To deliver effective and high quality health services, to act to improve the health of our population and to do everything we can to address the wider social detriments of health which cause health inequalities.
Below are some of the frequently asked “big facts” about NHSGGC
We are the largest Health Board in the UK covering a geographical area stretching from East Dunbartonshire to Inverclyde
We deliver services in 25 hospitals, 10 specialist units, 60 health centres and clinics
We cover a core population of approx 1.2million and provide specialist services to more than half the country’s population
We have a total annual budget of £2.6 billion
We employ 44,000 staff
We are investing more than £1billion to build four new hospitals.
This induction portal is an essential part of your journey as a new colleague, ensuring that you are well informed and provided with the necessary information you need to carry out your role within NHSGGC.
As you progress through the portal, you will be guided through your induction journey by your line manager.
Developed nationally in partnership with NHS Scotland employers, trade unions and the Scottish Government, these policies and associated supporting documents set the standard for employment practice for all NHS Scotland Boards to follow.
The Once for Scotland Workforce policies are person-centred and will be applied using the NHS Scotland values:
care and compassion
dignity and respect
openness, honesty and responsibility
quality and teamwork.
The first phase of implementation includes the following policies:
Attendance
Bullying and Harassment
Capability
Conduct
Grievance
Workforce Policies Investigation Process
The policies promote the use of early resolution, all parties establishing and encouraging open and honest communication and adopting a supportive approach by proactively communicating with and offering support to employees who are involved in any process as part of a workforce policy.
Staff are paid on a monthly basis. Your salary will be paid into your bank account on the last Thursday of every month. Your pay slip can be accessed on SSTS. You choose option for “ePayroll” and can view your pay history and previous documents. Should you have any queries regarding your pay, you must in the first instance, seek advice from your Line Manager, before contacting the Payroll Department.
Any overtime worked should be submitted to your Line Manager on a weekly basis. Overtime is paid one month behind e.g. if you work overtime in April, this will be paid in your salary at the end of May. Any queries regarding overtime must be highlighted to your Line Manager as soon as possible.
Holidays
Holidays run from 01 April until 31 March the following year. Full-time staff will receive holidays as follows:
0-5 years service 27 days annual leave per year
5-10 years service 29 days annual leave per year
10 or more years service 33 days annual leave per year
Any requests for annual leave must be filled out on your annual leave card and authorised by your Line Manager with adequate notice given to allow cover to be organised. Part-time staff will have their annual leave and Public Holiday entitlement calculated pro-rata and provided in hours due.
Changes to personal details
As an employee you can view and maintain core information held by your organisation, update your personal details (such as address, marital status, registration), view job related information, and add professional memberships and qualifications. You should do this on eESS.
All staff are entitled to join a Trade Union and there are a number of these across the organisation. Should you wish to join a Trade Union, please ask your Line Manager for contact details of Trade Union representatives.
Trade Union Meetings – Whilst every effort is made to allow staff to attend Trade Union meetings held during working hours, it should be noted that essential cover must be provided. Permission to attend Trade Union meetings during working hours must be granted by your Line Manager.
Staff Benefits
Staff have access to a wide range of benefits including travel; cycle to work scheme, annual bus ticket loans, and shuttle buses between sites.
Staff also have access to credit union and discounted gym membership.
has a contractual obligation under their contract of employment to attend work;
must comply at all times with the documented sickness absence reporting procedures;
on returning to work after an absence, is required to attend a Return to Work Discussion with their Line Manager;
will be requested to attend a management meeting to discuss sickness absence and must, if unable to attend for an acceptable reason, inform their Line Manager prior to the date/time of that meeting and if acceptable a further meeting may be convened at an alternative location/date;
When on sick leave is required to maintain a level of contact/communication with their manager, appropriate to their medical condition. All employees are responsible for making every effort to communicate with their Line Manager whilst on sick leave. If you are going to be absent from work for any reason, you must ensure that you follow the correct reporting procedures as follows: employees who are unable to attend work, must tell their Line Manager at the earliest opportunity before their starting time and no later than within one hour after their scheduled starting time. Where the Line Manager is out of the office, notification to a suitable alternative manager is required in accordance with local procedures;
It is the employee’s responsibility to make contact personally with their Line Manager. Only in exceptional circumstances, where the employee is unable to phone personally, a relative or friend may phone on their behalf, but the responsibility remains with the employee;
Where the Line Manager is not available, it is essential that contact is made with an alternative senior staff member who will be responsible for taking the information and passing it to the Line Manager. Messages should not be left on voice mail, with the hospital switchboard or with other wards or departments. Mobile phone text messages are also not acceptable and will result in the employee having an unauthorised absence.
