area I am aware of and work with the Health & Safety Rep (who is also the Staff-side Rep) who is equally invested in keeping the workplace safe, and I also consult with the NHSGGC Health & Safety Team and the Occupational Health Team for additional advice.
• I ensure that Statutory and Mandatory training is up to date across my team. I also listen for feedback and safety improvement suggestions from staff and I promote and contribute to improving our Health & Safety Culture in NHSGGC.
• Access the Staff Health, Safety and Wellbeing webpages

• As a manager of people I have day to day operational communications and conversations with my staff to enable effective delivery of care and service. For those who look after a clinical area and are co-located with their staff, engagement with them is face to face and in real time, but I know this can vary by the type of service, location of staff, levels of autonomy etc. For some departments where staff are dispersed I know this engagement has started taking place using MSTeams.
• My key responsibility is to ensure that the level of communication and engagement meets the requirements of my team to enable them to undertake their roles as effectively as possible, that they work well together as required and to ensure they get the support they need in the longer term. Being visible and available for my staff to support them is a key responsibility as a people manager. This means my staff are well informed and I involve them in decisions.
• I give feedback to my team members about what I think is going well or needs improvement and showing appreciation for the effort the team is putting in. This could be at team meetings, one-to-ones with staff members or as part of routine conversations.
• I work to the NHS Scotland Staff Governance Standards and I endeavour to model NHS/Local Authority values and listen to staff to understand the issues they are facing.
• I encourage my staff to speak up about anything they think is important and to help create an environment of listening, trust and care.

• I conduct an annual PDP conversation with each of my staff to discuss what is going well, what could be improved and to agree development objectives that would help them to deliver their responsibilities for care or service in the year ahead.
• The actions agreed are uploaded on the Turas system. I also conduct a mid-year review of what has been agreed and to discuss progress. My comments and those of my staff member are updated on the system.
• I ensure that adequate time is allocated for these meetings and that the conversations properly explore and agree actions and progress. Our discussions also include a career conversation where ambitions and potential of the staff member is explored and agreed.
• I have more informal one to one meetings with each member of staff throughout the year which enable me to check how things are going for the staff member, their development progress and their wellbeing.

• All staff in NHSGGC work as part of a team, large or small, and require to get all the information necessary to carry out their roles. In my team we discuss and solve current issues and make decisions and agreements involving our work. We work on how well we are performing against expectations in delivering the service and how this could be improved.
  
  I update my team regularly about what is going on in the department and to discuss and get input to any changes that will affect the team or the care or service we provide. This means opportunities both for me to share information and to ask for and listen to their feedback and ideas.
• This involves getting staff together for team meetings where these things can be addressed. I take responsibility to make time for, organise and run such meetings.
• The meetings themselves may take different forms, they could be daily operational meetings of a few minutes long to communicate what’s happening that day. They can be longer meetings perhaps arranged monthly to discuss some of the higher level issues described above.
• Team meetings for some teams are easier to organise that others. With my team I have challenges in doing this, particularly because members of the team are on different shifts at any one time. I therefore have to be creative to get all the team involved and I hold a number of split team meetings at different times.

• I make my team development a priority to ensure that the care and service keeps improving and that the department is a positive place to work where people contribute their best. Regularly reviewing how well the team works together, team communications and behaviours is key to this. This can be done informally, perhaps as part of a team meeting but is also an outcome of the iMatter process. iMatter involves every team in NHSGGC/HSCPs undertaking their own team questionnaire once per annum.
• In iMatter there are three sections of questions, one section about you and how you experience your role, one about your experience of the colleagues you work with including your manager, and one about your experience of NHSGGC as an organisation. The process generates a team report which is copied to all team members and summarises the team scores for each question and also generates an Employee Engagement Index (EEI) score for the team for that year.
• I make sure to confirm my team member details on the system when requested to do so then to brief and encourage the team to complete the questionnaire (for some staff members who don’t have online access this involves a questionnaire link being sent to their smart phone). Once the team report is generated I then organise a team meeting to discuss it and to agree one area of team success and up to three areas for improvement. I then upload what has been agreed onto the iMatter system which generates a summary (called a Storyboard) which is automatically sent to my team members for their own information. Because I encourage my team in this process and my staff commit to it they find that it is a valuable and effective way to measure and improve engagement and teamworking.
• The iMatter question scores for the team are also summarised into the report for my overall department and for my directorate, as well as the overall NHSGGC Board Report.
• The actions agreed in iMatter often involve improving communications, team meetings, ways of working, relationships and ideas to deliver better care or service. My team has also undertaken more involved team development as a result of our iMatter report and discussions. Examples of tools that can help are the Affina Team Journey tool and the Stress Survey for teams.

• As a people manager I am aware of the Human Resources related policies and guidance for our people processes in NHSGGC. I am required to apply these policies as and when necessary and be guided in areas such as Conduct, Capability, Attendance, Health, Safety & Wellbeing and Equality & Diversity. All policies and guidance can be found on HR Connect.
• Learning and development in many of these policy areas can also be undertaken on LearnPro and Turas Learn. For additional help the HR Support & Advice Unit can be contacted.

