Working together to achieve the healthiest

life possible for everyone in Ayrshire and Arran

Candidate
Information Pack

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Pack Contents
To assist you with your application, this pack will provide useful information about
the post, about NHS Ayrshire and Arran and about Ayrshire more generally .

Section 1
Welcome from the Recruitment Team ............................... 03

Section 2
About NHS Ayrshire & Arran.................................................... 04
Our Vision ................................................................................ 05
Our Values…………………………………………………………..06
NHS Ayrshire & Arran as an employer ..................................... 08

Section 3
Living and working in Ayrshire ...................................................... 13
 Section One
Welcome from the Recruitment Team

Welcome to NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

Thank you for the interest you have shown in working for NHS Ayrshire and Arran and we
hope you are encouraged to apply for the many excellent employment opportunities we have
on offer.

If you are new to making an application to NHS Ayrshire and Arran please take the time to
read through this information pack to learn more about us.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran follows fair and consistent recruitment and selection processes to
ensure recruitment decisions are based on candidate skills, knowledge, experience and
qualifications. To ensure fairness to all applicants, any decisions to shortlist you for interview
will be based solely on the information you supply on your application. It is therefore
important that you complete all sections of the application form.

If you have a disability or long-term health condition, the Board is committed to offering
reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and employment. If you require
further information or support please contact the Recruitment Team.

We look forward to hearing from you and wish you success with your application.

Kind regards,

Recruitment Team
Central Employment Services

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 Section Two
About NHS Ayrshire and Arran
As one of 14 territorial Health Boards in NHS Scotland, NHS Ayrshire and Arran is
responsible for the monitoring, protection and the improvement of the population’s health
and wellbeing and for the delivery of frontline healthcare services. In doing so the Board
works closely with the three Integrated Joint Boards (East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and
South Ayrshire) who, for a range of delegated services, are responsible for planning and
resourcing health and care to improve quality and outcomes for their populations.

Ayrshire and Arran covers an area of some 2,500 square miles and serves a population of
around 368,000 citizens (approximately 7% of the population of Scotland). Ayrshire and
Arran’s area is co-terminus with the three local authorities of East, North and South
Ayrshire and includes the island community of Arran and Cumbrae. NHS Ayrshire and
Arran invests around £750 million annually in health improvement and service delivery on
behalf of its population. It employs around 11,000 staff (9,000 wte).

Currently within Ayrshire and Arran there are two University Hospitals at Ayr and
Crosshouse (near Kilmarnock) providing a comprehensive range of acute hospital
services. Acute Mental Health Services are provided from Woodland View which is
located on the Ayrshire Central Hospital site in Irvine which also provides a wider range of
community services to the population of North Ayrshire. Elderly Mental Health services for
South Ayrshire patients are delivered at Ailsa Hospital, Ayr. Biggart Hospital in Prestwick
provides rehabilitation services for the elderly following discharge from acute care or
directly from the community. In addition, there are community hospitals in Arran (War
Memorial Hospital), Cumbrae (Lady Margaret), Cumnock (East Ayrshire Community
Hospital) and Girvan (Girvan Community Hospital).

In addition to services provided in our hospitals, there are 55 General Medical Practices
with 290 GPs and their practice teams providing a full range of general medical services
across 77 sites, stretching from Ballantrae in the south to Skelmorlie in the North. Around
160 general dental practitioners provide NHS dental services at more than 70 sites, 90
community pharmacies providing a range of pharmaceutical services, including minor
ailment services and public health services and around 60 optometry practices provide
range of services across Ayrshire and Arran.

2020/21 is the 6th year of full integration of our health and social care system. In Ayrshire
and Arran the three integrated Joint Boards have delegated responsibility for planning and
resourcing of adult social care services, adult primary care and community health
services, mental health services, some hospital services and also Children’s Services and
Justice Services. Each IJB area is divided into a series of localities whose purpose is to
provide an organisational mechanism for local leadership of service planning, to be fed
upwards in the IJB’s strategic commissioning plan.

