Staff benefits and your health and wellbeing

CSH Surrey employed staff can find more information about staff benefits and health and wellbeing opportunities available to them on the CSH Surrey intranet.

On top of our competitive salaries and development opportunities, working for Epsom and St Helier entitles you to a range of generous benefits and services.

These benefits, which range from help with childcare to discounts off leisure facilities in the area, are designed to help all of our employees enjoy their time at work and at home, and find their perfect work/life balance.

ESTH rewards

We’ve partnered with Edenred, a leading international employee benefits, incentives, reward and recognition and prepaid services organisation, to offer staff a range of salary sacrifice schemes and discounts with a number of high street retailers, through a dedicated website called ESTH rewards (opens in a new window).

The idea of salary sacrifice is quite simple – you give up part of your salary and, in return, you receive some form of non-cash benefit, such as childcare vouchers or a bicycle and accessories. This comes out of your pay before tax, which means you will pay less tax and National Insurance contributions. The cost of the non-cash benefit is taken out of your salary over a specified period of time, such as 12 or 24 months. It’s important to note that this can affect your pension as your pensionable salary will decrease for the period of the contract.

Through ESTH rewards, you can:

• Pick up the latest mobile phone and home technology products, including laptops, tablets and smart TVs, and split the costs over 24 months (open for orders during specific periods every year)
• Drive away in a new car (including insurance, servicing and more) through sgfleet’s Novalease scheme
• Cycle to work with a new bike and accessories  (open for orders during specific periods every year)
• Buy childcare vouchers.

You can also make savings with a number of local and national retailers and restaurants, including Bill’s restaurant in Epsom, David Lloyd Leisure clubs, Debenhams, Curry’s, Sainsbury’s and Volks Auto in Sutton.

Visit www.esthrewards.co.uk now. Your username is your email address. The first time you log in, please use P4ssword as your password (you will be prompted to change this).

Financial Wellbeing

Lighthouse Finance Advice [docx] 42KB

Other staff benefits

• Accommodation
  Whether you're new to the NHS, or already work for us, we can help with your accommodation needs. There is accommodation available to rent on-site at both Epsom and St Helier hospitals. It is in high demand, but if we are unable to provide hospital accommodation for you, we will do our best to help you find somewhere else to live. For more information or to book, please contact the Accommodation Office at St Helier Hospital on 020 8296 3693.

• Annual leave
  NHS staff are given a generous amount of fully paid annual holiday, depending on how long you have worked here. Under five years’ NHS services gets you 27 days. After five years’ service that rises to 29 days, and those who have worked in the NHS for 10 years or more get 33 days off (all plus public holidays). For more information, please see our Leave Policy. 

• ASK Epsom 
  Epsom and St Helier staff get an extra 25% off their bill at ASK Epsom, just show your badge to the restauarant staff
• Childcare
  We offer numerous high quality childcare options, including on-site nurseries and play schemes. Our dedicated childcare co-ordinator will help you work out the best care solution for you and your family. You can contact Rachel Davey at 020 8296 2000 ext 4962 or email rachel.davey2@nhs.net
• Flexible working
  We have a range of flexible working policies in place to help you balance your home and working life. These include flexi-time, working from home, part-time hours and job sharing. Please see our Flexible Working Policy. 
• Pension
  All our employees are entitled to join the excellent NHS Pension Scheme. Employer contributions are generous, and the scheme offers additional benefits such as the option to take early retirement or a tax-free lump sum. The NHS Pension website provides information on the exact benefits that you receive, how to opt out and how to claim for a refund.
• Salary
  Everyone joining the NHS is guaranteed a competitive salary that matches their ability and responsibilities. All of our salaries are subject to an annual increase. 
• Support for carers
  We offer paid leave of up to three days in any one year to care for a dependent person. Please see our Carers Guidelines and Special Leave Policy for more information.
• Training and development
  We are committed to the personal development of all staff, and offer numerous training opportunities to further your learning, training and career.
• Vehicle Leasing - Our Trust offers a vehicle leasing scheme to our staff via our partners Novalease. More information can be found on ESTHRewards. 

Your health and wellbeing

This section is designed to give you easy access to information to support your health and wellbeing both at home and at work. 

You can see the weekly timetable of activities here: Health and wellbeing timetable 2022[doc] 151KB.

Keeping fit and well

Yoga at Epsom and St Helier hospitals

• 5.15pm, every Monday at Epsom, Conference Room 1
• 5.30pm, every Thursday at Epsom, Conference Room 1
• 5.30pm, every Wednesday at St Helier, Whitehall Lecture Theatre.

• Classes are 75 minutes. A five week course is £30 or £7.50 per class on a drop-in basis.

  For more information or to book, please email LCBeyondyoga@gmail.com.

Pilates at Epsom and St Helier hospitals

The purpose of this Pilates class is to help staff develop greater body awareness, movement and flexibility whilst encouraging staff to listen to their body and move with ease.

