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 :

communications@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

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: Kellie.Wilkinson@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

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 Ewan.Maddock@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

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: servicedesk@hblict.nhs.uk

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 infer@hertsindependentliving.org

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

communications@enhertsccg.nhs.uk 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 hertsmassage@live.co.uk

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: jenny.holland@enhertsccg.nhs.uk Direct line: 01707 369577 Mobile: 07789 744722

Bruno Korfant, HR Advisor Email: bruno.korfant@enhertsccg.nhs.uk Direct line: 01707 369704

Sonya Dhillon, HR Advisor Email: sonya.dhillon@enhertsccg.nhs.uk Direct line: 01707 367281

Jade Roe, HR Administrator Email: Jade.roe@enhertsccg.nhs.uk Direct line: 01707 367209

Laura Trainer, HR Admin Support Email: laura.trainer@enhertsccg.nhs.uk 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 askhr@enhertsccg.nhs.uk 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 askhr@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

Self Service

As you are all aware we now have Self Service,

which means that you can

access your own personal

General HR queries: askHR@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

ESR queries: ESRHelpdesk@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

Expenses: ccgtravel.enh-tr@nhs.net

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 askhr@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

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 askhr@enhertsccg.nhs.uk

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

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