• As a manager of people I am knowledgeable of the NHSGGC Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Policy and apply the aims, principles and values to ensure that all my staff are treated fairly.
• I lead by example and ensure equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic (i.e. age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation) and those who do not. I take steps to meet the needs of any of my staff from protected characteristic groups where these are different from the needs of other staff. For example, I have met with members of my staff who have a disability and agreed the reasonable adjustments required to help them with their job. This could include seeking advice from Occupational Health, securing funding for Access to Work, or completing the Workplace Adjustment Passport.
• I’m aware that in recruitment of staff to my team, if a disabled applicant meets the minimum criteria for the job and they indicate on their application form that they wish to participate in the guaranteed interview scheme, I must shortlist them for inclusion within the selection process.
• I must ensure that training and career opportunities across my team are free from discrimination and when I assign work I do this fairly and consistently, taking into consideration the circumstances of each individual team member. I take a zero tolerance approach to any intimidation, bullying or harassment, recognising that all staff are entitled to a working environment that promotes dignity and respect for all.
• In order for NHSGGC to measure our effectiveness in equalities I know that data is drawn from the Electronic Employee Support System (eESS). I encourage everyone in my team to complete the equalities section of their own account on the system. This information is obviously provided voluntarily but is treated in strictest confidence and it enables overall data to be used for monitoring, reporting and taking board-wide actions to improve.
• Visit the Equalities in Health Team website

• As a manager of people the relationship I have with our local Staff-side Representatives is a key one. This close relationship helps us support an open, positive working environment and any issues affecting my staff that they may seek representation with can be discussed and addressed quickly. Early resolution is a key principle employed in workforce policies, for instance it enables many grievances to be resolved informally and quickly, avoiding an often lengthy and unsatisfactory formal process.
• NHSGGC has a partnership agreement developed jointly by the Board and the Trades Unions and Professional Organisations representing staff. The Agreement is designed to ensure staff are effectively involved in influencing the shape and implementation of decisions that affect their work, and offer managers the means through which staff views can be considered before taking the decisions for which they are responsible.
• Partnership is a way of agreeing together, wherever possible, changes in how we work and deliver care to the patients we serve. Managers of people should be aware and supportive of the local arrangements for the operation of effective partnership working in their directorate or HSCP. These arrangements will be determined jointly between local management and appropriate trade union/professional organisation representatives reflective of trade union membership within the division or substructure, and agreed by the Area Partnership Forum. They enable the consideration of issues affecting staff around service development, service delivery and the development and implementation of change.
• Whenever there are proposed changes to the way staff in my team work I always involve all my team members for discussion and input from the earliest stage.
• All change programmes which may have workforce redeployment implications must be supported by a management/staff-side partnership group and proposals will be subject to full engagement with the appropriate recognised Trade Union(s) / Professional Organisation(s) with a view to seeking agreement.

• As a manager, I am aware that Mental Health & Wellbeing is just as important as physical health and many factors and life events can have an impact on how employee’s feel.
• Taking a structured but supportive approach that is sensitive to the health and wellbeing issues of staff creates a working environment that staff feel more connected to and supported in. This is helpful for reducing stress which is one of the more frequent reasons given for sickness absence. Getting support at an early stage can prevent absence from work and help recovery
• I encourage and support my staff to maximise their attendance at work and supportively manage any sickness absence with them. This is a critical area for my attention because of the major strain that high absence levels can put on care, services and staff. If managed well in each team then the benefit of higher attendance levels are significant for care and services but also for staff wellbeing.
• I have made myself aware of the NHS Scotland Workforce Attendance Policy the Managers Guide, and the Attendance – Manager Toolkit. These set out and explain my responsibilities for absence reporting, recording, supportive contact, Occupational Health referral, return to work discussion, phased return, managing patterns of absence, long term absence and other additional scenarios.
• Timely and accurate recording of staff hours and attendance on the SSTS system is a manager’s responsibility and as well as tracking attendance it ensures that my staff get paid accurately and on time.
• Additional useful resources can be found by visiting Staff Mental Health & Wellbeing Support Z Card, Health and Wellbeing Directory and Staff Support and Wellbeing

• I may from time to time need to recruit to vacant posts in my team. As a hiring manager I am supported by the NHSGGC Recruitment Team and I’m familiar with the Job Train system to drive the process. By working closely with the Recruitment Team I am assured that I’m operating within current employment legislation, best practice and most importantly I’m making safe recruitment decisions and appoint the best candidate for my post. Close attention is paid in Job Train and by the Recruitment Team to ensure our recruitment processes comply with the Equality Act 2010 and meet our needs to employ a diverse workforce that upholds our NHS values and behaviours. An example is discussing reasonable adjustments that could be made for an applicant.
• To ensure that across the organisation we continually develop strong internal talent for future vacancies I play my part to ensure that a career conversation is part of the PDP discussions I have with staff. This part of the discussion should explore what career ambitions and potential my staff member may have for a promoted post (also acknowledging that many of my staff are happy and focused in their current role). If there is potential for such a move I then agree the personal development plan necessary to get the staff member ‘vacancy ready’ for the post they aspire to.
• When a member of my team leaves for another post I carry out an exit interview with them to find out what we can learn and develop from the persons reasons for leaving.
• If we have a reputation for fairness and support in the career opportunities we give to our staff, we are then an organisation that talented people are attracted to and want to stay in.