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Our Vision – Caring for Ayrshire

“Working together to achieve the healthiest life possible for everyone in Ayrshire and
Arran”.

For many years we have been clear about our intention to build a resilient, engaged and
valued workforce across our health and social care system. We have made a lot of
progress but, as always, there is more to do if we are to be the exemplar employer that
we aspire to.

We are deliberate about attracting and retaining the people we need to deliver high
quality, sustainable services to our communities. Also, that the experience of working in
Ayrshire and Arran is a positive one where we all feel psychologically safe and that our
voice is heard and we can contribute to shaping “Caring for Ayrshire”.

By working together we can all contribute to a healthy, vibrant, engaged and

participative workplace.

The Board is committed to improving the organisation and taking the necessary steps to
improve the culture, achieve the behaviour change and genuinely involve and engage
staff, so that staff feel valued and supported while at work and are empowered to make
changes and have the freedom to act within the agreed frameworks.

Creating and improving trust, respect involvement and value for our staff, together with
developing positive relationships between staff and their line manages, are essential to
building a positive workplace culture of wellbeing and performance.

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Our Values

Our values in NHS Ayrshire and Arran have been developed by our staff and are deeply
embedded in everything we do.

Caring

I will show concern for others and care about the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone
I come into contact with.

Safe

I will do my job well, striving to learn and do things better, while taking responsibility for the
quality, safety and effectiveness of my actions.

Respectful

I will see everyone as an individual, be open, approachable and treat everyone with dignity
and respect.

Our Commitment to you, our service users and our communities

We will work with you and your family to:

 Promote and improve your health

 Improve your safety, outcomes and quality of experience whilst in our care
 Live up to customer care commitments

Our Workforce

We will work together to create an open, fair and just culture where:

 We are all valued, respected and developed to be our best

 We are all informed, involved, listened to and treated fairly and consistently
 We are all safe and supported to improve our health and wellbeing

Our Partners

We will work together with partners to:

 Improve health, prevent disease and reduce inequalities

 Join up our service delivery to improve outcomes
 Make the best use of our resources

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The diagram below represents the agreed organisational Vision, Purpose, Values
and Objectives for NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

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NHS Ayrshire & Arran as an employer
NHS Ayrshire & Arran recognises that our staff are vital to delivering our purpose,
values and commitments and to achieving our strategic objectives.

Our aim is to create an organisation where people want to work and strive to deliver
excellence each day; where staff wellbeing and personal resilience are supported;
where careers are interesting and developed; where staff are encouraged to reach
their full potential; and where staff feel their contribution is recognised and valued.

To do this we are implementing our People

Strategy – People Matter and our Health
Safety and Wellbeing Strategy to help us
retain, develop, and support our current staff
and attract the right staff with the right skills
and values going forward and enhance their
work experience. This will directly contribute
to our aspiration to deliver excellent high
quality services to every person, every time.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has a suite of excellent Workforce Policies, including a
number of policies for supporting life work balance, that demonstrate its commitment
to being a modern, exemplar employer; showcasing our core values, and promoting
consistent employment policy and practice that supports the implementation of the
Staff Governance Standard and effective recruitment and retention.

Our staff have told us the unique factors that help to define us as an employer of
choice:

• our friendly and supportive environment;

• our commitment to staff engagement and effective

team working;

• our track record in creativity and innovation and our

ability to successfully implement change and
redesign;

• our track record in supporting our staff’s learning,

development and career aspirations, from our
initial comprehensive corporate induction
programme to the availability of a wide range of
internal training, development and leadership
programmes;

• our commitment to supporting flexible working through a wide range of family

friendly policies; and

• our commitment to support and improve our staff’s health, safety, wellbeing and
resilience.