Failure to make contact in time may lead to:
the absence being treated as unauthorised;
an appropriate deduction being made from the employee’s pay;
Action under the Disciplinary Policy.
It is important that the employee communicates all relevant details when making contact, including:
the reason for absence;
an indication of when the employee expects to be fit to return to work;
Details of any appointments with the employee’s GP.
Sickness Certification
If you are absent from work you must submit the appropriate medical certificates for your absence.
1-3 days No certification required
4-7 days Self certificate required
Over 7 days Medical certificate from GP required
It is the employee’s responsibility to keep their Line Manager informed of progress and, in particular, should the employee be unable to return when anticipated. If the employee is absent immediately before leave days or days off, they must tell their Line Manager when they will be fit to come back to work. If the employee is going to be absent for an extended period of time, any subsequent certificates should be submitted as quickly as possible, ensuring all days in the absence period are covered. Failure to submit a certificate may result in pay being withheld.
Return to Work
After any period of absence an employee’s return to work will be acknowledged through a documented Return to Work Discussion. In many cases, this may involve little more than a courteous enquiry as to whether the employee is now well. In other cases, e.g. where a pattern of short term absence is developing, or following a period of longer term absence the meeting will explore this more fully:
the reasons for absence;
the employee’s fitness for work;
If the cause of the absence may recur and whether a referral to Occupational Health/GP report is necessary.
At this meeting the employee will be given the opportunity to raise any issues they have about their absence and to get help from the organisation. More than 4 episodes of sickness in a rolling year or more than 8 days of short term absence in a rolling year can lead to disciplinary action.
Complaints Handling
The NHSGGC Complaints procedure seeks to ensure, in accordance with NHS guidelines, that complaints are handled thoroughly without delay, with the aim of satisfying the complainant whilst being fair and open with all those involved.
iMatter is the NHS Scotland Staff Experience continuous improvement tool which is designed to help individuals, teams and Health Boards understand and improve staff experience. This is a term used to describe the extent to which employees feel motivated, supported and cared for at work.
Understanding staff experience at work is the first step to putting in place measures that will help to maintain and improve it. This will benefit you as an employee, and the patients/service users that you support and their families.
The process is based on a staff engagement questionnaire which all staff are asked to respond to, which then generates a Team Report containing the results. The Line Manager discusses the report with the team and agree what the teams’ main strength is, along with up to 3 improvement actions, which are specific for the team in the months ahead. This improvement plan is captured on a team ‘Storyboard’ which the team then uses to monitor progress prior to the next iMatter run. The process is then completed annually.
All employees will have access to Employee Self Service and will be responsible for keeping their own personal details up to date. Below is a list of actions employees can view/action:
Full access to all Employee Self Service Standard Operating Procedures and eLearning video’s is available via eESS.
CHI 24
The CHI number is the main patient identifier used to process or access patient information from PMS (Trakcare).
The CHI (Community Health Index) is a database linking all of the Health Boards across Scotland electronically via the CHI 24 system.
Patients registered on this system are allocated a CHI number which acts as their UPI (Unique Patient Identifier) for their journey through the NHS, from ‘the cradle to the grave’.
CHI numbers consist of 10 digits; the first 6 being the patient’s date of birth in DDMMYY format – i.e. 160181. The last 4 digits are allocated randomly by the CHI system that generates the CHI Number; however the 9th digit is indicative of gender – even numbers for female, odd numbers for male.
The purpose of the CHI number is to provide a universal, multi-system and cross-discipline ID number for patients, so that regardless of where they are being treated within Scotland, and for whatever complaint, the patient’s CHI number will be a constant. This, in turn, will enable a complete clinical picture of the patient to be compiled.
