Update: Homeworking policy

February 7, 2023

The Trust is pleased to announce the implementation of its homeworking policy, which was developed through successful joint working with our staff side colleagues/partners.

Home working is a key element of working flexibly and the policy sets out the key factors for managers and colleagues to consider for safe and successful implementation.

This policy describes the Trust’s approach to home working and the aim of the policy is to support managers and colleagues with arrangements of home working to ensure working obligations are met. The policy can be accessed here.

During the pandemic there was a requirement for many of our teams to become home workers overnight and rapidly had to get to grips with different ways of working; different work; lack of team connection, new technology and possible feelings of isolation. It is to be commended how all colleagues adapted to this.

As we move forward, many teams are already returning to onsite working or a combination of home and onsite working to balance the needs of individual team members and to meet service requirements. There is an expectation for these discussions to continue and for future working arrangements/model to be agreed and determined at departmental level, led by the service lead and the policy has been designed to support this.

It is not an expectation for those colleagues who have been working from home prior to the implementation of this policy to submit back dated applications for flexible working.

Please note that as with all flexible working requests homeworking does not need a ‘reason’ to be considered’ all colleagues whose work can be delivered remotely should be able to discuss this as an option for the way they work.

All flexible working applications are now made via ESR self service – for guidance on how to do this click here.

Also available on Connect are flexible working toolkits for both managers and colleagues.