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 “Living in Ayrshire provides
“I work in a good size a nice lifestyle. I drive to
hospital, that is not too big work through lovely
and I have really “The people working here
countryside and I live close
welcomed the opportunity are fantastic, and the
to the sea. There are great
to be involved in service organisation is so
schools to choose from and
developments.” supportive of staff’s
if you want a big city fix,
development. Working
then you can get there in 30
here fulfils you
mins. I wouldn’t want to live
professionally and gives
and work anywhere else. ”
great life work balance.”

Staff Health and Wellbeing

NHS Ayrshire and Arran is fully committed to supporting and improving the health,
safety and wellbeing of its staff. The Board’s Staff Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Strategy outlines the approach being taken to this and the range of activities and
improvements. Key to this is our Occupational Health Service and Staff Care Service
who provide a range of support and interventions to our staff.

Given the importance that being active has to improving health

and wellbeing, the Board has a very intentional, focussed and
well publicised physical activity approach – Work on Wellness
WOW, which has both general and season specific branding, and
provides a visible framework for communicating and promoting
staff wellbeing activities, including Step Count Challenges,
Forest Fit Runs, Dog Walks, Cycling Challenges.

The Board has achieved and maintained the Healthy Working

Lives Gold Award.

Our three main hospital sites – University Hospital Crosshouse,

University Hospital Ayr and Ayrshire Central Hospital have Cycle
Friendly Employer Status awarded by Cycling Scotland; which is
a national recognition programme that provides an award
scheme and funding to help employers make it easier for staff to
cycle. The Board supports the Cycle to Work Employment
Benefit Scheme, which provides support to staff to purchase a
bicycle to allow them to cycle to work.

Recognising Achievement and Celebrating Success

Recognising staff achievement and celebrating success is very important to NHS Ayrshire
and Arran and Ayrshire Achieves provides a route throughout the year to recognise staff
contributions and achievements and say thank you. Our annual Ayrshire Achieves Award
Ceremony, funded by the Charity Fund, is a wonderful opportunity to applaud excellence,
innovation and continuous improvement in the quality of care and services we provide and
celebrate and thank those staff who demonstrate exceptional achievements during the
year.

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Board Accreditation and Awards
The range of Board accreditation/recognition awards help to describe what is important to
NHS Ayrshire and Arran and reinforce what staff can expect from their employer when
they join NHS Ayrshire and Arran:

Sustainability

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has been awarded a Silver Accreditation for our sustainability
work – environmental, economic and social, and are the only Health Board in Scotland to
have reached this standard. We want our staff to be active participants in this work to
enable further improvements and work with us in making little changes that can make a
big difference.

Some of our key successes have been:

 Energy – installing a combined heating and power plant to

reduce utility costs and cutting CO2 emissions by 245 tonnes
each year; installing a new renewable biomass plant, to
reduce fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by around
1,400 tonnes each year.

 Single Use Plastics – reducing single use plastic in a number

of setting, e.g. stopping use of plastic cutlery in our staff dining
rooms.

 Transport – procuring four new electric vehicles with Energy Saving Trust funding, and
are working toward installing electric vehicle charging points, using Scottish
Government funding; upgrading cycle paths at our sites to help those choosing to cycle
to and from work.

 Greening Our Estate – developing a number of woodland walks and green spaces for
staff, patients and visitors to use; developing a green gym and have an outdoor
teaching & meeting centre. 30 hectares of underutilised woodland and meadowland
have been used to create new pathways and green spaces; we have planted new trees
and installed bat and bird boxes and bug hotels across our sites; and we have upgraded
our cycle paths.

Equality for All

NHS Ayrshire and Arran is committed to creating an open, inclusive working culture where
all staff are at ease being themselves at work. We work to improve and embed this by
raising awareness of the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act; sharing the
steps being taken by NHS Ayrshire and Arran to support staff; promoting equality in the
workplace and making sure that everyone has access to the same opportunities and the
same fair treatment.