Some of the benefits of CHI are:
reduce risk of errors in identifying patients;
reduce risk of errors in delivering care to patients, due to inaccurate or missing clinical information;
help protect the patient’s privacy and confidentiality;
reduce risk of patient information being shared inappropriately;
construct a single, complete, accurate and up-to-date clinical picture of a patient’s health care;
Reduce the need to ask patients the same questions many times during their journey through the NHS.
OneSign
OneSign (also known as Single Sign-On/SSO) is the user-switching and password management tool available at all acute hospital sites across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
OneSign eliminates the need to repeatedly type usernames and passwords and streamlines clinical workflows and enables NHSGGC staff to quickly and securely access IT applications.
OneSign brings a range of services to users including:
Digital technology is now at the centre of our professional lives through TrakCare, Clinical Portal, Emisweb, PACS, Winscribe and Microsoft applications (e.g. office 365 and teams) and in our personal lives through social media, online shopping and digital banking. Each day sees continuous or intermittent use of end-point technology – i.e. workstations, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. From the end-point you access applications which may be directly managed by NHSGGC, hosted for NHSGGC on the internet, or your personal applications.
eHealth works with many technology partners who provide updates that counter the threats that occur every minute of every day. Resisting such attacks requires a combination of technology and good human cyber-behaviour.
eHealth uses the Fairwarning monitoring system to detect & highlight potentially unauthorised or suspicious activity on systems that hold patient information (more information on this here).
eHealth promotes good cyber-behaviour and Cybersafe (search on StaffNet for Be Cyber Safe) will provide:
A list of all Information Governance policies (View the Acceptable Use Policy to which every user should be aware of and comply with)
Cybersecurity best practice for the individual; provided by public sector bodies like the Scottish government, police Scotland, technology vendors and by our own staff
Newsletters which will highlight major themes and outline what you can do to help stay safe
The majority of what you need to do in your professional life applies also to your personal life. How you need to do it may be different.
Supporting staff is a key part of the manager’s job and this module offers guidance and support on issues relating to promoting employee health and attendance.
This module has a particular focus on supporting staff with mental health and/ or stress issues including use of the Stress Risk Assessment tool.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the session you will:
Understand the purpose of the NHSGGC Staff Health Strategy and of legislation relating to mental health in the workplace
Be ready to assess the risks caused by personal stress or work related stress (Stress Risk Assessment Tool)
Understand the importance of monitoring and review after the risk assessment is completed
Be aware of the range of resources available to support you and your staff
You should now work through the Learning Passport associated with your role. This should be completed within 3 months (full time staff) or 6 months (part time staff).
Giving patients information they need in a clear, appropriate format is one of the key roles of the Graphic Design & Print Team. We maintain and supply over 1000 patient information leaflets across the service. We support health improvement campaigns and well-being initiatives including exhibition/display designs, brochures, posters, branding, and promotional ideas, and offer a bespoke solution to every situation.
Supporting the Organisation
We provide signage and wayfinding, design and print forms, ensuring that through quality of design, all standards are adhered to – governance, branding, and accessibility.
Supporting Staff
NHSGGC relies on its staff to deliver the best quality healthcare, and we help you deliver that care. You’ll receive the best advice on how to deliver essential information in the most appropriate and cost-effective way.
Supporting the Environment
Despite a commitment to paper-light practices, there is still a huge volume of print undertaken within GGC. We have the biggest in-house NHS print facility in Scotland, to match our print on demand requirement. We provide a robust professional print-buying service ensuring best value for money and quality assurance, using the Government Procurement Tender (Quick Quote) and PECOS systems.
Medical Illustration Services provide a professional and clinical photography, video and graphic design service to healthcare professionals within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and to external organisations and private clients. We promote best practice for clinical care and documentation, and support teaching and research. Our staff are qualified healthcare scientists, who work to the highest standards with the latest technology available.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has a range of ways that we listen to staff and use their feedback to improve our services to patients and to make NHSGGC a better place to work. Key mechanisms include iMatter, Investors in People, via Area and Local Partnership Forums and through team meetings, one-to-ones and other engagement activities with leaders and managers locally.