Fascia (connective tissue) often becomes tight and may cause tension in various parts of the body, which if not released may cause postural imbalance. Each 45 minute class will be structured using some of Joseph Pilates' mat exercises facilitated by small fascia release equipment. The class is suitable for all levels.

Classes run every Thursday, from 5.30pm at St Helier

Each class will last for 45 minutes. Classes cost £12.50 per person (you will be required to pay for a block of five classes in advance of the first class). To book a place on the class or for further information, please contact Debbie Lake via email at: dalake23@gmail.com.

For each class mats, fascia release equipment and head towels will be provided. Staffs are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing and non-slippery socks to all classes. It is also advisable to bring a small bottle of water.

Finally, it is important that all staff provide the instructor with any health/medical problems they have or have had in the past before they begin their Pilates journey. As such each participant will be given a health/medical questionnaire to complete and return to the instructor in advance of the first class. If you have any concerns, the instructor is happy to discuss these in private before each class.

If you have any questions or are interested in signing up, please contact Norma Perry, Health and Wellbeing Co-ordinator, via email in the first instance.

Staff counselling service

• Are you struggling with issues at work?
• Are you having relationship difficulties?
• Have you suffered bereavement?
• Are you feeling stressed?
• Do you feel low or depressed?
• Do you feel bullied, low in confidence or very anxious?
• Have you experienced a traumatic incident?

If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the above you may benefit from talking, in confidence, with someone who can help such as a staff counsellor.

Our Staff Counselling Service is a well-established free service for all trust employees regardless of job or grade. The Head of Staff Counselling leads a team of part-time counsellors working across both Epsom and St Helier hospitals. 

The counsellors offer any member of staff who accesses the service an opportunity to talk and work through any personal problems or psychological difficulties in a safe and confidential environment. Anything discussed is not shared with managers, other departments or individuals.

Our trained and experienced counsellors are willing and able to discuss a variety of issues such as bullying, depression, bereavement, separation, loss of confidence, relationships and stress. Issues discussed can be both personal, and/or work related.

Anybody who works for the trust can access the counselling service free of charge.

The Staff Counselling Service is managed by Therese Lord, who has worked in staff counselling for a number of trusts. In addition to counselling she is also a trained work place mediator and experienced in stress management training.  

Services provided

We offer:

• One-on-one counselling
• Consultations on any psychological problems
• Support and group facilitation for staff following a traumatic incident
• Staff groups on request. 

Getting in touch with a counsellor

If you think counselling might be able to help, please contact the service on 020 8296 2769 (ext 721 2769). If there is no-one available when you call, please leave a message with your name and preferred contact number. Your call will be returned as soon as possible, usually within two working days.

Alternatively you can complete the Staff counselling self referral form[docx] 88KB and email it to esth.staffcounselling@nhs.net. 

Stress

Stress is a big issue!

• How often do you hear people say that they are stressed?
• How often do you think or say that things are getting too much for you?

This page recognises that working in healthcare can be very stressful and that trying to juggle all that is expected of you can be overwhelming at times. There are a variety of ways in which you can find help and support to manage stress, please use the links below to find out what might help you.

Read our Stress awareness leaflet [pdf] 88KB which will help you to think about how stress might be affecting you and how you might deal with this.

Manager's stress assessment tools

As part of our Management of Stress at Work Policy, we’ve developed two tools to help managers assess how much stress an individual or team might be experiencing and what could be done to begin to address this.

The first of these, the personal stress indicator tool, can be used with any individual who says they are or appear to be suffering from stress.

The second is a Team stress risk assessment tool 2015 [docx] 28KB. This should be used at least once a year to assess stress levels within your department.  It can also be used at times when there is an increase in stress within the team or department for whatever reason.  This tool offers a detailed way to assess and address the potential workplace causes of stress.

If you need any help with completing either of these assessment tools, please contact Therese Lord on 020 8296 2769.

Bite sized stress awareness

These are informal training sessions that take no more than an hour and are ideal for presentation in team meetings. They look at what stress is, how to recognise that you or a colleague may be suffering from stress, what causes stress and how to manage it better.

The course is brought to your department or team at a time that is convenient for you. Please contact Therese Lord on ext 020 8296 2769 for more details or to book a course.

Resilience training

NHS staff often work in situations where there are a number of pressures and demands to cope with. When these pressures become too great, staff can start to become stressed and this can make them ill. However, it is possible to learn skills that help us to cope better with these pressures and even flourish in the face of them.

This is called RESILIENCE.

The aim of this course is to help staff to understand the links between stress and resilience. Using exercises, discussion and teaching, the ways in which our personal resilience can be developed and increased will be explored. The training will also introduce tools to help individuals assess their own resilience.

Future dates will be advised via eupdate. Please email: therese.lord@nhs.net, Head of Staff Counselling if you require more information.

For further information or to make a booking, contact Therese Lord, Head of Staff Counselling on 020 8296 2769.