Our responsibilities as an employer

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is committed to:

• action to support employees to address issues contributing to stress at work and in their wider lives
• action to support staff who have experienced mental or physical health symptoms associated with stress to return to work and ensure their skills are not lost
• action to tackle stress and provide support to help staff manage stress.

• developing an organisational culture where stress is not seen as a sign of weakness or incompetence and where seeking help in managing stress is seen as a sign of strength and good practice
• reducing and managing, as far as possible, factors which lead to stress in the workplace
• providing advice and information to managers on their duty of care to staff
• encouraging a working environment where staff who feel at risk of experiencing the effects of stress can raise an issue in confidence.

• encouraging a team culture where mental wellbeing is as important as physical health
• carrying out stress risk assessments every two years or before if stress related issues are raised
• resolving work-related issues at individual level and team level as appropriate, involving people outside the team if necessary
• regularly reviewing excess hours worked by staff
• when change is being introduced, provide the necessary support and training to staff
• when issues arise, involve staff in seeking solutions.

ll staff are responsible for:

• talking to your line manager if you have a problem. If this is not possible, then you should talk to our occupational health service or human resources
• supporting colleagues experiencing work-related stress and encouraging them to talk to their line manager, occupational health service, human resources or trade union
• seeking support, which may include in-house counselling from the Occupational Health Service
• speaking to your GP if worried about health issues
• recognising that stress is not a weakness
• attending stress management course if identified that this would help
• discussing with your manager whether it is possible to alter your job if necessary to make it less stressful.

The department is responsible for:

• promoting a positive culture within the workforce
• assisting the process of return to work for staff
• facilitating discussions within areas of conflict
• making sure that polices and codes of conduct are adhered to.

Trades unions are responsible for:

• encouraging members to speak up
• investigating potential hazards and complaints from their members
• liaising with managers to carry out risk assessments.

The service is responsible for:

• providing support for staff who may be experiencing stress
• advising managers and staff on stress triggers and risk assessment process
• delivering training and education programmes on stress risk assessment with the Health and Safety Service
• monitoring and reviewing patterns of stress-related sickness absence.

The service is available to anyone experiencing problems which affect their ability to function.

Part of Occupational Health, the service is responsible for:

• offering help to establish a tailor-made programme of stress management which extends beyond work into home life
• offering help to individuals is assessing whether their coping strategies are working
• offering an opportunity to talk in confidence about any problem or difficulty, whether work-related or not. The service offers face-to-face and telephone appointments. Please call 0141 201 0600 to make an appointment with one of our counselling team.

The service is responsible for:

• ensuring training is provided to managers to carry out stress risk assessments
• advising managers on effective measures for work-related stress
• helping monitor work-related stress by assisting with analysis of Datix incident data related to stress.