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Issue 17: March 2016
Noah and Nina , children of our
Patient Engagement Manager Mark
Edwards, paying close attention to the
CCG’s new minor illness booklet.
Contents
Page 2
Beverley’s broadcast page 3
Staff news pages 4-5
CCG news pages 6 - 11
Wellbeing news page 12
HR Extra pages 13—16
Charter Chat is the magazine for all CCG staff
and we’d like to include as much content written
by you as possible.
Please send your news, ideas and photos to :
Beverley’s broadcast
Farewell to…. Laura Ramage and Rupen Ganatra
Welcome to….
Jamie Archer, Project Manager Anna Hall, Senior Commissioning Manager Brian Rogers, Commissioning Manager Himani Rana, PA to Alan Pond Richard Steadman, Head of Risk Management Mary Emson, Designated Nurse, Safeguarding Children
Emma Ross, Primary Care Nurse Tutor Karen Smith, Primary Care Nurse Tutor Nicole Stanley, Primary Care Nurse Tutor Pauline Anderson, ICT Application Trainer
There’s something decidedly spring-like in the air –
and I don’t just mean the scent of my new ‘Sicilian
lemon’ office fragrance diffuser.
The light mornings and lengthening days are a wel-
come relief from the winter gloom and the idea of
venturing outside for some fresh air is becoming a
bit more appealing.
The new national ‘One You’ public health cam-
paign has prompted me to think about how as in-
dividuals and an organisation we can respond to
the challenge to look after ourselves better. As the
campaign says – there’s only ‘one you’ and it’s im-
portant that we all take time to prioritise our own
health.
If you haven’t already taken the One You ‘How Are
You?’ quiz – why not go online and have a go? It
only takes a couple of minutes and your answers
will direct you to apps and local events that can
help to make a difference to your wellbeing.
One fun and easy way to get moving and get to
know your colleagues at the same time is to take
part in the staff sports competition straight after
work on the 6th of April. I’m looking forward to
seeing whether our teams can really live up to
their names. Is the Quality Team really the best?
Will people in strategic partnerships come up with
a brilliant plan and then deliver it in an integrated
fashion? Will the commissioning team draw up a
service spec and then pay someone else to take
part for them? Perhaps we’ll need to test the
pharmacy team for performance enhancing sub-
stances. Only time will tell…
Speaking personally, I’ve cut out chocolate this
Lent and I although it hasn’t been easy I hope that
you have observed that I haven’t let chocolate
deficiency affect my demeanour. I am hoping
that in recognition of my weeks of sacrifice the
bicycling Cadbury’s bunny will have something for
me when Easter finally arrives.
Before I go, I wanted to let you know about a cou-
ple of recent CCG achievements which some of
you might not be aware of. We’ve recently found
out that flu vaccination rates in our area for 2-4
year olds were particularly good this winter, lead-
ing us to being singled out for praise by NHS Eng-
land. This is thanks to great team work from staff
here at the CCG, with practices, and our local au-
thority colleagues – well done to all involved in
getting this important vaccine out to the commu-
nity - this is life-saving work.
Congratulations too to everyone involved in the
development and implementation of the ‘home
from hospital’ service HomeFirst over the last few
years. On Wednesday, HomeFirst won a prestig-
ious award for health and social care integration
at a glitzy ceremony in central London. Our own
Chris Badger and Dr Alison Jackson were there to
add a touch of class to the
proceedings and pick up the
award on our behalf. But of
course, the best prize of all is
knowing that HomeFirst has
helped scores of local people
to receive high quality
healthcare in their own
Page 4 STAFF NEWS
As many of you will know, Race for Life is an annual
campaign led by Cancer Research UK in which
women participate in 5k or 10k races, muddy
obstacle courses, half marathons, or even full
marathons, to raise money for the charity. Since its
inception in 1994, Race for Life has raised a
whopping £513 million, which has gone towards
funding research for all 200 types of cancer, in the
hope of stamping it out once and for all.