Disability Confident

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has achieved recognition as a Disability

Confident Employer which confirms our employer commitment to
be part of a movement of change, thinking differently about
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disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and
develop disabled employees.

LGBT

We are proud to have achieved the LGBT Charter Award

and remain committed to the Stonewall Diversity
Champions Programme. LGBT employees and service
users will feel safe, supported and included.

In 2018, NHS Ayrshire and Arran received a Special

Recognition Stonewall Diversity Champions Award

Carer Positive

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has been recognised as a Carer

Positive Engaged employer by Carers Scotland, in
recognition of its commitment to supporting its working
carers through workplace policies, working practices and
the provision of access to support and information, Work is
underway to progress to acquiring the next level of
recognition with a long term goal of achieving Exemplary
status.

Investing In Volunteers

In achieving this standard NHS Ayrshire and Arran

demonstrates to our volunteers – and potential volunteers
– how much they are valued and gives them confidence in
our ability to provide an outstanding volunteer experience.

Global Citizenship

NHS Ayrshire and Arran is fully supportive of the

NHSScotland Global Citizenship Programme and supports
staff who want to make a personal and professional
contribution to global health work in low and middle income
countries. This valuable work not only helps to reduce
common challenges such as disease epidemics, but
provides mutual learning opportunities and brings proven
benefits for our NHS staff and healthcare system.

Reservists

NHS Ayrshire and Arran recognises the value that serving

personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to
our organisation and the Board’s commitment to support
the armed forces community was recognised in 2016 when
the organisation received the Defence Employer
Recognising Scheme Silver award.

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Scottish Living Wage (Real Living Wage)

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has initiated the process of becoming an accredited employer, with the
minimum hourly rate requirement already being exceeded for directly employed staff and data from
third party contractors being collated.

NHS Staff Benefits

NHS Ayrshire & Arran works in partnership with NHS Staff
Benefits to give staff access to a wide range of exclusive
discounts and benefits. As a member of NHS staff, you can
use www.nhsstaffbenefits.co.uk to save on holidays, home
improvements, leisure, days out, wellbeing, weddings,
motoring and online shopping.

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 Section Three

Living and Working in Ayrshire

Situated in South-west of Scotland on the Firth of Clyde, Ayrshire is a unique and exceptional
place to live providing a wonderful quality of life with the best of all options – picturesque and
interesting large (Ayr, Irvine and Kilmarnock) and small towns, beautiful villages and hamlets,
expansive countryside, island life, rolling green hills, 80 miles of varied coastline with stunning
beaches and sandy shores, history, heritage with city life within a short and easy journey when you
need it, using excellent network of road, rail and bus transport links throughout Scotland.

Ayrshire offers everything - all the benefits of living in a semi-rural area, with its own UK and
International Airport, Glasgow Prestwick Airport and with Glasgow city centre life only a 30
minute drive away - so why would you want to live anywhere else?

The housing market has many and varied options to choose from – old castles to modern new
builds at more affordable prices than in other parts of the UK.

There is always something happening in Ayrshire whether you are interested in music, history
and heritage, outdoor pursuits, events and festivals, or simply food and drink, there is something
for everyone. There is a wide range of excellent recreational activities, including hill climbing,
horse riding, sailing and golf - Ayrshire boasts more than 40 quality golf courses, including two
Open Championship courses at Turnberry and Royal Troon.

There are too many Ayrshire attractions to list but here are some:

Local educational standards are very high at primary and secondary level. However, private
education is also available in the area.

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See the links below for more information on local authority services:

East Ayrshire Council

www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk

North Ayrshire Council

www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk

South Ayrshire Council

www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk

For further information on things to do and places to explore in Ayrshire, use the following link:
https://www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/ayrshire-arran/

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Further Information
For further information on any aspect of the recruitment process contact:

NHS Ayrshire and Arran

Central Employment Services – Recruitment

Tel: +44 (0)1563 825725

Email: NHSAARecruitment@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

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