Going to Court as part of your NHS profession is more common for some staff than others. This site offers some key things to consider when you are cited as a witness, providing some details around the various legal cases some NHS staff could be called to attend.
It is important to keep in mind that witnesses play a key role by giving information in court. The courts need witnesses to give evidence so that they can build up a picture of the facts surrounding the case allowing the court to come to a decision/verdict. Understandably, witnesses can feel intimidated and anxious about the prospect of attending court and hopefully this site will help answer some questions you may have at this time.
What is Witness Support?
Preparation is essential when you are being called as a professional witness. Witnesses have to prepare themselves professionally for Court by reviewing all relevant documents, notes relative to their involvement. The more they prepare the more beneficial and less daunting it should be when the time comes to take the witness stand in court.
Witness support is practical, emotional and confidential support and guidance on court and legal process. Witness Support is not coaching or influencing witnesses on how to give your evidence but helping you become more prepared, confident and familiarised in the legal process you are about to embark. Sometimes, the gap between giving a witness statement/precognition statement and a trial/hearing date being set can take many months or years, depending on the type of case. Therefore, use that time to prepare and familiarise yourself with relevant medical notes/investigation reports ensuring you have all the support you need professionally and emotionally to assist and guide you through what can be a stressful and sometimes worrying time for NHS staff.
As a starting point, have a read over the site content and familiarise yourself with the appropriate sections, for example, if you are being cited in respect of a Criminal Trial, have a read over Cited to a Criminal Trial section first and then section around court attendance/court visit – Attendance at Court & Court Familiarisation Visit. This will give you some practical information and guidance and a good starting point in aiding your preparation for Court.
NHS Staff may be cited at some point in their professional career in relation to cases such as:-
Public Inquiry (for the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry – please see guidance and FAQs)
Litigation cases – Personal Injury/Medical Negligence Claims
One to one practical, emotional and confidential staff support to listen and address your specific concerns and/or questions
Group Support – at times, various staff from one ward/department may be cited
Q & A sessions covering expectations of witness
Working in collaboration with external agencies such as Witness Service, Victim Information and Advice (VIA), NMC enabling a dedicated staff centred approach for NHS witnesses
Court Familiarisation visit in advance of trial (subject to COVID restrictions)
Support in court on day of giving your evidence (subject to COVID restrictions)
A dedicated point of support and guidance to you throughout the legal process aiding in your preparation and familiarisation of court and legal process.
Practical information around court processes and expectation of witnesses
Please read over the appropriate pages linked to the side relating to the type of case you are cited to attend. If further support is required, please get in touch with Rachel McGowan or your appropriate Legal Claims Manager for your area if matters relate to a legal claim against the Board.
The Witness Support and Corporate Legal Manager is based at West Glasgow ACH.
Please note: Witness Support is not coaching, influencing or tactical support and advice for attending Court. Witness Support offers reassurance for NHS staff who have been cited to attend Court.
The following videos highlight the support available to NHSGGC staff around Fatal Accident Inquiries (FAI) and Sudden and Unexpected Death Investigations (SUD)
Privacy Notice
As part of our requirements under Data Protection legislation, we have published a Staff Privacy Notice. By issuing this privacy notice, we demonstrate our commitment to openness and accountability.
We recognise the need to treat staff’s personal and sensitive data in a fair and lawful manner. No personal information held by us will be processed unless the requirements for fair and lawful processing can be met.
Contact Information
Rachel McGowan, Witness Support and Corporate Legal Manager based at West Glasgow ACH. Working as a Witness Support and Corporate Legal Manager involves me working closely with a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical staff across the organisation in relation to various legal cases on behalf of the Board.
If you have been asked to attend a Scottish Hospitals Inquiry oral hearing, this short video will provide you with an overview of the hearing room before you arrive.
Open to applicants with SCQF level 10 Qualifications in any discipline, this three year programme with placements in Health Boards across Scotland will give you real management responsibilities, and the chance to work with senior leaders and managers. You will be fully funded to compete a Masters (General Management) or a CIPFA professional qualification (Finance Management).
The Clinical Scientist Training Programme is a three year training programme commissioned by NHS Education Scotland (NES). The programme recruits Life Sciences and Physics/Engineering graduates (minimum 2:1) who wish to train as Clinical Scientists.
