Staff parking

Staff car parking charges were frozen for NHS staff across the country during the pandemic, thanks to national funding provided by the Government.

When that funding ended in April 2022, Sherwood took the decision to absorb the costs and continue providing free staff parking to support colleagues with the increased costs of living while national pay negotiations were taking place.

The Trust, which was one of the last Trusts to reintroduce staff charges, is no longer able to absorb the costs of staff parking.   

Over the past couple of years, we have seen a lot of growth in demand at our hospitals and to support this we are spending more money on clinical supplies and services. Many of the supplies we rely on have also inflated in price over recent years, placing additional pressure on our already-squeezed Trust budgets.  

We’re not able to access additional funding to support this, so we are having to use the resources we do have more efficiently.

These are the pre-Covid rates plus Bank of England inflation.

This includes caring for:

• A child
• A spouse or partner
• A parent
• A person who lives in the same household as the employee (other than as an employee, tenant, lodger etc) or
• An individual who reasonably relies on the employee to provide or arrange care.

The Carers Passport guidance states that:

“Carers are defined as members of staff with significant caring responsibilities that may have a substantial impact on their working life.

“A staff member is a carer if they are responsible for the care and support of a disabled, elderly or sick partner, relative or friend who is unable to care for themselves. Carers who are employees can experience impact on their working lives due to competing demands.

“The activities that staff with caring responsibilities undertake are wide ranging, including, but not limited to help with personal care; help with mobility; managing medication; practical household tasks; emotional support; and help with financial matters or paperwork.” 

When completing an application form on NexusPlatform, you will select that box that asks if you are a Blue Badge holder.

It is not exactly a one-mile radius but rather the shortest car journey to your base site. For example, if you live 0.8 miles “as the crow flies” to King’s Mill Hospital, but your journey is 1.1 miles, then you will need a permit. 

If you live within one mile of your base, you will not be automatically eligible for a car parking pass. 

Colleagues who live within a mile will receive a permit only if they meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Registered blue badge holder 
• Dependent care responsibilities
• Shift pattern (working unsociable hours) 
• Cross-site working which is essential to your role
• Occupational health, including recognised short or long-term mobility difficulties.

The parking team may contact line mangers to clarify that a colleague meets the criteria and evidence may be required.

You will pay for the hours you are contracted for.

Unfortunately, there isn’t the option to pay per day. You can either pay for one month to park in a staff car park or use the visitor car park and pay visitor parking charges.

You will be classed as part time and will need to pay the fee for part time workers.

Any weekday after 8pm and before 6am, as well as any time on Saturdays, Sundays and public bank holidays.

We would expect this to apply to individuals whose role requires them to perform duties across more than one Trust site on a regular basis. 

We’ve put together some useful information to help you plan your journey to work on our travelling to work page. 

If you have any further queries regarding car parking, you can contact sfh-tr.estatesparking@nhs.net   

There are five application forms – one for anyone who has dependent care responsibilities, a cross-site working form if your role requires you to perform duties across more than one site, and a form for each of the three sites for those who are based at a single site and don’t have dependent care responsibilities.

Please complete one form depending on your individual circumstances.

The Parking Office no longer administers staff parking permits.

Colleagues are responsible for managing their parking permit information. You can log into your NexusPlatform account at any time and update your details, including your vehicle. Any changes are applied immediately.

You do not need to display a physical parking permit in your vehicle. 

Payment is made at the end of the month. For example, January’s payment will come out at the end of January, so you will need to cancel your direct debit for the following month. 

To cancel your staff parking permit, please follow the below steps:

1. Log in to the NexusPlatform and select the applications tab, which is the second tab along at the top of the page. You will then see a list of all your active permits.
2. Click on the permit you would like to end. You will then be taken to a page which includes the details of your permit.
3. Select the red 'end permit' box at the bottom of the page.

Once your application has been approved, you will receive an email asking you to set up a monthly Direct Debit.

The use of the NexusPlatform account makes the administration process easier for individuals to manage their own requirements, as well as the Trust. 

Having a staff parking permit gives you the opportunity to park in one of the Trust’s dedicated staff car parks. It does not guarantee you a parking space. 

Unfortunately, there is limited staff and visitor parking on all our sites, but we are continuously working with our partners to look at opportunities to improve how people access our car parks.

The introduction of ANPR and the new online staff parking permit system will help us to better understand how our colleagues, patients and visitors use our car parks, which will help us to explore further options.

The Trust also offers virtual appointments to patients who do not need to be seen in-person to reduce unnecessary travel.

We encourage those who can to consider alternative and more environmentally friendly methods of transport, including car sharing, walking, cycling and public transport.

We have also listened to your feedback and experiences about the challenges you’ve experienced accessing our staff car parking recently and we are actively working on a number of short- and longer-term solutions.

They include:

• Undertaking a Travel Survey with Trust colleagues to get feedback from staff to better help us manage our car parks.
• Working with local transport providers to setup partnerships and promote better take-up of public transport
• Promoting car sharing
• Working with other large local businesses and other organisations to share their car parks
• Promoting walking, cycling and other more active ways of travelling to work

We also know that there will be times when car parking spaces are taken away to enable the Trust to make improvements for patients. For example, work at Mansfield Community Hospital to bring Nottinghamshire’s first Community Diagnostic Centre to the site and the installation of the new Hybrid MRI at King’s Mill Hospital have both impacted staff car parking capacity.

A weekly ‘task and finish’ group continues to actively manage demand for car parking spaces by considering ways to make every space count across our hospitals.

If anyone has any further suggestions to encourage greener transport, we would love to hear your ideas. Please email sfh-tr.estatesparking@nhs.net

While it is recognised that not all roles across the Trust are suitable for agile working, the Trust has an agile working policy in place to support where this is a possible option.  

Agile working arrangements are agreed between an employee and manager about where they work and on what ratio, dependent on the needs of a service. Please discuss any requests for agile working with your line manager.  

The policy and guidance can be found on the intranet by searching ‘agile’ on the Trust intranet.  

If at Newark hospital yes, as the main car park is a combined car park for both visitors and staff. 

At Mansfield Community or King’s Mill Hospital, then you will need to pay visitor charges if you park in a visitor car park or risk receiving a fine. 

Apart from the visitor car parks at King’s Mill, there are no barriers on any car parks to help improve flow in and out of car parks.

ANPR cameras are in place on all our hospital sites. This means that visitors, and any colleagues who have not successfully applied for a new staff parking permit, risk a fine if they park in a staff car park.  

Signs are at the entrance to every car park stating if it is a visitor or staff car park. 

The parking income we receive will contribute to the costs of running our hospitals and help us to live within our means. The past few years have seen the Trust support growth in demand at our hospitals by spending more money on clinical supplies and services, which have also inflated in price over recent years. We do not receive additional funding to support this, which is why we can no longer supplement the costs of parking. 

We are in the process of creating up-to-date maps. These will be published on our Trust website and intranet as soon as they are available.