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Board Partnership Agreement

The Board Partnership Agreement was developed jointly by the Board and the Trade Unions/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 where staff views can be considered before taking the decisions for which they are accountable. We are delighted to support this Board Partnership Agreement and commend it to you. Currently under review the updated version will be linked when available.

Facilities Agreement

The Facilities Agreement was developed jointly by the Board and the Trade Unions and Professional Organisations representing staff and has been designed to establish a formal policy and procedure on trade union/professional organisation facilities. In developing the agreement, cognisance was taken of the legal requirements placed on the Board, the Staff Governance Standard and the Partnership Information Network Policy and Practice. Currently under review the updated version will be linked when available.

Corporate Staff Partnership Forum

Like other Staff Partnership Fora, the Corporate Staff Partnership Forum serves as a collaborative platform designed to foster open dialogue between staff and management, aiming to strengthen organisational governance and advance shared objectives. Its purpose is to enable meaningful consultation on corporate workplace matters, support transparent decision-making, and promote culture of partnership where issues are jointly discussed and resolved. Membership of the Forum includes Corporate Directors and Staff Side Representatives.

Area Partnership Engagement Process

In early 2022, the Area Partnership Forum agreed engagement process documents which outline the process for bringing papers to the Area Partnership Forum for both Acute and Community and the process for seeking staff side representation for meetings. Please click on the link above to access Forum Minutes and access to APF engagement documents. If you require further information on either process, please contact the APF Administrator by emailing Kirstin.McKenzie@ggc.scot.nhs.uk.

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For information on Trade Union and Professional Organisations and how to join, please select the relevant tile below.

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The Employee Director is a Non-Executive Director member of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) and Co-Chair of the Area Partnership Forum. They work in partnership with the Board and its Executive Management to provide advice on workforce issues directly affecting NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Working alongside the Employee Director are 2 Staff Partnership Leads and an APF Administrator.

Directly accountable to the Chairman of the Board and elected as the Chair of the Staff Side, the Employee Director and Employee Director’s Office is the Board’s conduit for 15 Trade Unions/Professional Organisations, and takes forward staff side views to influence Board Policies and to ensure that staff interests are properly reflected in Policy Development and encourage the ethos of Partnership Working.

Portraying positive behaviours and encouraging collaborative working, the Employee Director’s Office work with the Board to achieve its objectives and represent the views of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde staff by influencing debate and discussion.

To find out more about the Team and to access Trade Union/Professional Organisation or further information regarding the Area Partnership Forum (APF) and partnership working, please click on the tiles below.

The Team

More Information

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If you require to speak with your Trade Union Lead or your local Staff Partnership Fora Staff Side Lead or Deputy Staff Side Lead, please see the contact lists below

Contact Details

Trade Union and Professional Organisation Leads

Contacts – Trade Union and Professional Organisational Leads

Local Staff Partnership Fora Staff Side Leads and Deputies

A Staff Side Lead and Deputy Staff Side Lead is elected through the Employee Director’s Office on a 4 year term to represent the Area Partnership Forum at your local Staff Partnership Forum. If you are required to contact either, please see contact details below.

Employee Director’s Office

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This year the Chair, Prof John Brown CBE, presented two awards which recognise outstanding achievement, expertise, and dedication in patient care. In common with all the other awards, these celebrate our people’s collective efforts and the lasting impact they have had on the lives of the people of Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Andrew Thomson

One of Andrew’s patients was going through a high risk pregnancy, when her husband sadly passed away after a two week battle with cancer. On hearing the news, Andrew called to offer his condolences and also talk about how he and his team could support the patient during this heart breaking time.

Andrew has an incredible way of communicating with patients and their families, with empathy and intuitiveness in abundance.

Unscheduled and Urgent Care Services

Due to unprecedented pressures, our Urgent and Unscheduled Care services have adapted to new and ever-changing situations which have been nothing short of remarkable. From the launch of the Flow Navigation Centre and Mental Health Assessment Units, to the ongoing dedication, commitment and professionalism of our EDs, IAUs, Community Pharmacies, MIUs, in-hours and Out of Hours GP Services, who have worked tirelessly with the support of diagnostic services.

