Employee recognition and reward

Flexible working

The Flexi Service is a pool of workers and staff appointed to work countywide or within a designated zone. Flexi workers and staff are the first point of call for any short term vacancies or block bookings that arise across the Trust.

Our flexible working policy (PDF, 343 KB) is committed to attracting and retaining skilled and motivated staff. Utilising their talent and experience to provide a 24/7, 365 day service to patients and the public. It employs staff in a variety of working arrangements in order to meet the demands of front line services as well as in administrative, development and support functions. The Trust recognises the importance of helping staff balance their work and home life. Where possible, will offer flexible working arrangements that enable them to balance their working life with other priorities.

Innovative methods of working

The Trust supports innovative methods of working using mobile technology, such as video conferencing, tele-conferencing and the use of portable devices.

The Trust also promotes use of pool cars for essential business travel rather than use of personal vehicles. We have invested in a fleet of electric vehicles and charging points to support this.

Additional holidays

The UK statutory allowance is 20 days per year. Paid holiday at the Trust starts at 27 days up to 5 years' NHS service, rising to 29 days up to 10 years' service and 33 days after 10 years. Staff are also entitled to 8 paid public holidays.

This makes a very generous overall basic paid leave entitlement of 35 days, and an extended paid leave entitlement, after 10 years' service, of 41 days.

Previous NHS service may be considered when calculating entitlement.

• Blue Light Card: Discount service for the emergency services, NHS, social care sector and armed forces, providing our members with thousands of amazing discounts online and on the high street. More than 15,000 discounts from large national retailers to local businesses across categories such as holidays, cars, days out, fashion, gifts, insurance, phones, and many more.
• Gym memberships: Take advantage of various gym and fitness discounts.
• National NHS discount schemes. Health Service Discounts is a national discount service offering exclusive discounts for NHS employees and their families. These include offers for in-store purchases, travel, equipment and more.
• Vivup: Lifestyle savings, cycle to work, home electronics, 24/7 mental wellbeing support. Access fantastic savings through our lifestyle savings staff benefit today including discounts on a range of major supermarkets. Our Occupational Health Service also offers you separate access to our 24/7 Employee assistance programme via Vivup.

The NHS Pension is still likely to be the best pension you can access and remains one of the most comprehensive and generous schemes in the UK. We have outlined some facts below, the scheme:

• contributes a total of 20.6% of your pensionable pay
• is government-backed, secure and index-linked in retirement, benefits will increase each year during your retirement
• gives a guaranteed income in retirement for the rest of your life
• provides a spouse entitlement on members death
• provides valuable protection for families including life assurance and a pension if members are too ill to work
• comes with ill health and death-in-service benefits for active members
• provides new employees with automatic membership

Proposed changes to pension scheme rules

The proposed amendments to the NHS pension scheme include:

• new retirement flexibilities
• aligning the timing of CPI inflation rates used for revaluing pension benefits and the annual allowance tax calculation
• scheme access for primary care networks
• technical updates to member contributions provisions

Retirement

The Trust promote and encourage flexible retirement in order to help staff to continue working in the NHS for longer, by varying the nature or pattern of work in the lead-up to retirement This in turn maintains continuity of high-level care for patients and service users.

We also think it makes the Trust a great place to work by prioritising work life balance. Flexible retirement allows organisations and staff to be flexible about the age at which staff retire, the length of time staff take to retire, the nature and pattern of work in the lead up to final retirement.

The Trust offer the following flexibilities:

1. Step down: Staff can step down to a different role, for example, to reduce the level of responsibility while remaining in NHS employment.
2. Wind down: Staff can wind down to retirement by remaining in their current post but reduce the number of hours or days they work.
3. Retire and return: Members can request to retire, claim their pension benefits and then return to NHS employment.
4. Draw down: Members can take part of their pension benefits and continue in NHS employment
5. Late retirement enhancement: Members can retire later than their normal pension age and have their pension benefits increased.
6. Early retirement reduction buy out: Members or employers can pay additional contributions to buy out the reduction applied to the member's pension if they retire before their normal pension age.

As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan and People Plan, the NHS must lead the way in valuing, caring for, listening to, educating and rewarding our people.

We each have a voice that counts

We want everyone to feel safe and confident when expressing their views. If something concerns us, we should feel confident to speak up, knowing we will be listened to and supported.

Our teams need to have safe spaces where they can work through issues that are worrying them. If there is a better way of doing something, we share it. We will use our voices to shape our roles, workplaces, the NHS, and our communities, to improve the health and care of the nation.

It is important that we all take the time to really listen, beyond the words, to understand the hopes and fears that lie beneath them. We want our people to help one another through challenges, during times of change, and to make the most of new opportunities.

• People Pulse
• NHS Staff Survey
• Just Culture

Supporting and listening to each other and celebrating success

The NHS is first and foremost one huge team: We are 1.3 million strong. We are all walks of life, all kinds of experiences. We are the NHS.

And by working in teams, we can deliver much more: our jobs make a difference, and they are rewarding, but they can also be challenging and stressful. We need to give each other the space to innovate, to develop, and to learn, but also support each other when times are tough and celebrate success.

The NHS achieves extraordinary things for patients, but the safety and health and wellbeing matter just as much for our staff. If we do not look after ourselves, and each other, we cannot deliver safe, high-quality care.