North Tees NHS Foundation Trust

Creating inclusive workplaces in the NHS

University Hospital of North Tees is focussed on inclusive employment for young people with a learning disability and autism. North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has been working with Project Choice through Supported Internships, apprenticeships and inclusive employment since 2017, taking on an average of 6-10 placements each year, within five different hospital departments.

The staff in the five departments involved all say that they love have the Interns being included in their teams.

It might seem daunting or hard a first. You just need to take a little bit of time. The time investment to the amount of support the Intern gives to the team is definitely worth it. You can get just as much from them, as anyone else that does not have a disability. We have no regrets taking on Interns or the Interns that are now employed within our teams.

NHS Staff/ Project Choice Mentor

People with disabilities and the NHS department teams

Staff say that they love having the Interns join the team, they are always such a massive help and customers in the hospital are always giving feedback about how much they love seeing our young people on the wards. We often have customers giving feedback seeing our staff with a disability working in the café. The Intern demeanour is always more welcoming and visitors to the hospital really appreciate it.

We welcome the Interns into the team, and they usually settle in well. The one difference is that some Interns are more reserved and quiet when they first start their placement. However, overtime, when they feel more comfortable they start to feel more confident, open up and really come into their own. “Watching an Intern’s confidence transform over the time they are with you is one of the best experiences” a staff person said.

One department within the hospital stated that the staff learn more from the Interns, than the Interns learn from them. The Interns make their team stronger because it is a team effort to support the Intern, help them learn. A ward manager said that the staff learn more about themselves, the staff around them and even their complexities of their job role through engaging with the Interns.

All the Interns are a massive help to the teams at the Hospital and staff have said, more than once, “It is important to give everyone a chance. It proves by our successes that they [people with a disability] just need to be given a chance.”

Support and Training

When it comes to Interns being recognised in a staff role, they are all treated equally and interns receive the same NHS training that would be appropriate for the role they are undertaking.

Catering department staff said that the support they provide is no more than what you would provide a new starter, except what it is different, in that you work on a few tasks at a time and then build from there. It is less about more time and more about how you deliver the support to onboard a new Intern or person with a disability.

All Interns are matched with a Mentor or a key person that they build a relationship with and can go to for assistance. There are some departments within the Hospital that see it as more of a team effort to support Interns, rather than a specific person.

All Mentors are trained by Project Choice, in their role as a mentor and about inclusive workplaces.

A department manager said “Regardless of who supports, it is key to include staff that have particular qualities including patience, compassion and understanding. Often, if a staff person has a family member who has a disability, they are also the best to take on the Mentor role, as they tend to understand and be more observant of the challenges that the Interns face. It is these staff that lead by example on how to support a person with a disability in the workplace.”

A manager on a ward said that her staff have learnt more about themselves and their work through the process of inducting an Intern into the roles. When you have to explain a task in detail, it makes staff reflect on why we things that way and how they might be done more efficiently.

Troubleshooting and managing issues

Project Choice support the staff teams to troubleshoot any issues, do fortnightly reviews and are there for general support. This is helpful for staff teams when first taking on Interns.

Sometimes issues do arise when supporting someone on a ward to complete a role.

The catering department has not had many problems arise with Interns that they cannot support, however it does happen.

Recently there has been an Intern that was only in the placement for a short period of time, and would get overstimulated by they busy work environment. In this situation the Intern would not handle the environment and although support was given around appropriate behaviour, Project Choice and the NHS department decided that it was not the right environment for this Interns needs.

Issues are best resolved by considering the following:

• Be observant – notice all situations and aspects that might be impacting the person negatively (eg: environment, people, smells, sounds)
• Be reflective – really think about why the issues were arising.
• Being creative– think about how the cause could be addressed in a creative way.
• Being flexible – understanding that some situations do not work for some people and it is important to be flexible and to the situation.

In this situation, the Intern was removed from the Catering department and an alternative work placement was found that was in a quieter environment with more specific work tasks. In some situations, you need to be flexible and reflect on what might work for an Intern and what will not.