The programme includes includes various work-based rotations in hospitals and you will also complete a part-time master’s degree at one of the universities which are part of the programme. During the training you will be paid a salary equivalent to Band 6 on the NHS pay scale (approx. £25000 pa).
Recruitment generally starts in January with a clearly defined deadline.
The Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living (GCIL) is a user-led organisation, run by disabled people for disabled people. In partnership with organisations including NHS Scotland , the Professional Careers Programme is a 2-year salaried programme hosting placements for graduates on the programme. You will have a professional-level role and could work in any of the NHS Scotland Boards.
Graduate Career Advantage Service (GCAS) is a new initiative which supports recent, eligible graduates living in Scotland to find rewarding employment. we are delighted to be supporting a new NHS Scotland programme of Graduate Internships in partnership with GCAS.
As part of the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee, this programme aims to bridge the gap between employers and talented graduates; helping to ease the transition into valuable work experience.
The course will be held over Zoom, and directed at trainees who have passed the Part I exam, and are preparing to sit their Part II exam in September 2025. The virtual course will be based on exam topics and endeavour to reproduce the spirit of previous courses, while taking advantage of the strengths of virtual platforms.
The course fee is £750
When the course if fully subscribed, a waiting list will be held from which, trainees will be offered cancellations/withdrawal.
For information or advice regarding the content of this toolkit, quality assurance process or amendments to resources please contact the SMT working group at:
If you are concerned that a young person requires support with alcohol or substance issues, please follow your organisation’s own policies and procedures and discuss with senior management.
There may be additional local support services available within your area. Please contact substance misuse working group for more information if you are unaware of these.
If you are concerned that a young person requires support with alcohol or substance issues, you should direct them towards an appropriate service.
It is better to contact services now to clarify their referral criteria and procedures, rather than waiting until a young person urgently needs their help!
The Greater Glasgow and Clyde Substance Misuse Education Working Group consists of NHS and Education staff who have worked together to create the ‘Substance Misuse Toolkit’. This online resource contains quality assured substance misuse education resources to support staff working with young people in both education and community settings. Resources include lesson plans, resource packs and relevant websites.
The Substance Misuse Toolkit aims to reduce harm caused by substance misuse by:
Equipping staff with the knowledge and confidence they require to teach pupils about the effects, risks and consequences of substance use by providing them with a range of materials and methodologies.
Encouraging learners to make informed choices about alcohol, drugs and tobacco.
Supporting an age appropriate and inclusive approach to education in relation to substances within the context of a Curriculum for Excellence.
Identifying evidence based resources and approaches and share good practice with staff across the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
Ensuring that resources are up to date and fit for purpose.
Ensuring ongoing quality assurance processes are in place to monitor and further develop the site.
Quality Assurance
The Greater Glasgow and Clyde Substance Misuse Education Working Group meets regularly to ensure that resources included within the Substance Misuse Toolkit are evidence based, up to date and of a high standard. The group consults with key stakeholders regarding the accessibility, content, usefulness and areas for improvement.
The Greater Glasgow and Clyde Substance Misuse Education Working Group has developed a quality assurance tool to assess the content of resources against agreed indicators. The tool is consistent with the principles and values of local and national policy including Curriculum for Excellence, GIRFEC and the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Alcohol and Drug Prevention and Education Model. Resources which meet the standards set by this review process are then incorporated into the Substance Misuse Toolkit.
The Quality Assurance Tool Template can be accessedhere.
Policy Context
The need to support children and young people to make positive choices about alcohol, drugs and tobacco has been highlighted by a number of national and local policy documents. Substance Misuse Education is a priority within the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Alcohol and Drug Prevention & Education Model and is a Health & Wellbeing organiser within Curriculum for Excellence. Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) ensures that wellbeing is central to all of our work in meeting children and young people’s needs.
Further information on the policy context can be found here.
NHS Research Scotland definition
Research Governance concerns setting standards to improve research quality and safeguard the public. It involves enhancing ethical and scientific quality, promoting good practice, reducing adverse incidents, ensuring lessons are learned and preventing poor performance and misconduct.