You can read below examples of how staff feedback from our annual iMatter staff satisfaction survey has been used to inform improvements across teams, services, Directorates and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Advance Nurse Practitioner Team – East Dunbartonshire HSCP
The Advance Nurse Practitioner (ANP) team in East Dunbartonshire HSCP, is a small of team of 6, supporting GP clinics as well as carrying out home visits, all across the Partnership. During our most recent iMatter action planning discussion, we reflected on the agile nature of our roles, and the need for lots of equipment to be transported when out and about at home visits.
We didn’t have a space to call our own for storing equipment, or dedicated desk space, as we’re fully agile. This means that equipment is often stored in our cars as we go back and forth to homes and clinics, which is not ideal for staff as we’re already taking other things, such as our laptops, out and about, so it’s a lot to consider for each trip.
So, we had a discussion with the Facilities Manager at Kirkintilloch Health & Care Centre to see what we could do to improve our experience.
Amazingly, we’ve secured a large double cupboard at the Centre, which is solely for our team, and we can easily access it to pick up just the bits and pieces we need, and store the rest. This is only a small thing but has gone a long way to making the team feel that they are valued, visible and that their needs are being met by the HSCP.
We’re now working with colleagues to look at ways we can use the space at Milngavie Health Clinic too, ensuring that our team can continue to have the same successful, positive experience, across all our sites.
Clyde Sector
Across the Clyde sector, we have seen real benefits of using feedback from iMatter to improve our staff’s experience. The big improvements in iMatter outcomes throughout 2022 demonstrate this, with an increased response to the questionnaire, an improved Employee Engagement score and a 7% increase in action planning.
We achieved this in a range of different ways. We took action before and during the questionnaire stage, to discuss iMatter at key management and partnership meetings, embedding it in business as usual. IMatter is always a key part of our thinking around how we engage with our workforce and use their experiences to improve services and make Clyde Sector a better workplace.
Alongside this, we shared ‘top tips’ during the team confirmation stage to ensure managers felt supported with each step, and staff were aware of the range of ways they could respond, to maximise participation. Maintaining a good working relationship with the iMatter team in HR meant we could quickly identify and resolve any action needed to support teams.
Once we received our results, we quickly shared the information with staff, managers and partnership colleagues, and ensured two-way communication was at the heart of improvement.
We now hold weekly partnership calls in Clyde sector to discuss emerging and live issues to identify solutions together. We’ve also introduced HR ‘Walk rounds’ across all three sites, meaning there are regular opportunities to meet with staff, be visible and discuss any concerns. Similarly, the Senior Charge Nurse (SCN) engagement sessions with senior management give staff the opportunity to discuss ways of improving services, staff morale, health and wellbeing. These allow us to hear directly from staff about how we shape support and drive improvement on an ongoing basis.
In addition to this, Partnership colleagues and HR now have access to daily safety briefings for all sites to keep everyone informed on hospital pressures and staffing. This means that appropriate action and support is given efficiently and based on feedback.
Taking this approach has achieved some really positive outcomes this year, leading to positive action, and we look to replicate and build on this into 2023, to realise continuous improvement for our staff.
Counselling Team (Human Resources and Organisational Development)
Our team always finds the feedback from iMatter a really useful tool to create discussions about how we do more for our staff and also for our clients. This year, the report has allowed us to identify service improvements that we think will deliver excellent performance.
Initially during COVID we were keen to explore the experience of clients using the counselling service, particularly as we moved from face to face to telephone appointments. We did this through a short survey, which we circulated to clients. The feedback was positive, and gave us reassurance that we were still providing a supportive and person-centre service during COVID.
As we moved into 2022 and back to more face to face consultations, our team suggested we expand the survey to allow us to explore ways in which we could celebrate great work, review the service we provide and identify any opportunities for improvement.
This has been going really well, and at our team meetings we always allocate time to look at the feedback together. The comments from the responses we get helps us to build a picture of progress and improvement themes. The information we gather also supports our accreditation with Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service (SEQOHS) standards, the benchmark for occupational health services.