• In NHSGGC we often refer to those in senior management and senior clinical roles as the leaders in our organisation, but leadership skills are encouraged in all our staff. I am expected to demonstrate leadership with the people I manage and I pay attention to my own leadership skills development. I have found that these skills enable me to be effective in all my other people management responsibilities listed here.
• The leadership qualities and behaviours that I demonstrate with direct reports encourages them to take responsibility, work together to deliver as a team and to stay positive and resilient under pressure. My team have told me that they feel supported, informed, engaged, trusted and respected and as a result they achieve more.
• Everyone is expected to personally model the NHS Scotland Values of Care & Compassion, Dignity & Respect, Openness, Honesty & Responsibility, Quality & Teamwork (or the equivalent of these in your Local Authority) and behave with civility to all colleagues. In doing this I try to model the leadership skills to others and for those who are keen to advance their careers in NHSGGC I often act as a mentor.

Take our “People Management Self Assessment Questionnaire” and then consider:

1. Sharing your responses with the people you manage. They might have suggestions about things you are doing well or could improve with them.
2. Sharing your responses with your own manager. You can then discuss any development or support that would help you in your people management.

To receive an email copy of your results, once you have selected submit, two options appear at the top of your screen – a pdf symbol and an envelope symbol. First select the pdf and then select the envelope, a box will appear and ask for your email address – remember to tick the send pdf box.

Mentoring is a method of learning that takes place within a mutually agreed and supportive partnership between two people, the mentor (or trusted adviser) and the mentee (learner). The focus of the mentoring partnership is the skills development of the mentee.

Mentors share their experience and guide the mentee in the skills they need to develop, either for their current role or towards what is needed for a future role or career path. It can be a valuable development option for anyone, but particularly for those who are ‘career upward’.

Mentoring is found to increase staff commitment, job satisfaction and retention. The benefits are three-fold, in that mentees develop their knowledge and skills, get support to manage their career goals, develop networks and build confidence; while mentors get the opportunity to practice their development skills and share their knowledge and expertise.

The organisation benefits from the knowledge and skills shared, from improving the career support and retention of valued members of staff and from improving the internal talent for key roles. 

1. NHSGGC encourages anyone who wants to develop their skills in a particular direction to reach out to a mentor (or perhaps even more than one mentor for different skills).
2. In NHSGGC it is self-driven, that is, it is up to you to determine (often with your Line Managers support and input in PDP discussions) what skills you may benefit from to grow in your current role, or to get you ‘vacancy ready’ for a future role that you aspire to and have the potential for.
3. Identifying someone who has the level of skills and experience that you are looking to develop in yourself is the start, and your line manager may advise you on this as well. They may even help you and set up the approach to them.
4. You can also develop a ‘mentoring type’ relationship with your line manager to more naturally draw on their skills and experience, but the norm for actual Mentoring is usually with a third party, outside your own immediate department in order to get more objective support. Sometimes they may even be outside NHSGGC. 
5. You then approach the individual and explain what you are seeking help with and ask them if they would be prepared to meet you and spend some time to guide your development. This may or may not be referred to as mentoring. Many people undertake these developmental relationships without them necessarily being referred to as mentoring and they may be very informal. Otherwise a more structured and formal arrangement may be set up between you. The formality, regularity and duration of meetings is by agreement between you, it is not prescribed.
6. It is predominantly the case that when people are approached with this request they are more than happy to help you. Not everyone however may be a skilled mentor and although they may be willing to assist, you may have to guide the discussions between you to get what you need.
7. It is vital however in these relationships that you explicitly agree the ‘rules’ that are important to you, such as confidentiality, or that these are established implicitly with trust. 

LearnPro and TURAS Learn offer further information on a variety of mentoring resources and provision including learning programmes, eLearning and guidance.

You can also seek support as a Mentor from your local OD Advisor.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde continues to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our workforce. Our current and future staff are our greatest strength and this Strategy underpins the Board’s Workforce Strategy and reflects our aspirations to be a Better Workplace.

The focus of the Staff Health Strategy 2023-2025 has moved towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and support to staff to improve their wellbeing as new challenges arise. We have a strong foundation to build upon as evidenced by the many initiatives that have been introduced and embedded, including the Active Staff Programme, provision of Mental Health Support and the ongoing rollout of Peer Support. None of this is possible without the help and support of local teams across the organisation and Staff Partnership colleagues. Our staff equalities forums and the Staff Health Working Groups in Acute Services and our six Health and Social Care Partnerships also have a key role to play in delivering the actions which will flow from our strategic intent.

Engaging internal communications and high levels of employee engagement are crucial to continually developing our aim of being a better workplace. This underpins all our NHSGGC’s Workforce Strategy actions.