Last year, as seen in the photo, a group of our very
own colleagues teamed up to run the Stevenage
Race for Life.
This year, Kellie Wilkinson, Contract Manager,
(pictured second from the right) is hoping to put
together another team for Stevenage’s Race for
Life on Sunday 10 July. It’s a way off, but getting
involved now will allow plenty of time to fit in
some training and start fundraising. You can run,
jog or walk your way around the course, so don't
Ladies, get your running shoes on for Race For life
Did you know...? ...Phil O’Meara in the finance team supports the
Royal National Lifeboat Institution by sending
them used stamps. If you have any used stamps
please give them to Phil to send on to the charity.
….you can recycle glass at work. Please take any
empty glass bottles or jars to the red recycling bin
outside the back door to Charter House.
Giving blood is simple
and it saves lives.
Make a difference and donate!
The nearest place to the office to donate is at
the Woodhall Community Centre, Mill Green
Road, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 3XD .
Appointments are available at lunchtime and
after work on Wednesday 30 March
To book an appointment or to find a venue near
where you live, visit www.blood.co.uk
worry if you have never taken part in an event like
this before.
Want to join the fight and get fitter at the same time? Please email Kellie: [email protected]
The CCG pink ladies raise vital funds for Cancer Research UK
Page 3
With a storyline on EastEnders and even The
Archers catching everyone’s attention, ‘perinatal’
mental health has never been so talked about. Last
month 150 Hertfordshire professionals got
together to hear about national and local
developments.
Statistics reveal that between 10 and 20% of
women develop a mental
illness during pregnancy or
within the first year after
having a baby, known as the
perinatal period.
Both Hertfordshire’s CCGs and
the county council are working
together to increase support
for parents-to-be and new
parents showing signs of
problems like depression or
anxiety.
As part of this, the
organisations are funding 120
places on a 16-session infant
mental health online training programme. At
February’s conference, delegates took in
presentations from experts in the field as well as
hearing from parents who themselves have
experienced poor perinatal mental health care.
Professionals working with parents, including
midwives, children’s centres staff, health visitors
and adult mental health workers, heard about the
national and local vision for improving perinatal
mental health, including investment in community
services and training.
Some 98% of delegates
reported improved skills
and knowledge as a
result of attending the
day with almost all
saying it would impact
on the way they work.
EastEnders script advisor
Maria Bavetta, from the
Maternal Mental Health
Alliance, who spoke on
the day, said: “I was so
impressed with the
interest from so many
different professionals. Perinatal mental health is
high on the national agenda and Hertfordshire is
determined to make perinatal mental health a real
priority.”
Speakers at the conference included, (left to right)
Mark Williams, Elaine Hanzak and Dr Steve Kite
Time to talk about new parents’ mental health
Calling all bakers for the Great CCG Easter Bake Off We are holding a CCG Easter Bake Off on
Wednesday 23 March between 11am and 2pm.
You can bake either a cake or biscuits and there
will be prizes for the best decorated and the
tastiest offerings.
Dr Nicky Williams will judge the entries in the GP
room, on the second floor of Charter House, at
11.30am. A cake sale will follow and large cakes
will be sliced so you can buy a piece for your lunch.
All proceeds will go to Oxfam. Thanks to Himani
Rana, PA to Alan Pond, for suggesting the idea!
Page 3
Each Friday between 10 and 11am is the ‘Learning Hour’. All staff members are encouraged to use this hour to learn something new about their job, the CCG or local partners. To help with this the Communications Team organises interesting presentations and workshops, normally held in Charter House, room 2.2. Sessions start at 10am and last about 25-30 mins. The session is repeated again at 10.30am to allow as many people to participate as possible. Outlook meeting invitations are normal-ly sent out two or three days before so you can choose which session to attend. If you have an idea for a learning hour, or would like to lead one yourself, please email Ewan Maddock, Digital Commu-nications Officer on [email protected]
Friday 1 April - Drugs and alcohol services in Herts with Spectrum
Friday 8 April - Healthy Children’s Centre Programme
Friday 15 April - Electronic Staff Record self service
Upcoming learning hours in April…..
