Staff & Recruitment

Mentoring is a method of learning that takes place within a mutually agreed and supportive partnership between two people, the mentor (or trusted adviser) and the mentee (learner). The focus of the mentoring partnership is the skills development of the mentee.

Mentors share their experience and guide the mentee in the skills they need to develop, either for their current role or towards what is needed for a future role or career path. It can be a valuable development option for anyone, but particularly for those who are ‘career upward’.

Mentoring is found to increase staff commitment, job satisfaction and retention. The benefits are three-fold, in that mentees develop their knowledge and skills, get support to manage their career goals, develop networks and build confidence; while mentors get the opportunity to practice their development skills and share their knowledge and expertise.

The organisation benefits from the knowledge and skills shared, from improving the career support and retention of valued members of staff and from improving the internal talent for key roles. 

1. NHSGGC encourages anyone who wants to develop their skills in a particular direction to reach out to a mentor (or perhaps even more than one mentor for different skills).
2. In NHSGGC it is self-driven, that is, it is up to you to determine (often with your Line Managers support and input in PDP discussions) what skills you may benefit from to grow in your current role, or to get you ‘vacancy ready’ for a future role that you aspire to and have the potential for.
3. Identifying someone who has the level of skills and experience that you are looking to develop in yourself is the start, and your line manager may advise you on this as well. They may even help you and set up the approach to them.
4. You can also develop a ‘mentoring type’ relationship with your line manager to more naturally draw on their skills and experience, but the norm for actual Mentoring is usually with a third party, outside your own immediate department in order to get more objective support. Sometimes they may even be outside NHSGGC. 
5. You then approach the individual and explain what you are seeking help with and ask them if they would be prepared to meet you and spend some time to guide your development. This may or may not be referred to as mentoring. Many people undertake these developmental relationships without them necessarily being referred to as mentoring and they may be very informal. Otherwise a more structured and formal arrangement may be set up between you. The formality, regularity and duration of meetings is by agreement between you, it is not prescribed.
6. It is predominantly the case that when people are approached with this request they are more than happy to help you. Not everyone however may be a skilled mentor and although they may be willing to assist, you may have to guide the discussions between you to get what you need.
7. It is vital however in these relationships that you explicitly agree the ‘rules’ that are important to you, such as confidentiality, or that these are established implicitly with trust. 

LearnPro and TURAS Learn offer further information on a variety of mentoring resources and provision including learning programmes, eLearning and guidance.

You can also seek support as a Mentor from your local OD Advisor.

You could be a digital champion – someone who takes a lead within their team to help others with digital solutions. It could simply be helping with setting up passwords, getting others confident with using Teams, ensuring everyone can access and input to your clinical systems that you use everyday. You may not need specific training for this – you may just have the knack! Please join our Digital Champion Forum for more bespoke training, events and chat.

If this is the case then you should consider furthering your own knowledge and learning. A great way to do this is through the Digital Health and Care Leadership Programme .This course maximises the potential of digital to benefit people and supports participants to develop the strategic leadership skills required to influence the use of digital solutions in health and care delivery. Your project will need to fit with NHSGGC digital strategy but you can discuss this with your digital leads prior to and during your course.

You don’t necessarily require to do a formal course. Successful project work derives from great quality improvement methodology. Please refer to the online resources available on the NHSGGC website. Your Digital leads will be more than happy to support and advise. You can also submit project requests that require support from ehealth via the Project Management Office (pmo@ggc.scot.nhs.uk).

Social media is a highly influential way of connecting with others both with colleagues and patients. Please refer to the Information Systems: Acceptable Use policy if planning to provide a patient facing site on one of the many social media platforms available.

Many services and teams rely on websites to share information about their service.

There are 3 types and you may require more than one of the types for your service:

Service information webpage for the public

For information about your service that the public will access, it will likely be in the Hospitals and Service section on the NHSGGC website.

