Within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), we acknowledge the unique commitment demonstrated by the Armed Forces Community, which balances civilian roles within the organisation with military responsibilities or family ties. We value the unique skills and experience being part of this community brings to our organisation.
The Armed Forces Community encompasses both individuals who have served in the Armed Forces and individuals affiliated with the Armed Forces, including military family members and dependants. Therefore the Armed Forces Community includes Armed Forces regulars, Service leavers, Veterans, Armed Forces reservists, Cadets & Cadet Forces Adult Volunteers (CFAV) and Military spouses & dependants.
Therefore if you are a member of the Community in any way, we would ask you to register with the Board Contact: Diana Hudson, Staff Experience Adviser, Diana.Hudson@nhs.scot. This means, we can ensure you are kept up to date with the support that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde can offer.
When registering, we ask that you complete a short form and submit this to the Board Contact. By completing these details, we’re able to securely hold your contact details and will be used for the purposes of Armed Forces communication within the Board. Please get in touch with the Board Contact for a registration form.
The Armed Forces Covenant
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) affirmed its commitment to supporting serving personnel, Reservists, veterans, and military families by signing the Armed Forces Covenant. By signing the Covenant, we pledge our commitment to supporting the Armed Forces Community, recognising the value they contribute and acknowledging that serving personnel and military families should be treated with fairness and respect.
To help NHSGGC staff understand the Covenant and its implementation, a LearnPro module has been created. This module is available under the Specialist Subjects dropdown in the LearnPro system or by searching, “Understanding the Armed Forces Covenant”. The LearnPro system can be found using this link: learnPro NHS – Login
Reserve Forces
The regular training that the Reserve Forces undertake brings essential skills into the workplace such as leadership, communication, team working and organisational ability, which ultimately lead to improved performance in the workplace.
The Reserve Forces Training Policy is an established National NHS Scotland policy within our suite of workforce policies and we hope that we can be confident that all NHS Scotland employers are treating their staff who are members of the Reserve Forces equally.
If you want to find out more about what our reservists do, please watch the RAF Medical Reserves Employer Engagement Video.
The Defence Employer Recognition Scheme
The Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) encourages employers to support members of our workforce who are part of the Armed Forces Community.
NHSGGC’s dedication to ensuring that all members of its workforce feel valued is evident, with a particular emphasis on supporting those who are part of the Armed Forces Community. The organisation’s communications and activities are carefully designed to celebrate and encourage this community, and we are delighted to be recognised for this work through achieving the Gold level in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme.
Staff Governance is a term which describes the framework for managing employees inside NHS Scotland. The commitments surrounding the framework, are in place to ensure all staff have a positive experience at work, where they feel motivated and engaged with their role, team and the Board.
If you have any queries please contact the Staff Experience team: ggc.staffexperience@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
What does it mean?
Staff Governance is defined as: “a system of corporate accountability for the fair and effective management of all staff”.
It can be measured through assurance that the Standard commitments are being met, and this is assessed locally via the Staff Governance Committee of each Board.
Staff Governance Standard
The Staff Governance Standard sets out what each NHSScotland employer must achieve in order to continuously improve in relation to the fair and effective management of staff. Click on the links for more information.
There are 5 Staff Governance Standard commitments set out what staff can expect from their NHS Scotland Board, and they are that staff should be:
- Well informed
- Appropriately trained and developed
- Involved in decisions
- Treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect, in an environment where diversity is valued
- Provided with a continuously improving and safe working environment, promoting the health and wellbeing of staff, patients and the wider community.
However, the Standard also sets out corresponding responsibilities for staff (at any level within the organisation). Staff should:
- Keep themselves up to date with developments relevant to their job within the organisation
- Commit to continuous personal and professional development
- Adhere to the standards set by their regulatory bodies
- Actively participate in discussions on issues that affect them either directly or via their trade union/professional organisation
- Treat all staff, patients and service users with dignity and respect while valuing diversity
- Ensure that their actions maintain and promote the health, safety and wellbeing of all staff, patients, service users and carers.
These dual commitments are in place to ensure all staff have a positive experience at work, where they feel motivated and engaged with their role, team and the Board.
NHSGGC Staff Governance Committee assesses how well the Board is complying with these Standards.
Fair Work Framework
The Vision and Framework for Fair Work in Scotland, state that, by 2025, people in Scotland will have a world-leading working life where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and for society.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) is committed to the Fair Work principles in order to deliver Scottish Government ambitions of a Fair Work Nation.
As a large public sector organisation, we work in partnership to align the Fair Work principles through commitment to the Staff Governance Standard, as well as a range of other activities and plans across the organisation including, the Procurement Strategy, Workforce Equality plans, Learning and Education activity, the Staff Health Strategy, Safety and Wellbeing plans, flexible and family friendly HR policies, and our Workforce Plan. Additionally, NHSGGC are proud to be a Living Wage Accredited employer.