At the start of the pandemic, it became clear that those who became very ill with Covid need a place where they could be seen and assessed safely and away from non-Covid patients.

Our Community Assessment Centres were created. This significant project required input from all of the eHealth teams to ensure the centres had all the necessary telephony and IT kit. They also needed to be set up very quickly.

eHealth teams responded to the needs of the service, working above and beyond to introduce new processes to book in Covid patients outwith hospital settings. The staff showed immense flexibility and changed their hours of work and their roles. The success of the CACs was due to the commitment, flexibility and team working across eHealth to support the Board in its response to the pandemic.

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The William Cullen Prize for Excellence In Teaching and the William Cullen Prize for Service Innovation are awarded in collaboration with the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

William Cullen Prize for Innovation

Dr David Lockington is a Consultant Ophthalmologist based in Gartnavel General Hospital.

Dr Lockington identified the opportunity to transform unused rooms within the Tennent Institute of Ophthalmology library into a state of the art teaching suite for ophthalmology training. There are now three rooms which consist of an ophthalmic simulation area, a computer room for trainees and a seminar room.

The suite allowed simulated microsurgical skills to be developed and maintained during lockdowns, and is now used regularly by trainees and the wider multidisciplinary team. This development has been extremely well received by local trainees, and has addressed previously identified surgical training gaps.

Local ophthalmology training has been enhanced significantly, and to illustrate the impact, this initiative has since been replicated in other UK centres.

William Cullen Prize for Education – Joint Winners

Doctor Scott Morris is the Clinical Director for the Renal Unit, based in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, though which provides a full range of renal services to the West of Scotland.

This unit has for some time demonstrated a high standard of teaching and training, as evidenced by consistent and positive feedback from trainees. Trainees emerge as highly trained renal physicians, having been supported by a skilled group of established Consultants with a range of subspecialty interests.

The experience gained while attached to the unit is clearly valued by trainees, who highlight in particular the supervision they receive within the department, the supportive environment and the overall level of satisfaction working within a very strong team.

Dr Libby Ferguson and the Palliative care team based in the Marie Curie Hospice in Glasgow continue to provide an extremely high standard of clinical training which trainees recognise with positive responses to the Scottish trainee survey and National training survey.

There is a strong culture of educational governance identified within the centre. Trainees attached to the team there give very positive feedback in all areas, with Foundation trainees in particular highlighting the very supportive and educational environment provided by the team, and General Practice Specialty Trainees similarly appreciating the education and experience that is provided.

gold and silver stars

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Staff Awards 2026

The Celebrating Success Staff Awards event will be held on the evening of the 30 October 2026. It is a chance to recognise our staff from across NHSGGC and celebrate their achievements in style.

The incredible commitment, passion, professionalism, and innovation of staff is inspirational and showcases the core NHS values embedded in NHSGGC. This is what helps us to navigate even the most challenging of times.

We deliver vital services under day-to-day pressures, at the same time evolving and innovating across the Board. Our staff strive to provide our patients with the best possible experiences, and it is a testament to every staff member that, despite ongoing challenges, outstanding levels of care are provided.

Before the excitement of the Awards Ceremony on the 30 October 2026, find out about the nominees in each of the award categories, by using the links below.

The winners will be announced live on the night on our social media channels (follow the #ggcawards tag).

Staff Awards 2025

Find all the winners, nominees and more below from our 2025 Celebrating Success Awards.

Every award winner and nominee should be immensely proud of themselves for the contribution they make to the delivery of healthcare in Scotland.

Find out about the winners and nominees from each award category below.

The winners were also announced live on the night on our social media channels (follow the #ggcawards hashtag).

View our photos from the 2025 Celebrating Success Awards event.

NHSGGC - Celebrating Success Awards 2025

Previous Winners

You can read about the previous winners and nominees, watch videos, and view the photos from the awards event using the button below.


