Case study 1 - North England
At a trust in North England, with support of their CSP Steward lodged a collective grievance in relation to their on-call policy. The CSP team secured a workplace win, see the video below for how they achieved this.
Case study 2 - East Midlands
At a Trust in the East Midlands, the CSP steward was able to gain improvements to on-call conditions over the course of several years. Following a change in departmental management, the CSP rep worked collaboratively with the new managers to:
- challenge workplace culture,
- push forward incremental changes to the on-call regime,
- measuring success before making further improvements.
Stewards, safety reps and managers worked together to convene an open door on-call working group, to assess where the current structure was working and where it was not.
How the East Midlands Trust implemented change
Starting with supporting a harmonisation of policy between the two hospitals in the trust, the team made rapidly made progress on improving access to overnight accommodation and parking provision for staff while on-call.
After a period of assessment and reflection, managers agreed the creation of new respiratory training post, ensuring all staff on the rota receive effective training and ongoing support sessions after their 6-week respiratory induction.
They also agreed to MSK diaries being pre-emptively blocked for the morning after on-call shifts. The safety rep led on efforts to provide debriefings for on-call staff after every traumatic case or patient death, protecting members’ mental health.
Now this rep is focusing on getting the best deal for her team around compensatory rest, helping incorporate best practice to reduce the number of call-outs, providing high quality care to patients while minimising disruption to members and the services in which they work.
Going member to member and asking for private 1:1 feedback, the rep continues to assess the impact of the new on-call policy on individuals, department morale and patient care.