The Internal Communications and Employee Engagement Strategy sets out how we will do this, by supporting all our 40,000 employees to have a strong sense of purpose, connection, contribution and commitment to our organisation.

The Safety Health and Wellbeing Culture Framework roadmap outlines how we will improve the culture within NHSGGC, using an agreed set of Safety Health and Wellbeing (SHaW) standards.

The NHSGGC Chief Executive and Employee Director have reinforced their joint commitment to improving the safety, health and wellbeing culture within NHSGGC, through the development of the SHaW Framework.

All staff have a responsibility for safety, health and wellbeing within NHSGGC. A set of guidance documents outlined the roles and responsibilities for employees, managers and directors.

Each year NHSGGC is required by the Scottish Government to develop and publish a workforce plan which sets out the strategic direction for workforce development and the resulting changes to our workforce over the next year and beyond.

The NHSGGC Workforce Plan is developed using the NHS Scotland six steps methodology and the NHS Careers Framework. Both of these workforce models enable us to take a coherent view of the workforce across all job families and sub-groups. The Career Framework in particular is a useful tool for modelling and implementing workforce change and we are promoting and encouraging the use of this tool in NHSGGC.

Local workforce planning activity is managed within the Acute Services Division and within the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). In addition, there are workforce plans which focus on cross sector issues and plans based on service delivery models.

The workforce implications of service change and redesign are also set out in NHSGGC’s financial and service plans at Board and Divisional/HSCP level. These workforce implications highlight any planned recruitment activity and are further analysed in the project implementation documents (PIDs) which are prepared to support any significant service change and which set out the financial, workforce and equality impacts of any proposed changes.

All of the above workforce information is analysed and summarised by the workforce planners in order to develop the annual NHSGGC Workforce Plan.

The vision for the Recruitment and Attraction Plan 2022-2025 is to establish ourselves as a great employer and seen as an Employer of Choice. 

To help us achieve this vision, we have three ambitions: 

1. Attract, retain and value the most skilled, diverse and talented people from our local communities and around the world, proving we are a world-class public sector organisation.  

2. Empower our Human Resources and Organisational Development workforce to deliver a digitally-enabled world-class recruitment and onboarding service for our future talent that is inclusive and person-centred. 

3. Ensure use of high-quality data to drive forward workforce planning and recruitment initiatives as we strive to be a world-class public service. 

Our Recruitment and Attraction Plan sets out how we will achieve these ambitions, ensures recruitment and selection is inclusive and attracts candidates from diverse backgrounds, and develops NHSGGC under our corporate objective of ‘Better Workplace’. 

The Board Workforce Equality Group (WEG) aims to further develop NHSGGC as an inclusive organisation that engages with staff across all aspects of employment, in a way that reaches to the core of our organisational values and meets and exceeds our legal requirements as an equal opportunities employer. The WEG is responsible for the NHSGGC Workforce Equality Plan. The group includes representatives from the Staff Disability Forum, the Black and Minority Ethnic Staff Network, the LGBT+ Forum, staff-side, Human Resources and the Equality and Human Rights Team.

The key ambitions and outcomes for the Workforce Equality Action Plan 2020-2024 are:

• Our staff are treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect, in an environment where diversity is valued.
• Our data collection is legally compliant and is used to improve equality and diversity of our workforce.
• We can demonstrate that we are an exemplar employer by participating in recognised equality frameworks and charters.
• We have taken all the actions in our control to reduce equal pay gaps by sex, disability and ethnicity.
• Staff from equality groups are fully engaged in contributing to the Workforce Equality Group.

The Health and social care: national workforce strategy (published by the Scottish Government) sets out the Scottish Government’s vision for the health and social care workforce.

It supports their tripartite ambition of recovery, growth and transformation of their workforce and the actions they will take to achieve their vision and ambition.

The Health and social care delivery plan sets out the Scottish Government’s programme to further enhance health and social care services. Working so the people of Scotland can live longer, healthier lives at home or in a homely setting and they have a health and social care system that:

• is integrated;
• focuses on prevention, anticipation and supported self-management;
• will make day-case treatment the norm, where hospital treatment is required and cannot be provided in a community setting;
• focuses on care being provided to the highest standards of quality and safety, whatever the setting, with the person at the centre of all decisions; and
• ensures people get back into their home or community environment as soon as appropriate, with minimal risk of re-admission.

Please download a copy of the appropriate induction checklist for your role and work through this with your Line Manager.

To deliver effective and high quality health services, to act to improve the health of our population and to do everything we can to address the wider social detriments of health which cause health inequalities.  
 
Below are some of the frequently asked “big facts” about NHSGGC 

• We are the largest Health Board in the UK covering a geographical area stretching from East Dunbartonshire to Inverclyde 
• We deliver services in 25 hospitals, 10 specialist units, 60 health centres and clinics  
• We cover a core population of approx 1.2million and provide specialist services to more than half the country’s population 

• We have a total annual budget of £2.6 billion 
• We employ 44,000 staff 
• We are investing more than £1billion to build four new hospitals. 