Maryla Hart, the CCG’s Sustainability
Officer, explains how you can do your bit
Did you know that the NHS is the largest public sector contributor to climate change in Europe? The NHS employs over 1.3 million people and each year is responsible for the emission of 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide– a huge carbon footprint. On NHS Sustainability Day on 24 March, we can all do our bit to help reduce emissions and improve our health. A great place to start is to download the free App, launched by the NHS Sustainability Day Campaign, which allows you to make pledges to reduce your carbon footprint. The app is called the ‘50k Carbon Challenge’ and you can download it from Apple and Android app stores for free.
As a CCG, we are required to consider and embed sustainability into all that we do, including all policies, strategies and plans. Maryla Hart, CCG Sustainability Officer said: “I am currently evaluating our environmental performance in areas such as recycling, energy and water usage, paper usage and looking at staff commutes and travel mileage. I am also looking at sustainability as part of the commissioning and procurement processes. This is the first audit of its kind in our CCG, and from here on we will be working to improve our environmental performance year on year, making our office and our organisation a greener, healthier, more environmentally aware place to work.
To find out more about NHS Sustainability Day please visit the website: www.nhssustainabilityday.co.uk
Make a pledge to reduce your carbon
footprint on NHS Sustainability Day
CCG NEWS Page 7 The national crisis in so-called ‘bed blocking’ provided an excellent opportunity to showcase our ground-
breaking vanguard project on national TV. Our Better Care for Care Home Residents initiative with
Hertfordshire County Council and the Hertfordshire Care
Providers Association provides enhanced training for staff,
helping them to identify potential health issues that could
lead to an emergency hospital admission for elderly, frail
residents.
The four strands of the project involve improving staff
confidence, developing multidisciplinary teams to support
residents, a ‘rapid response’ service for residents whose
health deteriorates and using effective technology to
share vital patient information.
Chris Badger, Interim Director of Strategic Partnerships,
explained how the project works when he appeared on
the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on Friday 29
January. You can watch the interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-OrwIV8kVs . The following week one of the first tranche of
vanguard care homes – Martins House, Stevenage – featured on Channel Four News at 7pm. Viewers saw
residents enjoying an activity class and one of our pharmacists, Eleesha Pentiah was seen performing a
medication review with a patient. The national exposure has resulted in many enquiries from NHS
organisations around the country, keen to know more about our project .
Care homes project hits the headlines
Do you have a meeting room booked? Do you still need it? Quite often meetings rooms are left empty despite being reserved, sometime weeks or months in advance.
Space is always at a premium, so it is up to us all to make sure we cancel bookings for meetings which are no longer happening. Please spend a few minutes making sure that any bookings you may have made are still needed.
When your meeting is finished, please put any dirty cups in the dishwasher and check the room is tidy before you leave.
Booking meeting rooms
If you are expecting visitors for a meeting and they require access to the
guest Wi-Fi please ensure you complete the “Guest Wi-Fi Access Request
Form” at least a week in advance. The form is available by clicking the IT
Help icon on your desktop, then select ‘IT Forms’ from the list on the left
hand side. Please complete your visitor’s contact details and email the form
to the service desk: [email protected]
Wow, looks like the office fairies have been tidying up again!
Pharmacist, Eleesha Pentiah (centre) is filmed by Channel 4
Page 8
Meals on wheels delivered to CCG office
Picture the scene: it’s Friday lunchtime. No longer do you have left over food from the weekend for a casual office lunch time feast. Your safe bet supermarket’s meal deal fails to whet the appetite.
Friday 19 February was a Friday like no other.
Fears of a mediocre lunch were utterly annihilated by the wondrous Hertfordshire Independent Living Service (HILS). A variety of healthy and wholesome dishes awaited our consumption, including flaky steak pie, salmon en Provençal, chicken tikka masala and vegetarian lasagne for mains, with a number of choices for sides, and some delicious deserts such as apple crumble and chocolate sponge with cherries, for those of us with a sweet tooth. (I personally went for seconds on the mains – they were TASTY.)
