As one of the largest employers in the North East, we recognise the importance that healthcare plays in supporting the country’s defence and security.
We are committed to supporting the UK’s Armed Forces community, from cadet adult volunteers to reservists, veterans and their families. We have demonstrated this commitment not only by developing our own covenant, but also by:
- achieving the Gold Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Award in 2018,
- winning the HSJ award for Reservist Support Initiative in 2019,
- becoming an accredited Veterans Covenant Hospital Alliance Trust and
- signing up to the Step into Health programme.
There is significant support from the Board of Directors for this work as well as management champions, clinical champions and human resources. They work together to promote the Forces and ensure both staff and patients are supported and not disadvantaged.
How we support our staff
- implementing a dedicated reserve forces training and mobilisation policy;
- guaranteeing interviews for service leavers, veterans and reservists who meet the essential criteria for roles;
- ensuring an additional 10 days paid annual leave for reservists and cadet adult volunteers to attend their annual camps;
- supporting reservists and their managers with mobilisation and demobilisation;
- working alongside the Carers Transition Partnership (CTP) to develop rotational work placements for service leavers to help ease their transition back to ‘civvy street’; and
- creating the Armed Forces staff network, which has 75 members since launching in October 2018.
The core values of the Trust and the Armed Forces are closely aligned, with a focus on people and partnerships, pioneering services and staff pride in what they do. As a result, we strive to ease the path for service leavers to work in healthcare and offer an internal mentor on an ad-hoc basis, where appropriate or necessary while working alongside CTP.
We currently employ 30 reservists, 33 veterans, 5 cadet force volunteers, 1 regular and 4 spouses. However, we may employ more as individuals do not have to make their status known to the organisation.
Find out more
You can find out more about how we support our Reservists in our Careers section