This induction portal is an essential part of your journey as a new colleague, ensuring that you are well informed and provided with the necessary information you need to carry out your role within NHSGGC. 

As you progress through the portal, you will be guided through your induction journey by your line manager. 

Developed nationally in partnership with NHS Scotland employers, trade unions and the Scottish Government, these policies and associated supporting documents set the standard for employment practice for all NHS Scotland Boards to follow.  

The Once for Scotland Workforce policies are person-centred and will be applied using the NHS Scotland values:  

• care and compassion 
• dignity and respect 
• openness, honesty and responsibility 
• quality and teamwork.  

The first phase of implementation includes the following policies:  

• Attendance 
• Bullying and Harassment 
• Capability 
• Conduct 
• Grievance 

• Workforce Policies Investigation Process

The policies promote the use of early resolution, all parties establishing and encouraging open and honest communication and adopting a supportive approach by proactively communicating with and offering support to employees who are involved in any process as part of a workforce policy. 

Staff are paid on a monthly basis. Your salary will be paid into your bank account on the last Thursday of every month. Your pay slip can be accessed on SSTS. You choose option for “ePayroll” and can view your pay history and previous documents.  Should you have any queries regarding your pay, you must in the first instance, seek advice from your Line Manager, before contacting the Payroll Department.  

Any overtime worked should be submitted to your Line Manager on a weekly basis. Overtime is paid one month behind e.g. if you work overtime in April, this will be paid in your salary at the end of May. Any queries regarding overtime must be highlighted to your Line Manager as soon as possible. 

Holidays run from 01 April until 31 March the following year. Full-time staff will receive holidays as follows:  

• 0-5 years service 27 days annual leave per year  
• 5-10 years service 29 days annual leave per year  
• 10 or more years service 33 days annual leave per year  

Any requests for annual leave must be filled out on your annual leave card and authorised by your Line Manager with adequate notice given to allow cover to be organised. Part-time staff will have their annual leave and Public Holiday entitlement calculated pro-rata and provided in hours due. 

As an employee you can view and maintain core information held by your organisation, update your personal details (such as address, marital status, registration), view job related information, and add professional memberships and qualifications. You should do this on eESS.

All staff are entitled to join a Trade Union and there are a number of these across the organisation. Should you wish to join a Trade Union, please ask your Line Manager for contact details of Trade Union representatives.  

Trade Union Meetings – Whilst every effort is made to allow staff to attend Trade Union meetings held during working hours, it should be noted that essential cover must be provided. Permission to attend Trade Union meetings during working hours must be granted by your Line Manager. 

Staff have access to a wide range of benefits including travel; cycle to work scheme, annual bus ticket loans, and shuttle buses between sites.  

Staff also have access to credit union and discounted gym membership.   

Other deals can be accessed here Exclusive deals for NHS staff at NHS Staff Benefits – NHS Staff Benefits  

The Employee:  

• has a contractual obligation under their contract of employment to attend work;  
• must comply at all times with the documented sickness absence reporting procedures;  

• on returning to work after an absence, is required to attend a Return to Work Discussion with their Line Manager;  
• will be requested to attend a management meeting to discuss sickness absence and must, if unable to attend for an acceptable reason, inform their Line Manager prior to the date/time of that meeting and if acceptable a further meeting may be convened at an alternative location/date;  
• When on sick leave is required to maintain a level of contact/communication with their manager, appropriate to their medical condition. All employees are responsible for making every effort to communicate with their Line Manager whilst on sick leave. If you are going to be absent from work for any reason, you must ensure that you follow the correct reporting procedures as follows: employees who are unable to attend work, must tell their Line Manager at the earliest opportunity before their starting time and no later than within one hour after their scheduled starting time. Where the Line Manager is out of the office, notification to a suitable alternative manager is required in accordance with local procedures;  
• It is the employee’s responsibility to make contact personally with their Line Manager. Only in exceptional circumstances, where the employee is unable to phone personally, a relative or friend may phone on their behalf, but the responsibility remains with the employee;  
• Where the Line Manager is not available, it is essential that contact is made with an alternative senior staff member who will be responsible for taking the information and passing it to the Line Manager. Messages should not be left on voice mail, with the hospital switchboard or with other wards or departments. Mobile phone text messages are also not acceptable and will result in the employee having an unauthorised absence.  

Failure to make contact in time may lead to:  

• the absence being treated as unauthorised;  
•  an appropriate deduction being made from the employee’s pay;  
• Action under the Disciplinary Policy.  

It is important that the employee communicates all relevant details when making contact, including: 

• the reason for absence;  
• an indication of when the employee expects to be fit to return to work;  
• Details of any appointments with the employee’s GP.  

Sickness Certification  

• If you are absent from work you must submit the appropriate medical certificates for your absence.  