One particular benefit of this approach has been helping us to celebrate the successes of the team through the positive experiences of our clients. When we see really great comments in relation to the service provided by an individual staff member, this is highlighted at the team meetings, as well as at TURAS review discussions.
In the team, we’ve used the iMatter process to help keep us on track when it comes to our commitment to positive staff engagement, celebrating success and working as a team. We know that doing this has really helped us to continue to deliver a great service for the people using our service.
COVID Safety and Wellbeing Engagement in Estates and Facilities
Like all services across NHS, the COVID pandemic raised a number of significant challenge for us in Estates and Facilities. One of those challenges was that guidance, including changes to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Safety instructions, was changing on a regular basis. For us, there was no reliable way to ensure that this information was appropriately circulated across all of our staff because of limited IT access for many staff in our service and the limitations on in-person meetings.
This meant that we were struggling to ensure that the staff on the floor were getting key information timeously, including COVID safety information and resources to support and improve staff wellbeing.
As a consequence, the Senior Management Team and partnership colleagues worked together to identify the best ways to get this essential information to staff reliably. This took the form of a Team Brief, which was initially issued on a weekly basis, and which we now issue on a monthly basis. We developed this based on the positive feedback and the recognition of an ongoing need for supportive engagement and communication with staff.
The detailed Brief is shared verbally with all staff, along with being circulated electronically and displayed on staff noticeboards. This very simple approach has been welcomed by staff, and has been adopted by others throughout the organisation too.
William Hunter, Deputy Director (Facilities & Corporate), says “there has been a positive response to this brief. In very difficult circumstances, we have been able to increase direct communication with our staff, including the provision of key work, wellbeing and safety related information, which I know that staff have found very reassuring and supportive.”
We can see from our 2022 iMatter results that one of the areas which saw the biggest improvement from 2021, was in relation to well-being support from line managers. In addition, improvements were seen around the themes of role clarity, effective team working and seeing the value and contribution made by the roles that staff hold.
This improved engagement and communication with staff, really focussing on well-being and experiences at work, has made a positive impact amongst teams, which we’ll continue to build on and celebrate.
East Renfrewshire HSCP
We were delighted with the iMatter results in East Renfrewshire HSCP, where we saw an increase in response rates and action planning engagement, whilst also maintaining a really positive engagement score.
We were particularly pleased to see that we’d had good feedback from staff against the iMatter wellbeing questions. This was due to the big effort we’ve made in the HSCP in ensuring staff are aware of the wide range of options available to them to support good mental health and overall wellbeing at work.
One way we’ve been showcasing our wellbeing activity is through our regular Staff Wellbeing newsletter with targeted articles on key issues e.g. alcohol awareness, stress at work, financial advice. These kept staff updated on any upcoming classes and sessions, as well as providing access to information and resources which covered a wide range of topics.
During the summer months, we rolled out a programme under our “Summer of Wellness” brand. Creating this brand allowed us to bring together a whole range of opportunities for staff in one place, including yoga, fitness classes, 121 wellbeing conversations etc. The uptake for these was fantastic and feedback from staff was extremely positive. We’re now building on that success and are rolling out a new “Winter of Wellness” programme during November and December.
Something that really helped us maintain the focus on wellbeing over this period has been our newly appointed Wellbeing Officer, Gerry Mitchell, who has led on promoting and improving the mental health and physical wellbeing of our workforce.
Gerry says:
“My role as Health and Wellbeing Lead Officer has been to build a proactive and preventative wellbeing offer across the HSCP for all our staff.
“It’s important for staff to have access to resources that supports holistic wellbeing, with a particular focus on mitigating the effects of work-related stress.
“Recent years have been particularly challenging for health and social care staff and volunteers. During this time, it has been more important than ever that we continue to offer an effective and sustainable approach to staff/volunteer wellbeing so that they feel valued and supported at work.”