Nominate a Person, Team or Project

If you would like to nominate a person, team or project for an award please complete the relevant form below:

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Growing our inclusive culture: Empowering everyone to promote Respect, Kindness and Equity.’

Thank you for attending the third annual NHSGGC Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Conference, which was held on Thursday 14 August 2025, at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Teaching and Learning Centre.

The workforce conference began with powerful opening remarks from Professor Jann Gardner, NHSGGC Chief Executive, followed by Dr Lesley Thomson KC, NHSGGC Board Chair. Delegates also received a comprehensive overview of the NHSGGC Workforce Equality Group Action Plan 2025-2026 from Liam Spence, Head of Staff Experience.

You can find here, the Workforce EDI Conference 2025 Resource Pack.

The 2025 EDI conference theme was “Growing our inclusive culture: Empowering everyone to promote Respect, Kindness and Equity”. The day included an inspirational keynote presentation from Dr Barbara Banda, you can view Barbara’s presentation here, presentation.

Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Conference 2025 – Breakout Session Presentations

To view each of the presentations, please click on the relevant heading below.

Creating Psychological Safety

Through her consultancy, Neish Training, Gillian works across the UK with individuals and organisations in all sectors to help them fulfil their potential. The focus of her work is power, whether challenging the power inequities of racism, sexism and the other ‘isms’ or developing personal power through personal development programmes.  Gillian designed and facilitates NHSGGC’s Leadership Programme for staff from Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

Tackling Gender Inequality

Led by Close the Gap, this session by Collett O’Connor explored how gender norms and stereotyping about women’s capabilities and interests can result in a segregation in the types of work that men and women do and how these can often underpin violence against women. The term ‘violence against women’ refers to violent and abusive behaviour that is carried out against women, primarily by men, as a result of their gender. This abusive behaviour can be physical, emotional, psychological, sexual or economic and stems from women’s deep-rooted inequality.

Tackling Hate Crime
                                                                                       
Police Scotland’s Lyndsay Brown led this session about hate crime, behaviours which are both criminal and rooted in prejudice. The legal definition of hate crime is “any crime which is understood by the victim or any other person as being motivated (wholly or partly) by malice or ill will towards a social group.”

The person experiencing hate does not always need to be in one of these groups. We looked at why the act or offence was committed and the perceptions of those involved.

Enabling our Disabled Workforce

This breakout was presented by Steven Reid and focuses on the importance of “reasonable adjustments” for staff with disabilities or long-term health conditions, as required by the Equality Act 2010. Steven’s talk provided strong examples of adjustments, such as changes to the workplace or working arrangements. It also specifically addresses neurodiversity, noting that it’s a natural variation and not a disorder. The presentation encourages managers to have early and sensitive discussions with staff to ensure they have the support they need to thrive at work.

The New NHSGGC Equality Scheme (2025-2029)

Dr Noreen Shields introduced the new NHSGGC Equality Scheme for 2025-2029, which outlines the Board’s commitment to creating a more fair and inclusive workplace. The scheme incorporates engagement and feedback from staff, patients and community groups. It sets out new equality outcomes and lays out the responsibilities of managers and staff in promoting equality and tackling discrimination. It also explains the process used to identify and deliver areas of improvement and the role we all share to help create a fairer NHSGGC. 

Speaking Up and Active Bystander

This session took delegates through some of the key principles of Speaking Up and being an Active Bystander, empowering staff across NHSGGC to challenge poor behaviours. Drawing on lessons from our Sexual Harassment: Cut It Out programme, Anthony Craig, Senior EDI Advisor, showed delegates when we challenge poor behaviours, we can shift the boundaries of what is considered acceptable within our workplace culture.

Civility Saves Lives

Civility Saves Lives (CSL) breakout session was delivered by Julie Pearson and covered how we treat each other at work. The aim of the CSL campaign in NHSGGC is to encourage positive workplace relationships and environments where the culture is improved by promoting the value of kind, caring and respectful interactions. The campaign also aims to raise awareness and understanding of the impact that rude, unprofessional and unproductive behaviour has and how calling it out with a compassionate approach can help to address incivility.