• 1-3 days No certification required  
• 4-7 days Self certificate required  
• Over 7 days Medical certificate from GP required  
• It is the employee’s responsibility to keep their Line Manager informed of progress and, in particular, should the employee be unable to return when anticipated. If the employee is absent immediately before leave days or days off, they must tell their Line Manager when they will be fit to come back to work. If the employee is going to be absent for an extended period of time, any subsequent certificates should be submitted as quickly as possible, ensuring all days in the absence period are covered. Failure to submit a certificate may result in pay being withheld.  

Return to Work  

After any period of absence an employee’s return to work will be acknowledged through a documented Return to Work Discussion. In many cases, this may involve little more than a courteous enquiry as to whether the employee is now well. In other cases, e.g. where a pattern of short term absence is developing, or following a period of longer term absence the meeting will explore this more fully:  

• the reasons for absence;  
• the employee’s fitness for work;  
• If the cause of the absence may recur and whether a referral to Occupational Health/GP report is necessary.  

At this meeting the employee will be given the opportunity to raise any issues they have about their absence and to get help from the organisation. More than 4 episodes of sickness in a rolling year or more than 8 days of short term absence in a rolling year can lead to disciplinary action. 

The NHSGGC Complaints procedure seeks to ensure, in accordance with NHS guidelines, that complaints are handled thoroughly without delay, with the aim of satisfying the complainant whilst being fair and open with all those involved. 

• Current NHSGGC Complaints Policy and Procedure

Training is available to staff who may be involved via Learnpro module NES: Complaints and Feedback 2017. 

Login to Learnpro the module can be found under CPD section (You will require your Learnpro username and password) 

This programme has 5 modules:

• The value of feedback  
• Encouraging Effective feedback and using it  
• NHS Complaints & Feedback Process  
• The value of an apology  
• Difficult behaviour 

Please complete the Datix reporter training on Learnpro to ensure correct completion of Datix form.

If you need to contact the Datix administrator, send email to datix.administrator@ggc.scot.nhs.uk 

iMatter is the NHS Scotland Staff Experience continuous improvement tool which is designed to help individuals, teams and Health Boards understand and improve staff experience. This is a term used to describe the extent to which employees feel motivated, supported and cared for at work.   

Understanding staff experience at work is the first step to putting in place measures that will help to maintain and improve it. This will benefit you as an employee, and the patients/service users that you support and their families.  

The process is based on a staff engagement questionnaire which all staff are asked to respond to, which then generates a Team Report containing the results. The Line Manager discusses the report with the team and agree what the teams’ main strength is, along with up to 3 improvement actions, which are specific for the team in the months ahead. This improvement plan is captured on a team ‘Storyboard’ which the team then uses to monitor progress prior to the next iMatter run. The process is then completed annually.  

iMatter Stories Page iMatter Manager Manual 

iMatter Manager Manual 

National Staff Governance   

• National iMatter Page
• National SG Page
• iMatter Stories Page

All employees will have access to Employee Self Service and will be responsible for keeping their own personal details up to date.   Below is a list of actions employees can view/action: 

Employee Self Service 

• View personal details – Name, address, date of birth etc 

• Change address – Always use “Type” Primary Home Country address 

• Change contact information – Emergency Contact details/Next of Kin details 

• Update Professional Qualification/Registration/Membership details – Certificates, Highers, Degrees etc 

• Line Manager will approve once evidence is presented – Other Non NHS Employment (Secondary Employment, including Self Employed) 

• Includes self employed, ad hoc work and contracted work 

Applying for Adoption, Maternity or Paternity Leave

• Applying for Adoption Leave  – Matching certificate must be retained by line manager  

• Applying for Maternity Leave – MATB1 certificate must be retained by line manager 

• Applying for Paternity Leave  – Copy of MATB1 must be retained by line manager 

 Full access to all Employee Self Service Standard Operating Procedures and eLearning video’s is available via eESS. 

The CHI number is the main patient identifier used to process or access patient information from PMS (Trakcare). 

The CHI (Community Health Index) is a database linking all of the Health Boards across Scotland electronically via the CHI 24 system.  

Patients registered on this system are allocated a CHI number which acts as their UPI (Unique Patient Identifier) for their journey through the NHS, from ‘the cradle to the grave’. 

 CHI numbers consist of 10 digits; the first 6 being the patient’s date of birth in DDMMYY format – i.e. 160181. The last 4 digits are allocated randomly by the CHI system that generates the CHI Number; however the 9th digit is indicative of gender – even numbers for female, odd numbers for male. 

The purpose of the CHI number is to provide a universal, multi-system and cross-discipline ID number for patients, so that regardless of where they are being treated within Scotland, and for whatever complaint, the patient’s CHI number will be a constant. This, in turn, will enable a complete clinical picture of the patient to be compiled. 

Some of the benefits of CHI are:  

• reduce risk of errors in identifying patients;   

• reduce risk of errors in delivering care to patients, due to inaccurate or missing clinical information;  
• help protect the patient’s privacy and confidentiality;    
• reduce risk of patient information being shared inappropriately;  
• construct a single, complete, accurate and up-to-date clinical picture of a patient’s health care;   
• Reduce the need to ask patients the same questions many times during their journey through the NHS. 

