City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust offers a wide range of benefits and services to its staff. These include:
On-site Occupational Health Department
Providing a comprehensive range of services, concerned with the relationship between health and work. These include health surveillance, immunization, health screening, eye care vouchers and fast track physiotherapy for staff.
Childcare support
The Trust’s Childcare Co-coordinator runs regular ‘drop-in’ clinics for pregnant staff and parents, organises playschemes during school holidays. In addition staff have access to childcare vouchers via a salary sacrifice scheme.
Employee Assistance Programme
Staff have access on a 24/7 basis to a range of personal support services including counselling as well as financial and legal advice.
Discount rail and bus travel schemes
Staff can make significant savings on both rail and bus travel via the Trust’s Metro Discount Saver Scheme and Go North East’s Buzzfare scheme.
Fitness centre
The Trust has an on site Staff Fitness Centre, open Monday - Friday 5am to midnight, Saturday and Sunday 6am to 10pm. Facilities include a fully equipped gym with cardiovascular & weight training equipment, aerobics studio, sauna and steam room, shower & changing facilities and coffee lounge/relaxation area.
Tax free bikes for work
In partnership with Cyclescheme, the Trust offers staff, via a salary sacrifice scheme, the opportunity to take advantage of the government’s Cycle to Work initiative.
Employee Car Scheme
In partnership with NHS Fleet Solutions, the Trust offers staff, via a salary sacrifice scheme, the opportunity to lease a brand new car. In line with the Trust's Green Tavel Plan, the types of cars available are limited to CO2 emmissions of no more than 155k/mg.
Staff Dining Facilities
There are staff restaurant facilities on the main hospital site as well as in the Education Centre and Eye Infirmary, which provide a range of hot/cold meals, snacks, salads, sandwiches, confectionary and beverages.
Staff Lottery
This lottery is open to all staff. In addition to substantial cash prizes the lottery provides income for staff amenities and benefits including Employee Benefits Day and Family Fun Day.
Communication
We want to ensure our staff are in touch with what is going on throughout the organisation at all times. This is assisted by a number of forms of communication, including:
- A monthly Team Brief from the Chief Executive, which is cascaded through the organisation;
- Access to our Trust Intranet site, which is regularly updated with current information
- A weekly newsletter - the ‘Grapevine’ and `City Hospitals News’ magazine both of which carry articles of interest and are freely available to all staff.
- A Staff Opinion Survey, which is carried out each year via an independent company.
Training and Development
The Trust is committed to ensuring a high standard of training and development and through a regular appraisal system, that all staff have a Personal Development Plan.
The Trust has excellent training facilities including a state of the art Education Centre on site. An extensive range of clinical and non-clinical training programmes and management development opportunities are available including skills training, NVQ, IM&T, professional development, HR workshops, health and safety and management development programmes.