A broad range of regulations, principles and standards of good practice exist to achieve, and continuously improve, research quality across all aspects of healthcare in the UK and worldwide.
Research governance applies to everyone connected to healthcare research including Chief investigators, health care professionals, researchers, and support staff.
Introduction
Research Governance is essential for the conduct of research on humans and encompasses regulations, good practices, and world- wide collaboration to create an environment ensuring safety of the participants while conducting the studies and trials and the collection and analysis of data to quality standards.
The Research Governance team at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is a support department to researchers and teams and is made up a range of highly qualified individuals such as PhD level scientists with research and Industrial experience, an engineer, auditors and monitors with key skills in QA, clinical trials, Industry, medical devices, drug development, Intellectual property and safety.
The team provide Sponsor support starting from the grant stage of a study, to protocol development, to assessing vendors, to identifying and managing risk and overseeing the conduct of the study, to managing non-compliances, protocol deviations and serious breaches of GCP. This activity covers hundreds of sites across the UK and internationally as NHS GG&C and Glasgow University researchers lead on worldwide research.
The QA team carry out GCP audits, a requirement of the Clinical Trial Regulations, engage with third parties to audit our own activities and provide a Quality system for the production and maintenance of SOPS incorporating all of the departments involved in research e.g. Imaging, safehaven, Bio repository.
The team activity is inspected by the MHRA during Regulatory Sponsor inspections. The Governance manager is a lead for these inspections involving all departments and other organisations. Together with the QA manager they manage the outcomes of inspections and ensure that the findings are addressed.
The Team are also responsible for the oversight of other studies such as surgical, medical devices and hosted studies including commercial and other academic led studies. Due to limited resources this is managed by assessing risk and focusing on areas which may potentially pose safety or quality issues.
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic the team led the development and implementation of a process to oversee safety of research participants still taking part in sponsored clinical research led by NHSGGC and its partners.
NHSGGC has already earned a reputation with companies for being open to innovative ideas and partnership working. We aim to build on this. In response to the scale of funding and innovation opportunities that are becoming available, NHSGGC has set up an Innovation Governance Group (IGG). The role of the IGG is to primarily assess consortia and bids that aim to use NHSGGC as an innovation test bed with an aim to;
Prioritise those that align with NHSGGC objectives and strategic delivery plans
Position NHSGGC to attract Innovation funding to support strategic developments.
As part of the processes for IGG we are now using a new system for the registration of innovation projects. To register your innovation project please complete the registration form (here) and send to innovation@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
The competition is live, with registration closing on the 23rd September 1100am and the competition closing on the 30th September 1100am
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by NHS Scotland. Successful applicants receive 100% funding and access to advice from NHS Highland, NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
The overall programme will be delivered in up to 2 phases. This is phase 1. A decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1. Only successful applicants from phase 1 will be able to apply to take part in phase 2.
NHS Scotland is investing up to £300,000 including VAT, in innovative solutions in 3 challenge areas as follows:
Challenge A
Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help develop prediction algorithms and risk stratification for diabetes foot ulceration, amputations and mortality.
Challenge B
Improving the clinical care of patients with a pre-existing diagnosis of diabetes when admitted to hospital by developing a real-time decision support tool and alert mechanism. The tool must improve triage, prevent medication errors, identify emergencies and streamline the diabetes care pathway.
Challenge C
Improving the identification (case finding) of people at risk of osteoporosis and fracture, including those with diabetes.
CSO are delighted to announce that applications are now open for the next round of CSO Response Mode Research Grants. The deadline for submitting the outline application is Friday 27th June 2025.
We would like to highlight that CSO have implemented a new grants management system.Applicants will be able to submit and manage their applications through all the pre-stage and post award stages through this portal.
Deadline for submission of applications: Wednesday 28 May 2025 for 3 June 2025 meeting
Automatic registration of clinical trials
On the 20th of October the HRA have announced a partnership with ISRCTN, which will enable automatic registration of clinical trials.
Registering studies before the first participant is recruited is one of the pillars of research transparency, it reduces research waste and prevents duplication. A key commitment they make in the Make it Public strategy is to register trials on behalf of sponsors. The aim is to ease the burden on sponsors and help to make transparency easy and the norm.