It should have the following structure:

• Service overview
• Info for patients
  • About the condition
  • What we do
  • How to be referred to service
  • What to expect at your appointment/hospital stay/what happens afterwards
  • Frequently asked questions
  • Leaflets
• About the team
• Publications
  • Reports
  • Forms
  • Patient Leaflets
• Where to find us
• Contact us
• Useful resources/links

To build this type of site see information provided by the Web Team.

Generic staff information

For information that is for staff primarily but which is appropriate for public view if desired such as this website and HR Connect it will likely be in the Staff Resources section on NHSGGC website and the structure will vary depending on content.

To build this type of site see information provided by the Web Team. You will be asked to complete the LearnPro module GGC 289: WordPress CMS prior to beginning your webpage build.

Service and professional information for staff only

For information about your service that is for staff only such as rotas, contact lists, service operating procedures etc, it is best to use the functions of M365, especially Teams and SharePoint. How these work together is described in Teams and SharePoint integration.

Put simply, every team in Teams has a SharePoint site already but SharePoint sites can be created independently too. See information at M365 Training Sessions to get started using Sharepoint or watch these videos:

Most of us now input our notes in to an electronic patient record whether it be EMISweb, Trakcare or Clinical Portal. But its important to know that these systems have regular upgrades and in time and through service improvement can change to a completely different product. You should see the record as being something that evolves and that can be improved to suit the service needs and not seen as a static unchanging entity. Have a read of EHCR Adoption Considerations which describes the move from paper to EHCR but also outlines considerations for getting the most out of your current notes tool. Making the Most of your Electronic Patient Record is a great site for more in depth reading.

Good data collection is crucial to changing and influencing a service. Understanding the power of data is becoming a must have skill. Look at how you collect data within your service or team. Can it be improved? Do you know if your patient clinical system such as Clinical Portal, Trakcare or EMISweb assist processes around referral management, workload, caseload management etc. FutureLearn offers a free online course to develop your skills and understanding of the data in health care – Power of Data in Health and Social Care.

Using apps is becoming increasingly common but there are things that need considering before adopting:

• Don’t jump into a specific product – what are the functional needs?​
• Will you need to capture identifiable data?​
• IG will need to be involved – a data protection impact assessment (DPIA)​. See Information Security policy
• Is there something that already does the job in the organisation?​

While a specific app may have caught your eye from an advert or event, there may be others.

Some estimate that 45% of all software features are NEVER used​.

There is likely to be a cost after an initial free trial.

Is it for clinical work?​

• Clinical safety of the product will need considered – some apps are even classed as medical devices​. Use the DTAC
• Will it be part of the clinical record or need to integrate with it?​
• What products suit these needs?​
• Installed app or web-app?​
• Competitive tender may be required​

If considering a trial, also consider a ‘get-out’​ as you could make a change that cannot be sustained due to financial or service implications.

Speak to your digital leads early on.​

Look at what is already available in the Right Decision Service.

Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy alongside the NHSGGC strategy Digital on Demand are 2 key documents that help shape the digital landscape with health and care. Visit the Digital Health and Care and the Digital Data and Capability sites on TURAS/Learn for lots more information and resources to support your digital journey.

Groupwork

• Groups have been running for some time in mental health and AHP services using Teams.
• Near Me has recently upgraded to allow groups to run from its platform.
• For more help with this put in a request through eHelp or Chat with Me on Teams

Website build

• Your service will greatly benefit from having its own site to promote your work and provide lots of useful information to your patients.

See Podiatry as a really good example.

• You require to get access to WordPress and you will be given help and instruction from the Web Team, you can find out more on their Website SharePoint site. See Leading Digital pages for more information.