Gerry Mitchell, Health and Wellbeing Lead Officer East Renfrewshire HSCP
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Hybrid Working in the Clinical Governance Support Unit
Our 2022 iMatter report showed some really encouraging results, and we were particularly delighted to see positive outcomes relating to engagement, well-being support and leadership. We always aim to apply a person-centred, continuous improvement approach, which focuses on our staff’s experience, as we know this has a positive impact on the work we do.
That person centred approach could clearly be seen through our recent implementation of hybrid working. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) introduced a Blended Working Guide early in 2022, to support staff to work flexibly and to provide a healthy work and life balance.
The Clinical Governance Support Unit (CGSU) implemented this approach across all teams during Spring/Summer 2022. To do this, working together with staff, we developed a project plan with six key steps for implementation:
A key part of our plan was working with staff to develop an Etiquette Guide. This provided some key principles and supporting guidance and aimed to give consistency to staff in terms of how hybrid working would actually work in our team.
Almost as soon as we had implemented the approach, we held a short workshop at the CGSU Team Session, to gather feedback from staff on their initial experience of hybrid working. Feedback showed us that staff liked the flexibility to choose when it’s appropriate to work from home and when to be working on site. The staff told us they continue to see the benefit of meeting together in person where it’s appropriate. We were really pleased to hear that they found the room booking system really clear and easy to access, allowing them to arrange all the practical requirements when coming into the office.
To keep the focus on staff having a positive experience, we also sought improvement themes from staff, and have taken these forward quickly. An ongoing evaluation is planned on a quarterly basis to continue engagement with staff and determine if the actions are resulting in real improvements, and to consider if there are any new actions we need to take forward.
Pharmacy Services
Hear from Gail Caldwell, Director of Pharmacy for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, talking about the Pharmacy Strategy, which focusses on a culture of empowerment and enablement for all their staff.
Pharmacy Services Celebrates Staff Successes and the Employee Voice
Pharmacy Services celebrated their staff awards on Wednesday 20th of March at the Teaching and Learning Centre, QEUH. While the event was themed around the many successes of our staff, the event also recognised the challenges along the way, a theme reflected by our keynote speaker, Cor Hutton.
“As a pharmacy team, what makes us strong are our people, and our people know how things can change and improve, we are always looking for ways to obtain feedback and empower our teams to make local changes that makes it better for them and our patients.” Andrea Healey, Business Performance & Review Manager, Pharmacy Services
One way Pharmacy Services do this is through the annual iMatter survey. The team has always had a high engagement rate and one they are keen to continue. They took the opportunity to promote iMatter at their staff awards, including highlighting the improvements made locally based on the annual staff feedback. To support the event, the NHSGGC Staff Experience team were on hand to share good practice and give out a pen or two!!
“We were thrilled to be invited along to be able to promote the upcoming iMatter questionnaire at the Pharmacy Services staff awards, and engage with staff at this exciting event. Moreover, it allowed us to encourage colleagues to consider staff experience more widely, and understand how iMatter can be an important enabler for person-centred discussions that explore and improve the experience of everyone at work” Diana Hudson, Staff Experience Adviser and Sabine Bunte, Staff Experience Assistant
Alongside iMatter, the event also showcased the Peer Support service:
“Delighted to have attended the awards ceremony representing Peer support and as part of the Pharmacy Culture Collaborative Group.Peer support simply put is to look after oneself and others and this was very much to the fore in our pharmacy ‘family’ awards ceremony.Our speakers at the event spoke with compassion, empathy and a steadfast commitment to our health service and the patients we serve.It was a privilege to be part of the day and hear the amazing testimony of Dr Corrine Hutton” Donald MacPhail, Controlled Drug Inspection Officer and Peer Supporter NHSGGC
The 2024 iMatter Survey starts from 13 May 2024 and you can find out more information about how to get the best of this for your team on our iMatter page or by contacting the iMatter team on iMatter@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
If you have a positive Staff Experience or Engagement story you would like to share, please get in touch with the team at iMatter@ggc.scot.nhs.uk
During the Action Planning phase of iMatter, we want to share some of the ways in which teams have approached this discussion and how they have used iMatter to support key activity over the next 12 months. Below you’ll see details of stories shared via StaffNet.
