Overview Our staff Our environment Our patients, partners and communities Keeping us focused

> Our commitment to our staff

> Our way – values and behaviours

> Embracing diversity

> Valuing our staff

> Healthy workplace

> Childcare and carer support

> Learning, skills and development

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our way – values and behaviours

 

Working at CUH is about providing great patient care in one of the best hospitals in the NHS; but it is also about our staff - the qualities and skills they bring to their role in the Trust and the support, development and job satisfaction they expect in return. It's about sharing common priorities for improvement and embracing our Trust values not only in caring for our patients but also respecting each other as individuals and working together as colleagues.

 

All staff are guided by what we call Our way – this describes our purpose and role as a Trust, our vision for development in the future, our priorities for improving patient care, and our values - kind, safe and excellent - which define the way we work and behave towards our patients and each other as colleagues.

 

For staff at CUH this is Our way of working, Our way of behaving, Our way of striving for excellence in all we do – for our patients, for staff, for our hospitals and for our community.

 

> CUH - about us

 

 

 

Embracing diversity

 

The principles of equality and diversity uphold how we work. Working in the hospital is about caring for patients. It also requires everyone to respect and value each other as colleagues. This is one of our priorities as well as improving the patient experience and care. It is everyone's right, whether you are a member of staff, a patient or a member of the public, to be treated as an individual and treated with respect.

 

At its simplest, equality and diversity is about treating people as individuals. We are all equal, all different, and all individual and our approach is to consider and respect the various and diverse needs of patients, the public and staff and strive to meet them.

The Board of Directors and all staff have a legal responsibility to comply with anti-discrimination legislation in the provision of services we provide to patients and the public and in employment.

 

Through the single equality scheme the Trust aims to support these values as part of daily life in the hospital, underlining our commitment to provide a service which meets the needs of the individual, in a work environment which values the contribution of the individual.

 

The Single Equality Scheme and action plan sets out the Trust’s clear commitment to promoting equality and diversity and sets out the ways in which we plan to achieve our Equality and Diversity objectives. It highlights how the Trust will tackle inequality and improve the circumstances and experience for our patients, public and staff. Equal opportunity figures are reviewed at Board level and the Trust meets the national standard on equality and diversity.

 

> Single Equality Scheme

> Working for us

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valuing our workforce

 

We believe that our Trust is like no other – our name is associated with excellence and our reputation is international. That reputation rests on the skill and dedication of our staff – they are the Trust and it is their teamwork, energy, commitment, innovation and imagination that deliver our services.
 
Staff recognition is an important way valuing and rewarding the hard work of our staff. The Trust's Our Way Staff Reward Schemes intends to:

• value and recognise staff for their contribution
• recognise and highlight good practice
• encourage innovation, good ideas and service improvement
• highlight and embed Our way - particularly focusing on the priorities and values - across all areas of the Trust

Our Way Staff Reward Scheme consists of:

• You made a Difference - staff who have made a difference to patients and visitors
• Eureka - staff suggestion scheme
• Great Ideas in Action - rewarding innovative and effective ways of working
• Long Service awards - staff who have been at the Trust 10 years or more
• Divisional Excellence Award - recognising divisional team excellence
• Trust Retirement Gift

'CUH one of the best places to work'

The Trust was recently ranked as the 26th best place to work in the public sector - and was the highest ranked hospital in the Sunday Times 'Best Places to Work in the Public Sector 2010' awards.

 

Annual national staff survey is conducted and findings submitted to the Care Quality Commission who benchmark the figures against other hospital trusts. The findings are reported to our Board of Directors annually.

 

Connect is the Trust's intranet ... a central source of news and information for all our staff. It is key to our successful staff engagement and effective internal communications. Connect is also the only approved source of clinical and corporate documents, divisional information and other key clinical details which are essential for patient care and safety.

 

Management Staff Forum (MSF) is the formal body for Trust-wide consultation and meets approximately every six weeks. As the name suggests this forum includes Trust recognised senior management and staff representatives from the trade unions. All our staff are entitled to belong to a union and the staff-side members of this forum represent members views. This forum exists to foster good employee relationships when then in turn benefit patient services.

 

> You made a difference award scheme

 

 

 

Healthy workplace

 

Addenbrooke's Life

At CUH a proactive approach towards workplace health and wellbeing has been taken by developing and implementing what we call Addenbrooke’s Life – our way for happy and healthy staff.

 

Through a programme of wellbeing and health activities, social events and clubs, we are trying to create a positive and enjoyable environment for staff which we hope will increase motivation and engagement, reduce sickness absence and staff turnover, increase staff satisfaction, drive productivity and improve our reputation as an employer of choice.

 

While healthy lifestyle choices are clearly up to the individual, we have a duty as a good employer to provide a healthy environment and to promote and encourage healthy lifestyle choices. It is vital that the workplace is an area that does not create barriers to making healthy choices.