• Physiotherapists and other AHPs such as Podiatry and Orthotics can use this tool for free. Log a call with eHelp to have it downloaded to your PC or laptop. Have a look at the training stream. A SWAY is also available on request from Gillian.Ferguson6@nhs.scot
• Can you make use of QR codes and email facility to make it easy for your patients to access?
• Can you make templates for commonly used exercises and activities?
• Add your own videos and photographs if required.  
• Just remember to limit the patient data the site asks for. Stick to initials only and always gain consent from the patient before making use of their email.

• This is a new system to NHSGGC. Information can be transferred electronically to your patients and including a digital appointment service.
• They will be able to receive notification of their appointment and interact by accepting, cancelling or requesting to rebook.
• It can be used to send leaflets, questionnaires and test results. The tonsillectomy service are now using a pre-op questionnaire which the patient completes and sends back with no need for a face-to-face appointment.
• If you think your service would benefit from using this in the future, put in a project request via the Project Management Office.

• Email is fast becoming a popular way for patients to connect with their healthcare professionals.
• Use your own or set up a generic mailbox for your service.
• Review the Information Security: Acceptable Use policy for information on emailing patients to ensure safe use. It’s a safe and secure method of delivery for information such as exercise programmes, advice following provision of equipment, quick confirmation of appointment time. 
• It shouldn’t be used for detailed clinical discussion and must have the minimum of identifiable data included in the body of text.

• Most of us now write in to an electronic patient record.
• All the systems have the function of using ‘structured’ data by linking to read codes or Snomed CT.
• Services can pull lots of information by using simple coding to, for example, code a referral type or condition.
• You can see how making use of this gives access to powerful data about your service.
• Talk to your service leads about using this functionality.

Asynchronous appointments

• Asynchronous appointments or those not done in ‘real time’ can be used to cut down face-to-face visits.
• Allows patients to answer a questionnaire or provide a short video or photograph in the comfort of their own home.
• You can then view this later before making a decision about further therapy.
• This image would need to be part of the clinical record and there are several products being tried and tested – SCIT app dermatology, vCreate neurology.

MIMS

• The MIMs (Medical Illustration Management System) upgrade is a project in progress to provide a stable system for NHSGGC which allows capture of all types of clinical image.

Referral Triage

• Active Clinical Referral Triage isn’t a specific digital tool. It is a model of working now used widely across services. It facilities virtual patient management and allows faster and improved flow of work getting the patient seen by the right clinician by the most appropriate method. Can this model be implemented within your service?

• mun.woo@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
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• Call: Independent Whistleblowing helpline 0800 008 6112
• Email: NHSGGC Whistleblowing Lead Kim Donald at ggc.whistleblowing@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

• Email: Andrew.Harvey@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

• Email Liz Sinclair at EJobPlan.Admin@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde continues to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our workforce. Our current and future staff are our greatest strength and this Strategy underpins the Board’s Workforce Strategy and reflects our aspirations to be a Better Workplace.

The focus of the Staff Health Strategy 2023-2025 has moved towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and support to staff to improve their wellbeing as new challenges arise. We have a strong foundation to build upon as evidenced by the many initiatives that have been introduced and embedded, including the Active Staff Programme, provision of Mental Health Support and the ongoing rollout of Peer Support. None of this is possible without the help and support of local teams across the organisation and Staff Partnership colleagues. Our staff equalities forums and the Staff Health Working Groups in Acute Services and our six Health and Social Care Partnerships also have a key role to play in delivering the actions which will flow from our strategic intent.

Engaging internal communications and high levels of employee engagement are crucial to continually developing our aim of being a better workplace. This underpins all our NHSGGC’s Workforce Strategy actions.

The Internal Communications and Employee Engagement Strategy sets out how we will do this, by supporting all our 40,000 employees to have a strong sense of purpose, connection, contribution and commitment to our organisation.

The Safety Health and Wellbeing Culture Framework roadmap outlines how we will improve the culture within NHSGGC, using an agreed set of Safety Health and Wellbeing (SHaW) standards.

The NHSGGC Chief Executive and Employee Director have reinforced their joint commitment to improving the safety, health and wellbeing culture within NHSGGC, through the development of the SHaW Framework.

