Improving Together | 15
Please provide an update on what progress is being made to introduce flexible shifts for nurses as many people find the current 12-hour shifts difficult to juggle alongside a young family? There is a robust flexible working policy, however a newly-formed retention group are looking into this. Where are we at with plans to make all of our hospital sites ‘smoke-free’? Our Smoking Policy was updated last year and recommends that we make our hospitals smoke-free. However, there is currently no capacity to drive the plan forward so any recommendation would need to include a view on what department should lead the plans. How do you order the new yellow badges? To place the order: 1) Access the Oracle App from the main intranet homepage. 2) Click on the name badge icon as below (this is an example of the layout). 3) Select the style (either pin or magnet). 4) Add your first name only along with your Job title, and follow the above example (first letter is a capital letter followed by lower case). If you have a double barrelled first name please add these two names such as Mary-Ann with a hyphen and ensure you start each name with a capital letter. 5) Once your order is placed and approved, delivery will be 2- 3 weeks from date of placing order. Does the Trust feedback on unsuccessful Small Things Makes Big Difference bids? We respond to everyone a letter of acceptance or decline. There is currently a back log of requests and the team are reviewing the current process as there can sometimes be a delay if the panel choose to gather further information. We are one of only a few Trusts to charge staff for DBS checks. Are there any plans to changes this? The recruitment and retention group are looking at the DBS issue as they recognise the impact.
Can Champions have update on NHS Future Fit at next session? Yes, this has been organised. What is the peer-to-peer support service we are introducing and who is a supporter? The peer to peer volunteer service is a listening service for staff who need a confidential ear. They act as a sounding bar or a point of triage for staff to access. The volunteers have been trained in the local offer at SaTH and will be able to suggest other support required. We only have a pilot of 10 peer-to-peer volunteers at present, with another cohort being trained in October. Any member of staff can access a peer-to-peer volunteer via email sath.p2p@nhs.net. Their contact details can be found from that inbox once you email. Is there a list of ThinkOn Master Coaches on the intranet? ThinkON Master Coaches are currently going through their accreditation and therefore we are not in a position to promote them widely just yet. However, an intranet page is being developed in the background and will be published once ready. Do we have fast-track options (besides physio) for staff who are off sick and waiting for specialist referral? Not at the moment but this is something we have started to look in to and are contacting other NHS Trusts to find out what fast track options they are offering staff. We will need to explore whether there is a need and what options are available and share this with the Workforce Committee. Are there any plans to give staff access to Mental Health First Aid training? We have Mental Health Aid champions across the Trust who are identifiable by their lanyard. The purpose of the champions is to spot signs within their colleagues and signpost where appropriate. They are not required to do specific interventions or to step in. We have also increased sessions on stress and mental health awareness by offering half-day courses throughout the year. These can be found on the Intranet’s training diary. There is a significant cost to introducing Mental Health First Aiders, and therefore we would need to assess the specific need for introducing these and the expectations from the staff of what the first aiders will do, in addition to the offer currently provided.