Published on: 14 November 2019
Continuing this week’s campaign to raise awareness of what support is available to the Armed Forces community, today we will be looking at what the Trust can offer our reservists and Armed Forces personnel.
We currently have an Armed Forces Network, which aims to make the Trust a great place to work if you are ex-Forces or a reservist, with pro-active recruitment and support for people leaving the Forces, and if you are ex-Forces you will receive great care from us, adapted to your needs and in line with the NHS commitment to prioritise care for ex-Forces patients.
The network has already managed to deliver improvements, as the Trust now offers three weeks’ paid leave for reservists to attend military duties in addition to their usual annual leave entitlement.
Also NHS Jobs and TRAC now identify any job applications received from members of the armed forces community. This allows us to support the armed forces by guaranteeing an interview for any applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.
The Trust already follows this process for disabled applicants and we are now widening this to members of the armed forces. The shortlisting panel will be informed if anyone is from this community in the shortlisting email sent from the People Resource Team so that this can be considered when shortlisting is completed.
In addition to support from our network and Trust colleagues, any veterans or reservists who work here have access to our Wellbeing offer. This includes among others, access to Schwartz Rounds and the Employee Assistance Programme, which provides 24/7 phone support and on-site counselling through our Resolve service.