Staff Governance Committee
The Staff Governance Committee (SGC) is a standing committee of each NHS Board which, together with the Clinical Governance Committee and Audit Committee, forms the full governance framework for NHS Boards.
The purpose of the Staff Governance Committee is to provide assurance to the Board that NHSGGC meets its obligations in relation to Staff Governance under the National Health Service Reform (Scotland) Act 2004 and the Staff Governance Standard. The Staff Governance Committee is a Standing Committee of the Board.
The Committee ensures that structures and policies are in place to provide assurance that all staff are:
- Well informed
- Appropriately trained and developed
- Involved in decisions
- Treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect, in an environment where diversity is valued
- Provided with a continuously improving and safe working environment, promoting the health and wellbeing of staff, patients and the wider community.
Each Health and Social Care Partnership, Acute Services and Corporate Directorate have their own Staff Governance arrangements and structure.
The Staff Governance Committee meets four times per year to review and as part of each Committee meeting, speakers provide assurance that structures, actions and processes are in place to meet the Standard.
The NHSGGC Staff Governance Committee is co-chaired by Ketki Miles (Non-Executive Director) and Ann Cameron-Burns (Employee Director).
Approved minutes of Staff Governance Committee meetings can be accessed via the NHSGGC Board papers page or by emailing ggc.staffexperience@ggc.scot.nhs.uk.
The Staff Experience Team runs a programme of Collaborative Conversations Staff Engagement Sessions to hear more from staff about their staff experience.
In 2023, and early 2024, we ran a programme of conversations with staff to test how we were using feedback from iMatter and Investors in People. At those Staff Engagement Sessions we asked staff for their input on what difference they’ve seen over the last year and what they think would make the biggest difference to their experience at work and the experience of colleagues.
The staff feedback was provided to the Investors in People (IiP) Cluster groups to inform their improvement plans and help create a better workplace in all our areas.
The team then worked with local services and teams to identify key themes from the 2024 iMatter survey and to help plan the programme of Collaborative Conversations. Feedback from these sessions informed both Cluster IiP actions, local Directorate and Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) activity, and the NHSGGC Board action plan.
For our New Starts, we are always looking for ways to improve the onboarding experience – for this to happen, feedback from colleagues who have newly joined NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is invaluable. Therefore we regularly run Collaborative Conversations which provide an opportunity for us to hear what went well during recruitment, onboarding and first few months in post. We are always keen to understand what went well and use feedback to identify any areas we can improve.
In addition, we run a series of Conversations to engage with staff about the Workforce Strategy, both to provide an overview of progress from the most recent Strategy, and to help inform the Strategy from 2025. This helped the team understand what staff feel is important to see included in the Strategy and helped deliver a strategy that moves culture and leadership to where we want it to be.
If you have any queries please speak with your manager and you can also email ggc.staffexperience@nhs.scot.
Staff experience takes account of a staff members full employment journey, from being a prospective candidate right up the point they leave an organisation.
As an employer, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) wants to ensure all staff have a positive experience at work, through:
- Ensuring visibility of, and access to, the right people and the right information at the right times
- Developing capability, inspire ownership, accountability and trust at all levels, and empowering the workforce
- Ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion to continuously establish a fairer workplace for all
- Creating and embedding two-way, feedback rich conversations throughout the organisation
- Encouraging a culture of excellence, celebrate success, benchmark against world class standards.
The Staff Experience team work in a number of areas, to ensure NHSGGC staff to have the most positive experience. The key areas of work and contact details for the team are outlined below.
The Staff Experience Team
Our Staff Experience team is committed to growing an inclusive organisation, where every employee is treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect. To get in touch, please email us at ggc.staffexperience@nhs.scot
The team consists of the following members and you can contact them via the buttons below:
iMatter is the NHS Scotland Staff Experience continuous improvement tool, developed nationally, and used within all NHSScotland Boards.
iMatter is designed to help individuals, teams, Directorates, Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) and 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. It is reflected in levels of engagement, motivation and productivity.
The process is based on a staff engagement questionnaire which all staff are asked to respond to, which generates a Team Report. The team discusses the report and agrees the team strength(s) along with up to 3 improvement actions. This improvement plan is captured on a team ‘Storyboard’ which the team then uses to monitor progress. The process is then completed annually.
National Staff Experience Reports
1. Line Manager Support Guides and Templates
2. YouTube Support Videos
For any questions, support or guidance regarding iMatter, or if you would like to share any iMatter success stories, please contact the iMatter mailbox at ggc.nhsggc.imatter@nhs.scot