Of course, we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so in return for our healthy, filling lunches, we were given a presentation about how the HILS service works. It was a pretty good deal
really, as the presentation was very informative and actually quite impressive. Leave your preconceptions of meals on wheels at the next full stop, you won’t be needing them.
So some background and statistics to begin. HILS was founded in 2007 and began as a volunteer
service with a small work force of 7 people. It has since grown substantially and now has 200 staff, 64 vehicles and around 2000 clients. Now for the impressive part. They deliver 365 days a year—yes even on Christmas Day - delivering up to 1,500 meals a day, that’s a whopping 500,000 meals a year.
But that’s not all. There’s a reason the service calls itself the Hertfordshire Independent Living Service, rather than meals on wheels, and that’s because they provide more than just the food, but help and support to promote independent living.
Anyone in Hertfordshire can apply to be a HILS client (I was very pleased to hear this - my cooking skills are non existent) but the majority of the clients are people who have difficulty living independently and need a bit of help now and
James Christie, Communications and GP Hotline Intern, couldn't resist a free
lunch. Here he explains what happened at a particularly tasty learning hour….
James Christie enjoys seconds
Mike Thompson explains how HILS is helping people to stay independent
again. So, the volunteers support their clients in a number of other ways to make life a little more comfortable and easy.
As ever, it’s the little things: in the summer, volunteers check their clients are hydrated enough, and in the winter ensure homes are warm and sometimes bring gifts, such as Christmas cards made by local school children.
Some clients are lonely, so the volunteers get to know the clients, have a chat when they visit and make sure they’re doing alright. Most significantly, however, in 2015, HILS volunteers found 40 people who had fallen in their homes and were able to get help for these people when no one else had known. Potentially very scary, traumatic and possibly even life threatening situations were alleviated by this service.
Crucially, 97% of HILS clients said they felt more independent at home as a result of using the service, which is really a very impressive measure of their success.
There are benefits to the healthcare system as a whole, too. 76% of clients said that they visit their GP less as a result of the HILS services, and 90% of clients said they were able to recover more quickly after a period of ill health or personal difficulty. Both of these statistics clearly indicate savings of valuable health care time and resources, which can now be allocated elsewhere.
Page 9
Do you know someone who might benefit from receiving healthy meals or might appreciate having a friendly face regularly visiting?
Referrals are simple:
Visit www.hertsdirect.org/mealsonwheels or send an email to [email protected]
All clients who meet the broad criteria re-lating to their difficulty with independence get VAT free prices as follows:
Hot lunch and dessert £4.25
Tea meal £3.25
Breakfast £2.75
Menus are available on the website. If you need to be convinced any further, here’s a short video for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxC9-gnukng
This food looks delicious!
Page 10
If you’re feeling weird, and it don’t feel good, who you gonna call?
Are you feeling unwell? Maybe a family member, friend, or child is under the weather? Do
you know what’s wrong? Do you know where to go or who you’re gonna call?
If you thought to yourself, ‘Ghostbusters!’ sadly they can’t help
you here. Thankfully, however, the CCG’s Communications
Team has stepped up to the mark to help you and the public
figure this one out.
Working in healthcare we all know that people get ill in a great
variety of ways, some of which are more serious than others.
There are different options available for medical advice, from a
local pharmacist to your local GP, NHS 111 to 999. These days
however, a lot of people still seem to pick A&E as their first
port of call. A rather striking majority of people who visit A&E
don’t need to and could have saved themselves a lot of time
and the NHS money by getting advice elsewhere. Across the
East and North Hertfordshire CCG area alone, between April
2015 and January 2016, 55% of visits to A&E (88,752 out of
161, 968) resulted in no treatment, with patients leaving with
nothing, or receiving verbal/written advice at most. These
types of visits cost the CCG £8,504,770.
