Policies
This year we have reviewed a number of our People Policies to improve the support we offer our staff.
This has included:
- Implementing a carers support process to collate all the information on the support available for our staff carers into one document. We also achieve level 2 of the Carer Confident for our work to build a supportive and inclusive workplace for staff who are or may become carers.
- Introduced paid leave for staff undergoing fertility treatment or for staff to support partners who are.
- Increased our support when people suffer a bereavement, including up to three months paid leave for staff who lose a spouse or child.
- Our Dignity at Work, Disciplinary Policy and Grievance Resolution Policy have been launched following a rewrite to be more supportive of the Trust’s priority on being a just and learning organisation.
Fraud
The Trust is committed to deterring and detecting all instances of fraud, bribery and corruption as far as possible, ensuring that losses are reduced to an absolute minimum and that valuable public resources are used for their intended purpose of delivering the best possible care and patient experience.
We employ a Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS), via a counter fraud collaborative service, to deliver on a programme of counter fraud activity in efforts to reduce NHS fraud and the risks associated with it. The LCFS’s role is centred around the NHS Counter Fraud Authority’s four strategic areas of strategic governance, inform and involve, prevent and deter, and hold to account.
This year, the LCFS undertook a number of counter fraud activities including the delivery of tailored fraud awareness training to specific departments, publication of a quarterly fraud awareness newsletter and other fraud awareness materials, completion of local proactive exercises in areas of increased fraud risk, and investigation into alleged offences of fraud (this list is not exhaustive).
The Trust has a well-publicised system in place for staff and patients to raise concerns if they identify or suspect fraud. They can do this via our LCFS, Director of Finance, Digital and Estates, via the NHS fraud and corruption reporting line on 0800 028 40 60, or online at www.
Safety
The Trust is committed to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all of our staff, patients, service users, carers and communities and the Board formally accepts its collective role in providing health and safety leadership.
During 2023/24, the main areas of focus were:
- Providing advice and guidance for both minor and major capital projects undertaken most notably at the newly completed wards at Peter Hodgkinson Centre.
- Reviewing and improving the Trust’s current approach to occupational road risk with regards to members of staff who may use vehicles within the community to either undertake visits or transport patients.
- Providing a level of health and safety support to Lincolnshire Community Health Service NHS Trust (LCHS) during the short-term absence of their own health and safety provision.
- Continued compliance with and reporting of applicable injuries and over 7 day staff absences from work to the Health and Safety Executive as per the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
- Monitoring of incident and near miss data being reported through the Trust’s incident management system.
- Undertaking extensive investigative and remedial works at the Hartsholme Centre following the identification of water safety issues in order to restore the system to a safe state.
Modern slavery
In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Trust ensures that Modern Slavery for example, slavery and human trafficking, is not taking place in any part of its business or any of its supply chains. This is achieved through ensuring that services are procured through approved providers only or tendered through robust procurement processes.
Gender pay gap
A gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between male and female’s average earnings across an organisation or the labour market as a whole over a period of time, regardless of role or seniority. It is not a like-for-like comparison of employees of different genders. Even if an employer has a fair pay and reward policy, and even if it has equal pay, it could still have a pay gap. The gender pay gap and equal pay both deal with pay disparity at work, but they are not the same.
The gender pay gap, shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be a number of issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.
We submit Gender Pay Gap results each year to the Government Equalities Office (GEO) and publish on our external facing website. The most up to date Gender Pay Gap report is on our website.