Complex Trauma Pathway team
We hear from Lesley Hunter – Nurse Team Lead within the Complex Trauma Pathway team (Specialist Children’s Services), who talks about their approach to iMatter action planning:
“As a team we utilise our business meeting and team away days to discuss and review our iMatter report each year. These take place in June and November so work well in relation to the timing of the reports and allow for a six-monthly review. Following the completed reports, I review the comments and we discuss as a team the outcome and consider what our focus is for the year.
The focus is often on service development i.e. what we do well and need to focus on for our patients in the next year, as well as team cohesion and wellbeing/staff retention. From this, I write it up and we agree it finally as a team.
The pathway is a small team where the ongoing clinical task of working with young people, families with traumatic histories and experiences can be emotionally taxing, therefore team wellbeing, supervision and peer support needs to be central to what we do. The iMatter process allows us to look at this more specifically as a service.”
The most important bit of iMatter is the discussion you now have in your team based on the feedback. This is your chance to discuss and agree as a team how you want to work together to make things better. Please visit HR Connect for more information.
Primary Care Dental Services
This week, we hear from Karen Gallacher, Clinical Services Manager within Primary Care Dental Services:
“Looking at the action planning process with a new team has made me reflect on a number of matters, most significantly that I was, in recent years, part of this team and now, due to promotion, I am in a leadership position with the team and would look to maximise the benefits of the iMatter process.
In the past, in the team I previously led, we would have added iMatter to the agenda of group meetings and had a round table discussion to review our report, looking at what areas we should celebrate and those areas we should seek to develop further.
My previous team were predominantly involved in the management of clinical dental care, therefore would focus their efforts on analysing how to improve patient care while supporting the needs of staff. My new team involves health improvement managers, clinical managers and support services to the wider dental community.
As a consequence of being an original member of the above named group it was easy to identify the commitment of my colleagues to examine our report at our monthly operational meeting and to develop an action plan that would support learning, communication and, as an area for further discussion, review of equality and diversity issues to ensure that we are inclusive as we have a multi-disciplinary roles and responsibilities.
As a result, we will now have iMatter as a standing item on our agenda (an approach I used in my previous position) and ensure that all members have an opportunity to review and reflect on our action plan to support success as we move forward this year.”
The most important part of iMatter is the discussion you now have in your team based on the feedback. This is your chance to discuss and agree as a team how you want to work together to make things better. Please visit HR Connect for more information.
North AHP Team Leads
This week, we hear from Alison Leiper, Interim Chief AHP:
“The North AHP Team Lead group discussed the iMatter report and action plan at one of our monthly team meetings. We set aside approximately 1 hour to discuss the report and to decide on our action plan going forward.
As a group we have started to meet again in person rather than via Teams and we all agreed that this face to face approach led to better engagement, interaction and discussion. We started the process by reviewing this year’s iMatter report as well as looking at the previous year. This gave us some indication of where we have made changes that have had a positive impact and the areas we need to focus on going forward.
We recognised that we hadn’t achieved everything we had hoped to do last year and this led to a very open, honest and meaningful conversation about the reasons why and more importantly what we need to do differently this year. With this in mind our action plan focused on what are our priorities and what we can realistically achieve.
One of our actions concentrated on improving engagement between AHP Team Leads and North senior leader’s team, therefore to support this, we’ve planned a lunch, hosted by Team leads, inviting along members of the North SLT. This will allow an opportunity to provide more information on the key role of the AHP within each clinical area, and help promote the AHP role more generally.”
The most important part of iMatter is the discussion you now have in your team based on the feedback. This is your chance to discuss and agree as a team how you want to work together to make things better. Please visit HR Connect for more information.
The continued learning opportunities of our AHP workforce is of vital importance, in consolidating the services we deliver today, and ensuring our teams are enabled to deliver the services and roles we aspire to in the future.
The NHSGGC AHP Learning and Development Strategic Framework has been designed to support all AHP staff in NHSGGC to access educational opportunities. This being at all levels of practice across the career framework, from Health Care Support Worker to Advanced and Consultant level of practice.