All staff have a responsibility for safety, health and wellbeing within NHSGGC. A set of guidance documents outlined the roles and responsibilities for employees, managers and directors.

Each year NHSGGC is required by the Scottish Government to develop and publish a workforce plan which sets out the strategic direction for workforce development and the resulting changes to our workforce over the next year and beyond.

The NHSGGC Workforce Plan is developed using the NHS Scotland six steps methodology and the NHS Careers Framework. Both of these workforce models enable us to take a coherent view of the workforce across all job families and sub-groups. The Career Framework in particular is a useful tool for modelling and implementing workforce change and we are promoting and encouraging the use of this tool in NHSGGC.

Local workforce planning activity is managed within the Acute Services Division and within the Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). In addition, there are workforce plans which focus on cross sector issues and plans based on service delivery models.

The workforce implications of service change and redesign are also set out in NHSGGC’s financial and service plans at Board and Divisional/HSCP level. These workforce implications highlight any planned recruitment activity and are further analysed in the project implementation documents (PIDs) which are prepared to support any significant service change and which set out the financial, workforce and equality impacts of any proposed changes.

All of the above workforce information is analysed and summarised by the workforce planners in order to develop the annual NHSGGC Workforce Plan.

The vision for the Recruitment and Attraction Plan 2022-2025 is to establish ourselves as a great employer and seen as an Employer of Choice. 

To help us achieve this vision, we have three ambitions: 

1. Attract, retain and value the most skilled, diverse and talented people from our local communities and around the world, proving we are a world-class public sector organisation.  

2. Empower our Human Resources and Organisational Development workforce to deliver a digitally-enabled world-class recruitment and onboarding service for our future talent that is inclusive and person-centred. 

3. Ensure use of high-quality data to drive forward workforce planning and recruitment initiatives as we strive to be a world-class public service. 

Our Recruitment and Attraction Plan sets out how we will achieve these ambitions, ensures recruitment and selection is inclusive and attracts candidates from diverse backgrounds, and develops NHSGGC under our corporate objective of ‘Better Workplace’. 

The Board Workforce Equality Group (WEG) aims to further develop NHSGGC as an inclusive organisation that engages with staff across all aspects of employment, in a way that reaches to the core of our organisational values and meets and exceeds our legal requirements as an equal opportunities employer. The WEG is responsible for the NHSGGC Workforce Equality Plan. The group includes representatives from the Staff Disability Forum, the Black and Minority Ethnic Staff Network, the LGBT+ Forum, staff-side, Human Resources and the Equality and Human Rights Team.

The key ambitions and outcomes for the Workforce Equality Action Plan 2020-2024 are:

• Our staff are treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect, in an environment where diversity is valued.
• Our data collection is legally compliant and is used to improve equality and diversity of our workforce.
• We can demonstrate that we are an exemplar employer by participating in recognised equality frameworks and charters.
• We have taken all the actions in our control to reduce equal pay gaps by sex, disability and ethnicity.
• Staff from equality groups are fully engaged in contributing to the Workforce Equality Group.

The Health and social care: national workforce strategy (published by the Scottish Government) sets out the Scottish Government’s vision for the health and social care workforce.

It supports their tripartite ambition of recovery, growth and transformation of their workforce and the actions they will take to achieve their vision and ambition.

The Health and social care delivery plan sets out the Scottish Government’s programme to further enhance health and social care services. Working so the people of Scotland can live longer, healthier lives at home or in a homely setting and they have a health and social care system that:

• is integrated;
• focuses on prevention, anticipation and supported self-management;
• will make day-case treatment the norm, where hospital treatment is required and cannot be provided in a community setting;
• focuses on care being provided to the highest standards of quality and safety, whatever the setting, with the person at the centre of all decisions; and
• ensures people get back into their home or community environment as soon as appropriate, with minimal risk of re-admission.