FAQs

The SSC is strategically managed by a committee of members. The SSC is operationally managed by the SSC Manager with the support the SSC Administrator.

Our Constitution
Operations Policy

The Committee have agreed, and will annually review, a sliding scale which determines the amount of discount given. The current sliding scale is outlined below:

• £0 to £99 = 50% on 1 ticket, 10% on 2 tickets
• £100 to £199 = 40% on 1 ticket, 10% on 1 ticket
• £200 to £299 = 30% on 1 ticket with no additional ticket discounted
• £300 to £499 = 20% on 1 ticket with no additional ticket discounted
• £500+ = Will be discussed individually, and the Committee would be required to make a decision.

Membership of the SSC is exclusive to staff who meet any of the following criteria:

• Paid substantive employee of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – via salary deduction
• Non-Executive Directors of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – via salary deduction
• Fixed term employees of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – via salary deduction
• Staff Bank employees of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – via Direct Debit
• Locum employees of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – via Direct Debit
• Employees seconded into or out of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – via salary deduction
• Employees who are paid directly by The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust but salary is funded elsewhere – via salary deduction

In simple terms, anyone who receives a salary directly from The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and are therefore registered on ESR, are eligible to join.

As a member of the Staff Social Club, you get:

• 2 entries in the SMILE Lottery which is drawn every month, with the chance of winning up to £1000
• Entry into our free prize draws & advent calendar
• Access to all our generously discounted events
• Ability to join the Freeman and RVI Fitness Centres.

It costs £2 per month to join the Staff Social Club, or £12 to join the Staff Social Club and the Fitness Centre.

For nearly all our members we take the money straight from your pay. If, for any reason, we cannot do this, there are other payment options available. Please contact us if you would like more information.

Unfortunately not, the £2 is your membership fee. You can however opt out of the lottery by ticking the relevant box on the form.

As the Fitness Centres are funded by and ran for the Staff Social Club and its members, you cannot join unless you are also a member of the Staff Social Club.

Unless they are members of staff themselves, unfortunately not.

The money raised is used for the benefit of members. Proceeds will be put towards staff facilities, amenities, and events.

You can cancel at any time however, please be aware that that membership to the Staff Social Club is expected to be for a minimum of 12 months and membership to the Fitness Centres is expected to be for a minimum of 3 months.

If you now have a substantive post, you must contact us via email to change your membership over to the substantive post’s assignment number. This is to ensure that payments can be taken correctly. Each month when payments are reconciled, we check to ensure that your payment has been taken. If you have failed to inform us of this change, we will change on your behalf and double deduct the following payroll.

The SMILE Lottery is drawn on the 10th of each month and includes all members who have paid membership fees in the salary of the previous month. For example, a lottery draw that took place on 10th February would include everyone who paid in their end of January salaries.

All winners are contacted via email and the results are posted under the SMILE Lottery section of the website.

There is a monthly cash prize draw consisting of 30 prizes. Currently you can win the below:

• £1000
• £750
• £500
• £300
• £150 x 3
• £100 x 8
• £50 x 9
• £25 x 6

The prize values and the number of prizes will increase with the growth in numbers sold as more staff join.

You most certainly can. You can have a maximum of 8 entries per month. You already get 2 for joining the Staff Social Club. Each extra entry is £1 per number and must be bought in multiples of 2. Therefore, you can have either 2, 4, 6, or 8 entries in the lottery.

On the 10th of the month the lottery is drawn or the following working day if this falls on a weekend of bank holiday. Winning numbers will be selected at random by the Staff Social Club Database System. The SSC Treasurer and a member of the fraud team will complete random audits. In instances that we advertise a ‘Double Draw’, two separate draws are ran. This means that everyone is entered into both draws and it is possible for the same person to win a prize in each.

It is the Staff Members Internal Lottery Enterprise, a computerised staff lottery scheme.

Each of our events have its own release date and specified time. It is from this date and time that tickets are able to be purchased.

On the date and time specified, the website will be updated with links to apply. You will need to click on the event you want to apply for, and then you will see two buttons, a “Home booking form” button and an “At work booking link”

If you are at work, you need to apply via the “At work booking link” button. This will take you to our online booking system and this is the quickest way to book tickets or places for an event. If you are working at home and have access to the Trust network, you also need to apply via the “At work booking link” button.

If you are at home and do not have access to the Trusts network, you need to apply using the “At home booking form” button. To do this you can get to our website by following a link from one of our emails or Googling “Flourish Newcastle Hospitals” at the time of release you will then be able to download the Word document form by clicking the “At home booking form” button. You will need access to Microsoft Word on your laptop or device to allow you to complete the form. Please make sure your device is compatible with Word before trying to book. Once all sections are complete, you need to send it back to us ([email protected]), from your personal email address which is registered on your account. Your personal email address must be registered on your account with us before sending. You can register by emailing us from your work email address, confirming your payroll number and personal email address you would like to register.

Any applications which have information missing from the form will not be processed. We will aim to contact people where we cannot process forms however, this may be some time after the event release due to the volumes and therefore, you may miss out on places.

Applications are processed on a first come first served basis to ensure that ticket allocation is fair for everyone. You will then be informed, usually within, 5 working days whether you have been successful in gaining tickets or not. If we take a bit longer, it’s usually because we are trying to purchase more tickets so that more members are successful.

Unfortunately, as the tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis, you are not able to apply before and due to us needing written authorisation for us to deduct from your salary, telephone bookings are also not permitted.

If you have been successful, you will be given a date that you can collect your tickets from.

We do not send out an email when the event has been released to book however we do advertise the release date on the website well in advance.

