We have worked hard to improve people's working lives and this was recognised in April 2006 when the Trust was accredited with the Department of Health’s Improving Working Lives (IWL) practice plus status. This requires us to demonstrate that we have met standards of good practice for staff including a healthy workplace, staff involvement and communications and equality and diversity.  Our benefits package aims to contribute to the health and well being of our staff, helping to balance commitments at home as well as rewarding staff financially.

• Final Salary Pension Scheme
  Everyone employed on an NHS contract qualifies for this which also includes life assurance cover. You contribute from your salary and we add to this to create a package worth around 20% of your pay.
• Flexible Working
  There are all sorts of ways to vary your working hours as circumstances change in your life. Many people take advantage of job sharing, term time, evening or weekend working and career breaks, as well as the traditional full or part time hours.
• Childcare Support
  The Childcare Support Team can provide you with information and advice on all aspects of childcare and have developed a wide range of options to suit individual needs.

 The following facilities are available:

• Pinderfields - The Abacus Nursery is an in-house managed service, providing day care for children aged from three months to five years. We also have Holiday club facilities during school holidays for five to fourteen year olds.
• Dewsbury - The Children's Place Day Nursery is part of a well established group of nurseries and works in partnership with us to provide care for children aged six weeks to five years.
• Pontefract - Holiday play scheme facilities.
• Health at work - Aerobics, aromatherapy and chiropody are available and continue to be very popular. We offer a wide variety of reduced cost complimentary therapies for staff.  These are provided by private practitioners who simply use our occupational health premises on each site.  We also have staff fitness centres at our Pontefract and Dewsbury sites.
• Healthy transport group - We encourage people to try walking or cycling to work and have provided new bicycle lockers and improved CCTV on designated walking routes.

We also run a very successful Health Learning Works (HLW) programme aimed at helping people who have previously found it difficult to gain employment, to get work within the Trust.

The initiative works by securing a number of vacancies for the project i.e. ward assistant, theatre porter, sterile services technicians etc, working with Job Centre Plus and various community based organisation to identify suitable candidates.  Candidates are then taken through a six week pre-employment training package which blends formal and work placement learning and is tailor made to meet the needs of job seekers and the NHS. It covers topics such as communication skills, confidence building and customer care. Those who successfully graduate following the completion of the programme are then offered and enter into employment.  Pictured left, are the Trust's first successful HLW candidates with one of the trainers.