Costs aside, it has also become clear that when someone falls ill,
not knowing what to do to help them best can be scary and can
cause worry and anxiety, especially when children are concerned.
We know that parents of children aged under 3 are one of the
highest users of A&E, often because they are worried and don’t
have the information to be able to treat minor illnesses. That’s
why, in partnership with Herts Valleys CCG, the Communications
Team has produced two important documents.
Firstly, 100,000 Childhood Illnesses booklets have been produced
for parents and carers. These have been circulated to Children’s
Centres, child minders and primary schools. The booklet includes
details of various illnesses in terms of their symptoms, who best
to approach for advice, and how they are usually treated.
Secondly, 500,000 copies of a leaflet will be posted through
letterboxes across the county, with advice about where to go
depending on what is wrong, with the aim of helping to reduce inappropriate visits to A&E. So, who you
gonna call? I ain’t afraid of no cold.
Page 11 HomeFirst wins top national award HomeFirst scooped the Local Government
Chronicle (LGC) award for Health and Social Care,
with the judging panel praising the way that all the
organisations
involved in delivering
the scheme are
making a real
difference to those
receiving support.
The Scheme was
launched in 2012
and is joint project
between
Hertfordshire County
Council,
Hertfordshire
Community NHS
Trust, East and North
Herts CCG and Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust.
The HomeFirst team cares for people living with
long term conditions as well as supporting those
who have been discharged from hospital having
been seriously ill. It also offers a ‘rapid response’
service if someone’s health deteriorates suddenly.
Teams include nurses, occupational therapists,
social workers and care staff. Evidence shows that
HomeFirst teams have had a positive impact of
reducing emergency admissions in the localities
that they serve. The LGC Awards, celebrating their
20th Anniversary, are run by a leading local
authority magazine
and recognise and
celebrate the best
and most
innovative work of
local government.
They are one of the
most prestigious
events in the local
government
calendar.
Dr Alison Jackson,
CCG Governing
Board member,
said: “HomeFirst has
enabled GPs to work differently and more
proactively – as part of a wider team of
professionals we are helping our patients to have
the best possible quality of life. Together we are
able to offer patients more individualised care that
meets their complex needs in their place of choice,
their homes. My GP colleagues and I really value
working with the HomeFirst team and now we
can’t imagine working without them.”
Dr Alison Jackson, accepts the award on behalf of the Home First
Sharing calendars Now that we have moved to sharing calendars
across our CCG, a quick reminder on how to mark a
meeting or appointment as confidential in Outlook.
To do this, open your appointment and simply click
on the padlock icon ‘private’ in the top right of your
appointment screen. To open a colleague’s
calendar go to the ‘home’ menu and select ‘open
calendar’. You can then select a name from the
email address list. Once you have opened another
person’s calendar, their name will appear in a list
on the left hand side so the
next time you want to view
their calendar you just click a
box next to their name.
Thanks to everyone who expressed an interest in
the sports event on Wednesday 6 April at 5pm. The
event will be held at Applecroft School, Welwyn
Garden City, AL8 6JZ and will be facilitated by Apex
360. The event is due to finish around
6/6.15pm. The Wellbeing Team are currently in
the process of confirming which sports will be avail-
able but activities are likely to include badminton,
ultimate frisbee and a rowing challenge.
The One You campaign is a national drive to
reinvent and re-launch health promotion, to
energise and engage a million adults in making
changes to improve their own health. The aim is to
help people make their lifestyles healthier and
reduce their risks of health problems.
It is widely believed that being healthy through
mid-life doubles the chances of staying healthy at
70 plus. Although the campaign is aimed at 40—60
year olds we can all benefit from making a few
small changes to our lifestyles.
To launch our commitment to supporting the
campaign we will be holding a series of healthy
activities on Thursday 7 July. If you have any
suggestions for the day such as holding a healthy
lunch or taster sessions of tai chi please email
[email protected] Over the
coming weeks we will be encouraging teams to
make a pledge for the One You 4 week challenge,
which will start on 9 June. Suggestions include;
Take the stairs instead of the lift
Be smoke free for 28 days
Swap your usual snacks for fruit or nuts
Look out for the One You posters. We’ll also keep
you updated on the plans for 7 July in the weekly
round-up and future editions of Charter Chat.
