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Staff Bank

We are always looking for skilled and highly motivated individuals who care about offering the highest quality mental health care and supporting recovery, who share the same values as us and would like to work flexibly across our south west London services. We offer flexible opportunities for a range of professions through our Bank.

How do I join the Staff Bank?

If you would like to join the bank you can contact us via email temporarystaffing@swlstg.nhs.uk and we will be able to help you. All applications will be done online, and we will send you the relevant link for the professional staffing group you are interested working in.

We also have live adverts out from time to time which can be accessed via current vacancies section. We recommend that you email us, should the relevant vacancy you are interested not be listed.

What is the Staff Bank?

Our Bank aims to supply skilled workers to cover temporary shortages within the organisation usually to cover staff shortages or increased service demand. Our Bank team includes a diverse range of talented professionals including doctors, consultants, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and healthcare assistants. Our Bank is also available for our existing permanent staff to join, who would like to pick up additional shifts across our hospitals, to support our departments whilst earning extra.

Members of our Staff Bank work across our hospital and community sites, in a number of different roles:

Consultants
Psychiatrists and psychologists
Registered Nurses
Healthcare Assistants
Allied Health Professionals (AHPs)
Administrative and Clerical

Why join our Staff Bank?

There are so many reasons to join our Staff Bank:

Pick and choose your shifts: Looking for something a little more flexible? Better work life balance? Don’t want set hours? You can join our bank and pick and choose shifts to work around you or your family. We just ask that you work at least one shift every 12 months to keep your bank membership active.
Get great rates of pay: All bank rates are paid at inner London weighting and you can even be paid weekly and get enhanced pay for unsocial hours
Live local, work local: With our bank you can chose shifts at your local mental health hospital
Bank work opens doors: Joining the bank could open a new phase in your career! Bank work can open doors to further professional qualifications, and you may have the opportunity to apply for a permanent post should a suitable vacancy be identified
Try before you buy: Bank work is a great way to explore mental health and different specialities and settings without having to commit to a permanent post
Play your part in someone’s mental health recovery: Make a difference to the mental health of our local community
Be part of something special: We are an innovative and rapidly growing organisation that is the leading provider of mental health services across south west London and a beacon of excellence for many of our national mental health services.

Other benefits

Paid accrued annual leave: For every 8 hours you work, you accrue 1 hour of annual leave which can be paid or taken as leave.
Access to NHS Pension
Transferable training and development: You’ll be able to access training and development opportunities and the chance to improve your skills. You’ll also have a paid Trust induction
Access to our preceptorship programme: A preceptorship is a type of practical learning that supports all new clinical Bank staff at Band 5 or above. This includes those who have done a return to practice course. Our preceptorship programme has been given the ‘Preceptorship Quality Mark 2018-19’ by Capital Nurse.

The recruitment process:

Application: please read the instructions in the application form carefully and make sure that you complete all sections of the application form and submit it by the deadline advertised.

Interview: successful candidates will be invited for an interview. You will be sent an email with all the information you need to prepare for this, including the names of the people/teams you will be meeting.

Conditional offer of Bank agreement: if you are successful, we will send you a conditional offer of bank agreement by email indicating what references and other documents we require for pre-employment checks.

Pre-employment checks: before you are able to start booking shifts, we must verify your references. You may need to complete other pre-employment checks; for example, a DBS (Disclose and Barring Service) check.

Employment health check: you will need to complete an employment health questionnaire before your first shift. This will be screened by our Occupational Health team.

Start date: we will let you know when you are able to start booking shifts once we have verified your references.

Bank agreement: you will receive a copy of your Bank agreement and details of your induction by email in advance of your start date and sign your Bank agreement with us on your first day at the Trust.

Training and induction: you will need to undertake all mandatory training relevant to your role and attend an induction prior to booking shifts. You will receive an email with instructions before starting.

I am a permanent staff member at the Trust, can I join the Bank?

Yes. If you are currently a permanent/substantive staff member with us and you would like to join the Bank, please email temporaryStaffing@swlstg.nhs.uk and confirm that you wish to join in the same role as your current permanent position.

Please note that you are unable to join the Bank in a role which is different to your permanent employment.

Your form will be reviewed by our Temporary Staffing Team and within three working days you will be ready to start booking shifts! You will be able to view and book available shifts via the Bank Booking App.

If you have any questions, please contact the Temporary Staffing Team.

FAQs

What shifts are available?