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Workforce Strategy 2025-2030

The Workforce Strategy 2025-2030 sets out how NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will support, develop, and sustain its workforce over the next five years. Building on the achievements of the 2021–2025 strategy, it responds to the changing healthcare landscape and outlines how we will continue to make NHSGGC a great place to work.

Centred around four community pillars: Safety, Health and Wellbeing; Culture and Leadership; Learning and Careers; and Recruitment and Retention – the strategy defines how we will strengthen our workforce to deliver safe, high-quality and person-centred care.

Our focus is on developing a skilled, inclusive, and adaptable workforce, supported by strong leadership, partnership working, and digital innovation. This strategy aligns with national priorities under Transform and Reform, ensuring NHSGGC’s workforce is equipped to meet the evolving needs of our patients, service users and communities.

In order to achieve the ambitions outlined within the Workforce Strategy 2025-2030, a suite of supporting strategies and plans have been developed to operationalise the actions contained within the Strategy.

Staff Health Strategy 2023-2025

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.

Internal Communications and Employee Engagement Strategy 2022-2025

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.

Safety Health and Wellbeing Culture Framework

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.

Workforce Plan 2022-2025

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.

Recruitment and Attraction Plan 2022-2025

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.  
  1. 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. 
  1. 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’. 

Workforce Equality Action Plan

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.

National workforce strategies

The NHSGGC Workforce Strategy 2021-2025 has been supported, driven, shaped and complemented by a suite of national workforce strategies aimed at Scotland’s health and social care workforce.

Health and social care: national workforce strategy

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.

Health and social care delivery plan

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.

Previous strategies

Previous strategies and plans supporting the Workforce Strategy can be accessed below

Workforce Strategy 2021-2025

Our Workforce Strategy 2021-2025 set out NHSGGC’s priorities for developing, supporting, and sustaining our workforce through a period of significant change and recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. This strategy has now concluded and been superseded by the Workforce Strategy 2025–2030, which builds on the progress and learning from this period.

Staff Health Strategy 2021-2023

NHSGGC has been and continues to be very mindful of the need to ensure we maximise all our efforts to ensure we can support 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 Grow Our Great Community.

In order to ensure we are best placed to reflect and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as deliver our corporate objectives and transformation ambitions we need to ensure that our workforce are supported to deliver the changes we need to make. We recognise that our staff need time to recover and reflect on the impact of the pandemic on their mental health and wellbeing and whilst Mental Health was one of our top priorities in our previous strategy it is a key component of our ambitions for our Staff Health Strategy for 2021-2023.

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Medical Director, Dr Scott Davidson, in collaboration with The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, will once again present two prestigious awards for Medical staff.

The William Cullen Prize for excellence in teaching and a separate William Cullen prize for service innovation will recognise a clinician, or clinician and team, as having made a significant contribution to local teaching or service innovation in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. 

The winners of each Prize will receive a framed print of a William Cullen letter which will be selected from the Royal College’s archive. The William Cullen Prizes will be presented at our Celebrating Success Event.

William Cullen

William Cullen (1710-1790) began his career as a medical lecturer and pioneer teacher of Chemistry at Glasgow University rising to international fame as the leading figure in Edinburgh University medical school and served as president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He was appointed the King’s Physician in Scotland and became the most influential medical lecturer of his generation.  His private consultations survive as a remarkable archive of several thousand letters.

Teaching Award

We currently have recognition awards for medical teaching based on performance in the national trainee and student surveys. The overall William Cullen Prize winner will be selected from that cohort of around 20 of our top performers.

Innovation Prize

To enter or nominate for the William Cullen Prize Innovation award please complete this form. Dr Davidson and a panel of senior medical staff will form the judging panel.

Nomination Form

The following nomination will be opened from Monday 3 August 2026 and will close on Friday 28 August 2026.

gold and silver stars

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