WELLBEING NEWS
Treat yourself to a
massage this spring…... Sara will be coming into Charter House on the 31
March and 1 April for massage treatments. The treatments she offers are hot and cold stone mas-sage, Swedish massage, Indian head massage and sports massage. The cost is £20 for ½ hour. Please note that if you need to cancel your booking you must give Sara 24 hours notice otherwise you will still need to pay for your treatment.
Sports event confirmed for Wednesday 6 April
WELLBEING NEWS
If you are interested in booking please contact Sara directly on [email protected]
Page 13
Welcome to the latest HR extra with news and
updates from our HR team As you will be aware, Anne Ephgrave is currently on
sick leave. Jenny Holland is now acting Head of HR
whilst Anne recovers.
For all new CCG staff members, you can find the HR
office on the 2nd floor, between Charter House and
Fountain House, near the water fountain and drinks
machines.
Pay rise
All Agenda for Change staff are due to receive a 1%
pay rise from April 2016. The government has
accepted the recommendation from the pay review
body for a 1% uplift for each of the pay points on
the pay spine and for an increase of 1% in the value
of the maximum and minimum values of High Cost
Area (HCA) payments. To find out more please visit
www.nhsemployers.org
Harmonised policies
The team have been working on the harmonisation
of CCG and CECSU policies and many have now
been sent to trade unions for their comments. The
policies have been discussed at the Joint
Partnership Forum and will be available on the
intranet in due course.
Once approved, policies will be uploaded to the
intranet and staff will be informed in the weekly
news round-ups that Ewan Maddock sends out.
As a reminder, please note that the following
policies have already been harmonised and are
available for all staff and managers to access on
the intranet.
Absence Management Annual Leave Work life Balance New forms….
Please note that there are also some updated HR
Forms on the intranet.
Authority to Recruit – substantive staff
Authority to Recruit – Agency staff
Change of Circumstance – please remember
that you can amend basic information
yourself on Self Service i.e. your address,
telephone number and bank details through
OLM, which is available as a ‘favourite’ on
your internet browser.
Meet the HR team
Anne Ephgrave, Head of HR Please contact Jenny Holland in Anne’s absence
Jenny Holland, Acting Head of HR Email: [email protected] Direct line: 01707 369577 Mobile: 07789 744722
Bruno Korfant, HR Advisor Email: [email protected] Direct line: 01707 369704
Sonya Dhillon, HR Advisor Email: [email protected] Direct line: 01707 367281
Jade Roe, HR Administrator Email: [email protected] Direct line: 01707 367209
Laura Trainer, HR Admin Support Email: [email protected] Direct line: 01707 367213
Your team meetings HR Advisors have been joining some team meetings which have been informative for them and the teams. If your team hasn’t had the pleasure of their company, do email [email protected] and invite them along. Please also let them know if there are any issues you would like to discuss with them at your team meeting.
The HR team are hot-desking
As well as joining you in your meetings, our HR
Advisors have also been hot-desking around the
building, which has proved useful as they are often
asked questions that can be answered quite
quickly. They will continue to hot-desk so please
feel free to ask them questions you may have.
Staff noticeboard Jade and Laura are always keen to hear your ideas
for the HR Board outside our office. You may have
noticed it has been updated recently. If there is
something that you think should be included,
please let them know via [email protected]
Self Service
As you are all aware we now have Self Service,
which means that you can
access your own personal
General HR queries: [email protected]
ESR queries: [email protected]
Expenses: [email protected]
The HR office is closed on Thursday mornings from 9am to 12 noon for staff meetings and
team development. If you have an urgent need for HR advice or support please call
Jenny Holland on 07789 744722.
details via the OLM system.