We have various opportunities in different services such as;

Acute Care Pathway
CAMHS
Forensic, Specialist and National
Community
Cognition and Mental Health in Ageing

We also have opportunities across different parts of south London including our sites at Springfield Hospital in Tooting, Queen Mary’s in Roehampton and Tolworth Hospital in Surbiton.

How do I book shifts?

Booking shifts is easy. Once you become a member of our Staff Bank, you will receive instructions on how to download our Bank Booking App where you will be able to view and book shifts via your mobile phone.

Will I be provided with a uniform?

If you are joining us in a clinical role, you will be given scrubs and the necessary PPE (personal protective equipment) that is required for the area you are working in.

I have previously worked for the Trust, can I re-join the Staff Bank?

If you have previously worked for the Trust and it was agreed with your line manager that you would remain on our Staff Bank after leaving, then you will be able to book shifts without completing the pre-employment checks again.

How often do I have to work to remain on the Staff Bank?

We ask that you work at least one shift every 12 months to keep your membership active.

Hospital Rooms at Springfield

Creative spaces for healing

Hospital Rooms is an arts and mental health charity that believes in the power of art to bring joy, create hope, support healing and offer dignity to people in their most vulnerable moments.

Their vision is for a world where people in need of care for their mental health are immersed in rejuvenative environments, enabled to engage in collaborative artistic activities and empowered to imagine new possibilities. This is a vision we wholeheartedly support at South West London and St George’s.

In collaboration with patients and staff across our Trust, Hospital Rooms led an innovative programme to co-design vibrant and uplifting artworks that have helped to shape a new creative landscape for mental healthcare in South West London.

In December 2021, the Trust partnered with arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms for their most ambitious project to date. As part of the development of our two new mental health facilities, the Trinity and Shaftesbury buildings, we commissioned Hospital Rooms to produce 20 bespoke artworks to transform how are our facilities are experienced by patients, service users and staff.

“Research has long demonstrated the positive connection between art and mental health – but this project is about so much more than putting art on walls to make people feel good. To create healing environments which genuinely support recovery, we needed to go beyond delivering modern buildings.

“What makes this project so special and unique is that our patients and service users are at the heart of it. Co-production has been key throughout the process, with over 120 workshops held with patients to ensure that the final artworks are genuinely informed by what they want to see.” – Sharon Spain, Executive Director of Nursing & Quality

Hospital Rooms enlisted an internationally acclaimed and diverse roster of artists, many of whom put vulnerable people at the centre of their work and specialise in participatory practice. Through a series of workshops, the artists worked directly with patients and staff to come up with the final artworks.

“Joining the Hospital Rooms project has been lifechanging for me. The opportunities I’ve had to meet new people, learn new skills and spend time being creative has had enormous positive effects on my mental wellbeing and recovery. Without Hospital Rooms I don’t think I would have recovered and got back to normal life as quickly as I did.” – Liam, service user

The project followed four overarching phases including research and development, co-production, installation and public engagement.

Hospital Rooms conducted 25 interviews and led 20 creative sessions in person across inpatient wards and the Recovery College, and virtually with involvement teams. They also formed a Lived Experience Advisory Group. Their learning during this period informed the artist selection, the co-production process and the location and types of artworks to be commissioned.

The Hospital Rooms team, artists and cultural partners led over 120 art workshops across inpatient services, outpatient services, the Recovery College and in the community to develop the concepts for the artworks. 10 Lived Experience Advisory Group sessions were held during this process.

Artwork proposals were developed by the artists, patient communities and the Hospital Rooms team. These were reviewed by the Trust’s Design Authority Group.

Hospital Rooms and artists installed 22 artworks inside the new Trinity and Shaftesbury Buildings

Hospital Rooms has also donated art materials and their Digital Art School resources for eight new activity rooms, and they will be providing training for occupational therapy staff and activity coordinators to lead Digital Art School sessions.

“Our first ever Hospital Rooms project took place at the Trust’s Phoenix Unit. Six years later, we are delighted that our most ambitious project to date is a collaboration with everyone at the Trust.

“After more than 120 artist-led creative workshops that took place at the hospital with service users and staff, we are now well underway installing 20 extraordinary, co-created artworks throughout the new Trinity and Shaftesbury buildings. From murals to video installations, wall sculptures to opera, there are many firsts for us, and we are proud to be part of this new vision for a mental health hospital. We have loved working so closely with everyone at Springfield Hospital over the last 18 months.” – Niamh White and Tim A Shaw, co-founders of Hospital Rooms

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