OneSign (also known as Single Sign-On/SSO) is the user-switching and password management tool available at all acute hospital sites across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. 

OneSign eliminates the need to repeatedly type usernames and passwords and streamlines clinical workflows and enables NHSGGC staff to quickly and securely access IT applications. 

OneSign brings a range of services to users including:  

• Application Password Management  
• Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) 
• Fast user-switching and fast logon  

Digital technology is now at the centre of our professional lives through TrakCare, Clinical Portal, Emisweb, PACS, Winscribe and Microsoft applications (e.g. office 365 and teams) and in our personal lives through social media, online shopping and digital banking. Each day sees continuous or intermittent use of end-point technology – i.e. workstations, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. From the end-point you access applications which may be directly managed by NHSGGC, hosted for NHSGGC on the internet, or your personal applications.  

eHealth works with many technology partners who provide updates that counter the threats that occur every minute of every day. Resisting such attacks requires a combination of technology and good human cyber-behaviour.  

eHealth uses the Fairwarning monitoring system to detect & highlight potentially unauthorised or suspicious activity on systems that hold patient information (more information on this here).  

eHealth promotes good cyber-behaviour and Cybersafe (search on StaffNet for Be Cyber Safe) will provide:  

A list of all Information Governance policies (View the Acceptable Use Policy to which every user should be aware of and comply with) 

• Cybersecurity best practice for the individual; provided by public sector bodies like the Scottish government, police Scotland, technology vendors and by our own staff  
• Newsletters which will highlight major themes and outline what you can do to help stay safe 

The majority of what you need to do in your professional life applies also to your personal life. How you need to do it may be different. 

Microsoft Teams 

• Teams guided learning modules

Microsoft 365 Outlook  

• Outlook

Microsoft Planner

• Planner

Microsoft OneNote

• OneNote

Microsoft OneDrive

• OneDrive

Microsoft To Do

• To Do

 Course overview 

Supporting staff is a key part of the manager’s job and this module offers guidance and support on issues relating to promoting employee health and attendance. 

This module has a particular focus on supporting staff with mental health and/ or stress issues including use of the Stress Risk Assessment tool. 

Learning Outcomes 

By the end of the session you will: 

• Understand the purpose of the NHSGGC Staff Health Strategy and of legislation relating to mental health in the workplace 

• Be ready to assess the risks caused by personal stress or work related stress (Stress Risk Assessment Tool) 
• Understand the importance of monitoring and review after the risk assessment is completed 
• Be aware of the range of resources available to support you and your staff 

Book using eESS login.

You should now work through the Learning Passport associated with your role. This should be completed within 3 months (full time staff) or 6 months (part time staff).

The Advance Nurse Practitioner (ANP) team in East Dunbartonshire HSCP, is a small of team of 6, supporting GP clinics as well as carrying out home visits, all across the Partnership. During our most recent iMatter action planning discussion, we reflected on the agile nature of our roles, and the need for lots of equipment to be transported when out and about at home visits.

We didn’t have a space to call our own for storing equipment, or dedicated desk space, as we’re fully agile. This means that equipment is often stored in our cars as we go back and forth to homes and clinics, which is not ideal for staff as we’re already taking other things, such as our laptops, out and about, so it’s a lot to consider for each trip.

So, we had a discussion with the Facilities Manager at Kirkintilloch Health & Care Centre to see what we could do to improve our experience.

Amazingly, we’ve secured a large double cupboard at the Centre, which is solely for our team, and we can easily access it to pick up just the bits and pieces we need, and store the rest. This is only a small thing but has gone a long way to making the team feel that they are valued, visible and that their needs are being met by the HSCP.

We’re now working with colleagues to look at ways we can use the space at Milngavie Health Clinic too, ensuring that our team can continue to have the same successful, positive experience, across all our sites.

Across the Clyde sector, we have seen real benefits of using feedback from iMatter to improve our staff’s experience. The big improvements in iMatter outcomes throughout 2022 demonstrate this, with an increased response to the questionnaire, an improved Employee Engagement score and a 7% increase in action planning.

We achieved this in a range of different ways. We took action before and during the questionnaire stage, to discuss iMatter at key management and partnership meetings, embedding it in business as usual. IMatter is always a key part of our thinking around how we engage with our workforce and use their experiences to improve services and make Clyde Sector a better workplace.

Alongside this, we shared ‘top tips’ during the team confirmation stage to ensure managers felt supported with each step, and staff were aware of the range of ways they could respond, to maximise participation. Maintaining a good working relationship with the iMatter team in HR meant we could quickly identify and resolve any action needed to support teams.

Once we received our results, we quickly shared the information with staff, managers and partnership colleagues, and ensured two-way communication was at the heart of improvement.

We now hold weekly partnership calls in Clyde sector to discuss emerging and live issues to identify solutions together. We’ve also introduced HR ‘Walk rounds’ across all three sites, meaning there are regular opportunities to meet with staff, be visible and discuss any concerns. Similarly, the Senior Charge Nurse (SCN) engagement sessions with senior management give staff the opportunity to discuss ways of improving services, staff morale, health and wellbeing. These allow us to hear directly from staff about how we shape support and drive improvement on an ongoing basis.