Please note that when you access your records you will see a pencil icon to the right hand side, this will allow you to Update your personal details Check the correct history of your sickness Check and update your emergency contact
details View your payslips
The only time you will not be able to edit
information is during the payroll run period and
this will be evident by the lack of the pencil icon.
Page 14
Recruiting agency workers
The Authority to Recruit forms are on the intranet
and there are two versions. If you are recruiting
from an agency please complete the appropriate
form and follow the normal recruitment process.
Once the agency worker has been appointed, the
following information should be sent to HR;
First name, Surname, date of birth
National Insurance number Address Emergency contact details (name, phone,
address) A signed copy of the confidentiality
agreement (available from HR) Photographic ID for us to take a photocopy of
Recruitment focus group
Thank you to those who attended the recruitment focus groups in December.
We are currently working through a plan of action to improve the recruitment process following
the feedback received so far.
The main topics that were discussed are below:
Job Evaluation – Training has been arranged to increase the number of trained members of
staff which will enable us to run panels monthly going forward.
Job Descriptions & Advert Wording - HR are creating a Job Description library that all staff
will be able to access to help you write job descriptions and advertisements.
Awareness of capped agency fees – From April 2016 the capped agency fee will be 55% on
top of Agenda for Change rates. For the full guidance please contact the HR team.
Interviewer skills/training – Training sessions are being arranged.
Identity checks – Training is being arranged for admin / ‘meet & greet’ staff to ensure the
correct documents are being seen and copied.
Communication during recruitment process – Weekly updates are sent to recruitment
managers to ensure they are kept up to date on the recruitment process.
Understanding of recruitment process and timeframes – A flowchart is being produced to
clarify this.
HR will run further focus groups for recruiting managers again in six months’ time, to discuss the
changes and to gather any new comments and feedback. In the meantime, if you have any ques-
tions regarding the recruitment process, please email [email protected]
Line Manager Start date Scheduled end date Band Job title Rate of pay per hour Contact details of the agency Please remember to inform the agency and HR four weeks before the worker is due to leave so that the agency does not fine us. HR are required to obtain additional information from the agency so it is important that they have all the contact details for the agency you are recruiting from.
Page 15
Please be considerate when using
your personal mobile phone
Working in an open plan office makes it easier to
communicate with our colleagues but it does mean
that personal mobiles can be distracting. Please
put your mobile on silent or vibrate so you can still
be contacted in an emergency but it is not playing
out the theme-tune from your favourite film.
Please also note that wearing headphones at work
other than for work purposes, i.e. transcribing
notes, does not give a professional impression to
our visitors.
Changes to the State Pension – Abolition of Contracting Out
The State Pension is changing for people who are going to reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2016. The new State Pension will replace the existing basic State Pension and Additional State Pension with a single tier system, which has led to the abolition of what is called ‘contracting out’.
What do the changes for me?
If you are a member of the NHS Pension Scheme you will continue to pay contributions to the Scheme. However the changes may have an impact on your take home pay due to the end of ‘contracting out’ – explained below.
Contracting out
The current State Pension consists of two parts: basic State Pension and the Additional State Pension. Members of the NHS Pension Scheme pay a lower rate of National Insurance contributions because they contribute to the NHS Pension Scheme instead of the Additional State Pension. This is known as ‘contracting out.’ As the new State Pension will have a single tier, contracting out will end and members of the NHS Pension Scheme will no longer receive a reduction in the amount of National Insurance contributions they make. Therefore if you are a member of the NHS Pension Scheme you will pay an extra 1.4% in National Insurance contributions.
For more information please visit the NHS Pensions website: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/Pensions.aspx
Training courses
There are some places available on the courses below which are taking place at Charter House. If you would like to attend, please email [email protected]
Minute Taking: Thurs 31 March
All Day
Mental Health Course: Wed 6 April
9.30am—12.30
Mindfulness: Wed 6 April 9am – 12.30 and 1.30pm – 5 pm Risk Management, Fire Safety, Manual Handling and Health & Safety (Mandatory Training) 11 April and 8 June 2pm—4pm
“I’m on the phone…”