Benefits of working at East Kent Hospitals
East Kent Hospitals is a great place to work. We employ more than 8,000 people in east Kent, who together form an amazing team that makes a huge difference to peoples’ lives every single day.
We work hard to ensure that our people are supported, recognised and rewarded; through personal development and career progression opportunities, dedicated staff well-being and support programmes, facilities to help your work-life balance, as well as staff discounts and benefits.
Our staff support and benefits include
The national pay system for the NHS — Agenda for Change (AfC) — is for all directly employed staff except doctors and the most senior managers.
The pay system offers real benefits including:
A standard working week of 37.5 hours
Harmonised holiday entitlements of 27 days per year, plus eight general and public holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years' service
Pay enhancements to reward out of hours, shift and overtime working
Better career and salary progression based on the application of knowledge and skills
An annual personal development review to support your career aspirations.
Other benefits of working in the NHS include training, occupational health services, automatic membership of the NHS Pension Scheme (unless you choose to opt out) and study leave for sponsored courses.
Read more about the Agenda for Change pay rates.
One of the UK's best pension schemes
The NHS Pension Scheme is still one of the most generous and comprehensive in the UK. Every new employee automatically becomes a member and you will get an excellent package of pension benefits.
Find out more about NHS Pensions
NHS employment policies
Our employment policies:
Ensure fair rates of pay for all staff across the whole healthcare system (Agenda for Change)
Provide training and personal development opportunities that will enable people to reach their full potential
Emphasise equality of opportunity for all
Provide good working conditions, holiday entitlement, and other benefits
Maintain an excellent pension scheme.
Staff benefits platform
Our dedicated staff benefits platform offers discounts to staff at hundreds of retailers locally and nationwide as well as offers on motoring, travel and leisure, health and well-being and more to help you save money and get the best deals. Membership is free and staff can join the platform immediately.
Cycle to work
We encourage our staff to live healthy lifestyles and as part of this EKHUFT have signed up to the cycle to work scheme. This scheme helps staff with the purchase of a tax-free bike for journeys to and from the workplace and saves approximately 40 per cent on the cost of a new bike. We buy the bike on your behalf and lease it back to you through a monthly salary sacrifice scheme, deducted from your gross pay. This allows employees to make savings on tax and national insurance and pay for their bike in a manageable way. Once the hire period is complete, you have the option to buy the bike for a fair market value or to extend the lease.
On-site childcare
On site childcare facilities are available at the Little Oaks Nurseries at William Harvey Hospital, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, Kent & Canterbury Hospital and Buckland Hospital. These offer a reduced rate for Trust staff.
The well-being of our staff is important to us, because we care about our staff and because a happy workforce are better placed to provide excellent care and support to others.
Our Occupational Health team and Well-being team provide a range of services and events to support you physically and mentally which are available to all.
We also have a number of staff networks where staff can make connections with others for support, networking or sharing interests.
We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can be themselves. We will ensure that no employee or person visiting our hospitals will be illegally discriminated against because of who they are.
We value the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the organisation and will build a culture that is personal, fair & diverse. It is the duty of each employee to share the responsibility of creating and maintaining an environment of teamwork, trust and respect
The principles that underpin this statement are as follows:
A workforce that is valued and whose diversity reflects the community it serves, will enable EKHUFT to deliver the best possible healthcare service
An environment characterised by teamwork, trust and respect will enable every employee in the Trust to achieve their potential
EKHUFT views individual diversity positively and recognises that everyone is different, valuing equally the unique contribution that individual experience, knowledge and skills can bring to the organisation.
We have a number of staff networks and run regular events to help celebrate and promote our diverse workforce.
Not only do we want to recruit the best people in the NHS, but we want them to stay with us too. That’s why, we offer a range of training, development and educational opportunities for staff at all levels.
When you start work here we'll organise a tailored induction programme for you to help you learn about everything from organisational policies to information directly relating to your role.
Our Learning and Development team provide excellent development opportunities for all East Kent Hospital staff, encouraging them to realise their potential.
They provide a wide variety of courses and programmes to support and develop staff as part of their Performance Review and/or Personal Development Plan. These courses are often delivered within the workplace or as specific team-based activities.
Their aim is to help enhance your knowledge and competencies, nurturing your personal and professional development.
We're also committed to programmes of lifelong learning to help you improve adult basic skills.
We run courses to help you improve literacy, numeracy, IT and communication skills. These courses help to build both confidence and motivation for learning. Participating staff may even progress to work-based qualifications and the National Certificate in Literacy and Numeracy.
Whatever you are looking for from your career, we are confident you’ll find it at East Kent Hospitals.
A high quality and flexible workforce is the key to being able to provide high quality patient care. This is why we need more flexible workers to return or join our bank, in order to keep up the NHS standards:
Become part of the team
Deliver the best care possible
Build great relationships
Develop your skills.
East Kent Hospitals Bank works in partnership with NHS Professionals (NHSP) to recruit bank staff. When you join the NHSP bank you are subject to its terms and conditions but you’ll enjoy the following benefits.
Benefits of the bank
Weekly pay
First choice of available shifts
Flexible working hours
Paid holidays
Having a better work – life balance
Stakeholder Pension Scheme available.
Whatever your availability we value your skills and experience and can provide you with a fantastic opportunity to work with us in a way that suits your lifestyle.