In addition to this, Partnership colleagues and HR now have access to daily safety briefings for all sites to keep everyone informed on hospital pressures and staffing. This means that appropriate action and support is given efficiently and based on feedback.

Taking this approach has achieved some really positive outcomes this year, leading to positive action, and we look to replicate and build on this into 2023, to realise continuous improvement for our staff.

Our team always finds the feedback from iMatter a really useful tool to create discussions about how we do more for our staff and also for our clients. This year, the report has allowed us to identify service improvements that we think will deliver excellent performance.

Initially during COVID we were keen to explore the experience of clients using the counselling service, particularly as we moved from face to face to telephone appointments. We did this through a short survey, which we circulated to clients. The feedback was positive, and gave us reassurance that we were still providing a supportive and person-centre service during COVID.

As we moved into 2022 and back to more face to face consultations, our team suggested we expand the survey to allow us to explore ways in which we could celebrate great work, review the service we provide and identify any opportunities for improvement.

This has been going really well, and at our team meetings we always allocate time to look at the feedback together. The comments from the responses we get helps us to build a picture of progress and improvement themes. The information we gather also supports our accreditation with Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service (SEQOHS) standards, the benchmark for occupational health services.

One particular benefit of this approach has been helping us to celebrate the successes of the team through the positive experiences of our clients. When we see really great comments in relation to the service provided by an individual staff member, this is highlighted at the team meetings, as well as at TURAS review discussions.

In the team, we’ve used the iMatter process to help keep us on track when it comes to our commitment to positive staff engagement, celebrating success and working as a team. We know that doing this has really helped us to continue to deliver a great service for the people using our service.

Like all services across NHS, the COVID pandemic raised a number of significant challenge for us in Estates and Facilities. One of those challenges was that guidance, including changes to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Safety instructions, was changing on a regular basis. For us, there was no reliable way to ensure that this information was appropriately circulated across all of our staff because of limited IT access for many staff in our service and the limitations on in-person meetings.

This meant that we were struggling to ensure that the staff on the floor were getting key information timeously, including COVID safety information and resources to support and improve staff wellbeing.

As a consequence, the Senior Management Team and partnership colleagues worked together to identify the best ways to get this essential information to staff reliably. This took the form of a Team Brief, which was initially issued on a weekly basis, and which we now issue on a monthly basis. We developed this based on the positive feedback and the recognition of an ongoing need for supportive engagement and communication with staff.

The detailed Brief is shared verbally with all staff, along with being circulated electronically and displayed on staff noticeboards. This very simple approach has been welcomed by staff, and has been adopted by others throughout the organisation too.

William Hunter, Deputy Director (Facilities & Corporate), says “there has been a positive response to this brief. In very difficult circumstances, we have been able to increase direct communication with our staff, including the provision of key work, wellbeing and safety related information, which I know that staff have found very reassuring and supportive.”

We can see from our 2022 iMatter results that one of the areas which saw the biggest improvement from 2021, was in relation to well-being support from line managers. In addition, improvements were seen around the themes of role clarity, effective team working and seeing the value and contribution made by the roles that staff hold.

This improved engagement and communication with staff, really focussing on well-being and experiences at work, has made a positive impact amongst teams, which we’ll continue to build on and celebrate.

Our 2022 iMatter report showed some really encouraging results, and we were particularly delighted to see positive outcomes relating to engagement, well-being support and leadership. We always aim to apply a person-centred, continuous improvement approach, which focuses on our staff’s experience, as we know this has a positive impact on the work we do.

That person centred approach could clearly be seen through our recent implementation of hybrid working. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) introduced a Blended Working Guide early in 2022, to support staff to work flexibly and to provide a healthy work and life balance.

The Clinical Governance Support Unit (CGSU) implemented this approach across all teams during Spring/Summer 2022. To do this, working together with staff, we developed a project plan with six key steps for implementation:

Planning – Engagement – Assessment – Pre-implementation – Implementation – Evaluation

A key part of our plan was working with staff to develop an Etiquette Guide. This provided some key principles and supporting guidance and aimed to give consistency to staff in terms of how hybrid working would actually work in our team.

Almost as soon as we had implemented the approach, we held a short workshop at the CGSU Team Session, to gather feedback from staff on their initial experience of hybrid working. Feedback showed us that staff liked the flexibility to choose when it’s appropriate to work from home and when to be working on site. The staff told us they continue to see the benefit of meeting together in person where it’s appropriate. We were really pleased to hear that they found the room booking system really clear and easy to access, allowing them to arrange all the practical requirements when coming into the office.

To keep the focus on staff having a positive experience, we also sought improvement themes from staff, and have taken these forward quickly. An ongoing evaluation is planned on a quarterly basis to continue engagement with staff and determine if the actions are resulting in real improvements, and to consider if there are any new actions we need to take forward.

Hear from Gail Caldwell, Director of Pharmacy for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, talking about the Pharmacy Strategy, which focusses on a culture of empowerment and enablement for all their staff.

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