 

Increasing good health and a sense of wellbeing will contribute towards the success of our hospitals – Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie – and the quality of the service provided to patients.

 

Health and wellbeing at work is directly influenced by many factors and a number of departments. Our way for health and wellbeing primarily includes three departments – Human Resources, Occupational Health, and PR & Communications.

 

Our Addenbrooke’s Life strategy has three distinct areas of focus:

• Healthy lifestyle – challenging poor health and promoting healthy activities
• Inner wellbeing – encouraging time-out to relax, reflect and de-stress
• Having fun – creating a community culture through social events

Addenbrooke’s Life activities for our staff include:

• Free exercise classes
• Know your limits campaign (alcohol-awareness)
• Weight management programme
• Staff poetry competition
• Walking routes
• Meditation classes
• Book clubs
• De-stress days
• Fireworks night display
• Football tournaments
• Christmas party

> Addenbrooke's Life

Occupational Health

Helps the Trust to maintain a safe and healthy workplace for all staff. It provides:

• Pre-employment screening - process for assessing whether an individual is capable of the work proposed without detriment to their health, and that their will not pose a risk to patients
• Immunisations - protecting staff from flu, hepatitis B, measles, tuberculosis and chicken pox
• Health surveillance - offering guidence to help to protect staff from injuries
• Sickness management - advises staff on return to work options, counselling, re-deployment within the Trust and ill-health retirement
• Duty nurse - provides urgent advice about injuries or explosures to risks
• Ergonomist - advises on workstation assessments and work modifications to help create a healthy environment for staff to work in

Frank Lee leisure centre, located on our campus, offers a range fitness facilities to all NHS employees, including; gym membership, exercise classes, swimming lessons, personal training, tennis, football and much more. It also has a sports bar and brasserie with satallite TV - a great place for our staff to socialise, especially for those who live on the campus.

> Leisure and fitness

 

 

 

Childcare and carer support

 

A number of childcare options are available to help make their working arrangements easier.

 

Policies and procedures relating to childcare, carer support, maternity leave, paternity leave and adoption leave are all available on Connect – our staff intranet.

 

Time-out scheme is available which allows extra leave to be purchased should a carer require it.

 

Nursery facilities are available on the hospital campus via Kids Unlimited (Bunnybrooke's nursery and Long Road nursery). Both these nursery cater for children between 0-5 years old with places primarily for hospital employees. Childcare vouchers are offered to staff which provide a tax and national insurence efficient method of paying for childcare. Holiday playschemes are also available so to are breastfeeding facilities within the hospital.

 

Leave purchase scheme allows staff who have been employeed at the Trust for more than a year to buy up to an additional 10 days annual leave (pro-rata for part-time staff).

 

> Childcare

> Work-life balance

 

 

 

 

Learning, skills and development

 

At CUH we firmly believe in fostering a culture of learning and development among our staff. The trust invests in training programmes and e-learning for all levels of staff and has a comprehensive ‘learning directory’ on Connect – the staff intranet.

 

Mandatory and refresher training - all new Trust staff attend a mandatory corporate induction with annual refresher training provided electronically to both clinical and non-clinical staff. This training provides and introduction to the Trust, our priorities, infection control good practice, risk management training, fire training , manual handling training, data protection, safeguarding children, conflict resolution and much more. Completion of mandatory training is recorde by managers and logged centrally with our human resources department.

 

Annual staff appraisal - all our staff undergo an annual appraisal with their line manager. It provides an opportunity for a two-way discussion about their role, progress made, accomplishments, future objectives and development needs. The overall aim is to enable staff to improve their performance and continually develop their skills and potential.

 

Flexible working arrangements can be discussed and agreed for staff members to allow them to condense their working hours, arrange their time to fit around childcare committments etc.

 

National Skills Pledge - CUH has signed up to this pleadge which confirms our committment to:

• encourage and support employees to gain the skills and qualifications that will support their future employability and meet Trust needs
• encourage and support employees to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills
• demonstrably raise employees’ skills and competencies to improve Trust performance.

Work placements and apprenticeships - through our close working with Cambridge Regional College and Cambridgeshire County Council we are able to offer a work placements and apprenticeship. This allows students on-the-job training and experience that will assist development for furture employment.

 

Volunteering - volunteers provide an invaluable service and are a great asset to the hospital. They help us make life easier for both our patients and their families by supporting our staff in providing a direct service to patients, or by helping out behind the scenes. Each year approximately 700 volunteers give up their free time on a regular basis to help our patients. Our Young Person Volunteer Programme provides an opportunity for 16-19 year olds to gain experience of working in a hospital if they are considering a career in the health service.

 

> Learning and development

> Work experience

> Apprenticeships

> Volunteering

 

 

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