You cannot send an electronically filled in form for one of your friends or colleagues. If someone wants you to send a form via email on their behalf, they will need to fill in the form via hand, sign it and then you can send a scanned copy from your email. Please remember that signing a form on someone else’s behalf is considered to be fraudulent.

Yes, tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis. However, we hold 10% of tickets for postal entries. These 10% postal entries are only for people who do not have access to a PC. If we do not received applications for these by the Friday after release, they will then be released back into the pot for electronic applications.

If you have already applied online, please do not send another via post, otherwise both applications will be void.

Please ensure that all sections of the application form marked with a * are filled in otherwise your application may be refused.

You will find out whether you were successful or not within 5 office working days from the date of your application.

If you are off work on the day of release, you can apply from home. To be able to do this just send us your home email address from your work email address so that we can verify it’s yours and then we can accept applications from home. This must be done no later than 24 hours before the event release. Then to apply from home you will need to visit our website as usual. You can find our website by searching for “Flourish Newcastle Hospitals” on Google.  Then head to our events and select the one you would like to apply for at the time of release. There will then be 2 buttons, one to use if you are applying from home and one to use if you are applying from work. When you select the “At home booking form” button this will then download a Word document application to you device. you need to complete this then email it back to us at [email protected] from your personal email address. Please note you will need to make sure the device you are applying from is compatible with Microsoft Word, please check this before you try to apply for an event.

If you are all members and all want the cheapest member price ticket then yes, we will need each of you to send in your own application. On the application form, each of you should fill in the group bookings section with the other people you want to sit next to, to ensure that we allocate your seats appropriately, should you be successful in gaining tickets.

If only part of the group has been successful in gaining tickets, we will contact you all to check whether you would still like the tickets.

If only part of the group has been successful in gaining tickets, we will contact you all to check whether you would still like the tickets for the people who have been successful. Should you not want the tickets we will reallocate them to the next people in line for tickets.

Yes. Anyone who applied for an event and was not successful will be added to a waitlist. Should someone no longer want their tickets they will be offered to the next in line applicant.

Yes, you can depending on how much the total cost of your tickets will be. The Committee have agreed, and will annually review, a sliding scale which determines the number of months you can split payments over. The current sliding scale is outlined below:

• £0 to £99 – 1 month’s salary
• £100 to £199 – 2 month’s salary
• £200 to £299 – 3 month’s salary
• £300 to £499 – 4 month’s salary
• £500+ – Will be discussed individually, and the Committee would be required to make a decision.

Please note that you must not share your username and password for the computer to allow people to apply on your behalf as this breaches the Trust IT Security policy, and could result in formal action being taken. If you are sending a postal application on behalf of another member, please remember that they must have filled it in and signed it themselves. You must not sign their signature as this would be considered to be fraudulent.

When you fill in an application form you will need to state where you would like to collect your tickets from. You will need to choose from the below:

• RVI Fitness Centre – Monday & Thursdays 1-2pm
• Freeman – Monday & Thursdays 11:30-12:30pm
• Regent Point (HR Level 1) – Monday – Friday 9:00am – 3:00pm
  When collecting from Regent Point please call us on 24047 before to make sure that one of the team are around for your collection.

From Monday 7th August 2023 our collection locations and times will change and you will need to  choose from the below:

• RVI (Peacock Hall Reception) – Monday 8:30am – 3:30pm
• Freeman (Better Together Office, Yellow Zone Level 1 – Opposite Main Lifts) – Tuesday 8:30 – 3:30pm
• Regent Point (HR Level 1) – Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 9:00am – 3:00pm
  When collecting from Regent Point please call us on 24047 before to make sure that one of the team are around for your collection.

You can also request to have your tickets posted to your home address. This costs an extra £6.20 and they are sent via special delivery.

If you are unable to collect at these dates and times a colleague is welcome to collect your tickets on your behalf.

If you have any trouble finding us for ticket collections please don’t hesitate to give us a ring on 21685 for assistance.

The collection days and times will be listed on your confirmation email.

From Monday 7th August 2023 our collection locations and times will change and you will need to  choose from the below:

• RVI (Peacock Hall Reception) – Monday 8:30am – 3:30pm
• Freeman (Better Together Office, Yellow Zone Level 1 – Opposite Main Lifts) – Tuesday 8:30 – 3:30pm
• Regent Point (HR Level 1) – Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 9:00am – 3:00pm
  When collecting from Regent Point please call us on 24047 before to make sure that one of the team are around for your collection.

You can also request to have your tickets posted to your home address. This costs an extra £6.20 and they are sent via special delivery.

If you are unable to collect at these dates and times a colleague is welcome to collect your tickets on your behalf.

If you have any trouble finding us for ticket collections please don’t hesitate to give us a ring on 21685 for assistance.

If you are successful in gaining tickets for an event, please keep a hold of your confirmation email as this includes details of when/where you can collect your tickets from and what days and times.

If you are not able to collect you tickets at the specified times, a colleague can collect on your behalf as long as they have their ID with them and are willing to sign for them.

Absolutely. You must state this on your application form. This costs an extra £6.20 and they are sent via Special Delivery.

Please contact the SSC and we will look into this for you.

Unfortunately not. It is your responsibility to collect your tickets prior to the event. We give you plenty to notice to collect them.

Once the tickets are delivered to the site of your choice, they cannot be moved to a different one. If they have not yet been delivered to your collection point, then yes, we can change this for you.

If you can no longer attend an event, in the first instance, please contact the Staff Social Club. If it is more than 28 days to the event, we will try and reallocate your ticket and if successful we will provide you with a full refund.

If we are not able to reallocate your ticket, you are then able to resell privately as long as not for a profit. Please discuss this with us as some events we may need the details of the person you have sold them to.

If it is less than 28 days to the event, we will not be able to reallocate your place and you will be responsible for the cost of the ticket/event.