The framework highlights that all staff will have equal access to ongoing learning, training and development within their role. Recognising that AHP capabilities are required of all staff across the four pillars of practice. These being clinical practice, facilitation of learning, leadership and evidence, research and development (including service improvement).
Professional and Service Leads developed the framework following an AHP staff communication exercise. The framework is underpinned by the four pillars of practice and it is aligned to local and national policy drivers. The framework is accessible, easy to understand and key in supporting AHPs to take ownership of their learning and development. It is a live resource to support meaningful role and career conversations.
Welcome to NHSGGC Practice Supervisor and Practice Assessor Portal. This portal has been designed to provide information and support for those who supervise and assess learners in our practice learning environments.
NHSGGC Practice Supervisor and Practice Assessor Portal – Feedback and Suggestions
If you would like to make a suggestion or provide the Practice Education Team with feedback as to how we could improve the PS/PA Portal, please email: ggc.practiceeducation@nhs.scot
This section provides practice supervision / assessment related documents and resources for all those involved in the supervision and assessment of student nurses and midwives within NHSGGC.
Enjoy our audio podcasts at a time that suits you. We offer a series of 5 podcasts giving information on the new NMC standards and a variety of topics to support your CPD in the practice supervisor or practice assessor role.
Communication and relationship management skills – Examples from practice
This resource has been developed to assist you in your role as practice supervisors and practice assessors to support students to achieve Annexe A: Communication and relationship management skills.
Learning Development Support Plans are used to support students to meet specific objectives, particularly if they face challenges in achieving the level of knowledge and/or skills required by their educational programme or if there are concerns regarding their professional practice. These sample plans can be used to help you to write an effective Learning Development Support Plan to support students to progress in their practice learning environment.
This resource will supplement practice supervision / assessment in the workplace for student nurses and midwives. Additionally, it is practice supervisor and practice assessor facing and provides information and guidance on Pharmacology.
These flowcharts illustrate guidance for student nurses and midwives, as well as PS / PAs, on dealing with concerns, although not care concerns, we come across in Practice Learning Environments.
This guidance is designed for use in all audited practice learning environments across Scotland. It aims to describe the process for dealing with instances of poor care witnessed by nursing or midwifery students while on practice. In this case, poor care refers to situations in which one perceives care as inadequate, below an acceptable standard, abusive, or neglectful, based on the premise that one should never accept poor care.
‘Speaking up’ – National Whistleblowing Guidance for Nursing and Midwifery Students in Scotland
This guidance details the process for raising a concern and intends for nursing and midwifery students in Scotland to use it while undertaking PLEs during their pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes.
Students must have active NHSGGGC accounts to access our healthcare systems needed to participate in Practice Learning Environments. In order to get started with our main hospital systems, guides have been created and these are available on the Learn section of the student external eHealth portal. This additional guide outlines the process for students to register for the student eHealth portal in order to report IT issues and to change their student account to NQP status.
Supplementary factsheets about specific eHealth programmes
The West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre (WoSSVC) is a United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited medical laboratory No. 9319. A full list of accredited tests can be found on our schedule of accreditation.
Please note users will be informed if an assay/result lies outside the laboratory’s scope of accreditation.
WoSSVC islocated at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) and is part of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC).
Clinical advice and urgent testing: email west.ssvc2@nhs.scot during opening times or phone: 0141 242 9656 (internal 29656). Please note during busy times it is easier to email and a member of the clinical team will respond.
To add on tests please email west.ssvc2@nhs.scot with clinical details and tests required. The email is monitored during laboratory opening hours (we aim to reply to your email within 1 hour, however, at busy times this may not be possible).
Results are available on clinical portal, SCI Store, TrakCare and GPICE for NHSGGC patients if a patient’s CHI has been provided on the request form.
For out of hours clinical advice call the Switchboard on 0141 211 1000 (1000 internal) and ask for the on-call virologist.
Leadership is an integral component of all Allied Health Professional (AHP) and AHP Healthcare Support Worker (HCSW) roles across the whole career pathway.
Whatever your role or level of practice, there is information and resources available to support your leadership development.
Offers a range of leadership development programmes, opportunities and support for health, social care and social work leaders to help you make a difference.
