Scottish Government
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Fund to help NHS workers
A new NHSScotland fund to help support the wellbeing of NHS employees and provide initiatives to combat violence against staff is now open for business.
The £1.5 million ring-fenced Working Well Challenge Fund - of which £0.5 million is specifically set aside for work to address and reduce aggression and violence against healthcare staff - is open to all NHS Boards who wish to apply for additional funds to undertake new work to promote and enhance the wellbeing of their staff.
The Fund aims to prioritise projects which seek to focus on those issues raised by the 2008 Staff Survey and which:
- Create a better working environment
- Increase the engagement and commitment of NHS staff
- Address issues that affect the health, wellbeing and safety of NHS Staff
- Encourage NHS Boards to work collaboratively, both within and outwith the NHS, to develop innovative and effective ways of maximising staff potential
- Promote good practice and development of approaches which are capable of replication
Minister for Public Health Shona Robison said:
"This new Challenge Fund aims to support those initiatives and ideas which Boards wish to implement in order to improve the wellbeing of their staff.
"We are looking for novel proposals which go over and above work already underway by NHS Boards across Scotland under their responsibilities for the wellbeing of their employees.
"Ideas could include, for example, training to help staff anticipate and react appropriately to violent incidents; information and awareness raising campaigns to promote public health messages or; measures to encourage the uptake of staff benefits and services.
"The commitment of this fund re-enforces the message that violence against any healthcare worker is unacceptable, and builds on the enhanced protection provided by the extended legislation introduced by the Scottish Government last April."
Applications can be submitted by NHS Scotland Boards, or by an NHSScotland Board working with other partners. For collaborative bids, the lead applicant must be an NHSScotland Board.
Up to £1.5 million is being made available for the Fund in the financial year 2009-10. No minimum level of funding per bid is set nor an upper limit. The closing date for applications is 15 May 2009. Awards will be announced in June 2009.
A range of commitments to improve the health, safety and well-being of staff are already in place both via the Staff Governance Standard and other initiatives (e.g. OHSXtra). The new Challenge Fund is not intended to support these existing activities, nor should the fund be used to meet any statutory obligation, for example, to meet health and safety requirements.
The findings of the latest NHSScotland Staff Survey published in January 2009 showed that 18 per cent of the respondees had experienced a violent incident in the last 12 months, 10 per cent fewer respondees than the last survey undertaken in 2006.
The Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 amendment came into effect from April 1, 2008. This extension to the Act provides additional protection for GPs, nurses and midwives working in the community and re-enforces the message that violence against any healthcare worker is unacceptable and will not go unpunished.
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