A number of sessions designed to support colleagues in planning their retirement are booked in throughout February, with a further session on Pensions penned in for March.

Up first is our latest Retirement Café, set to take place between 1:30pm – 3:30pm on Monday 3rd February in the Listening Space. Retirement Cafés provide those who attend with the opportunity to drop-in and chat to payroll/pension representatives, giving you the space to explore your retirement options and discuss them with an advisor. Those who attend should ideally bring along their pension forecast, which can be accessed through ESR. Those who drop by will be asked to sign an attendance register so we can gauge your feedback and send you any further relevant information.

Handily, our colleagues at Affinity Connect will then offer a duo of retirement-focused sessions the following week. On Wednesday 12th February between 09:30am – 3:30pm, the Planning for Retirement workshop, designed for those who are approaching retirement in the next five years, will aim to provide attendees with the financial information and choices to plan for retirement. Those who attend will benefit from a better understanding of the details involved in organising retirement, while providing you with the chance to discuss and reflect on how you might cope with change and adapt to retirement. To register for this session, please enrol through ESR.

The following day, Thursday 13th February, will see the Understanding Your Options for Partial Retirement (Draw Down) session take place via Microsoft Teams between 10:00am – 12:00pm. This session is aimed at members of the 1995 section of the NHS Pension Scheme to understand changes to pension draw down options available, and how they might be considered when planning retirement. The course will also touch on all of the other flexible retirement options available to NHS colleagues – though it should be noted that retire and returns can only be taken where there is a suitable vacancy to do so. To register for this session, please enrol through ESR.

Then, on Wednesday 19th March, a Teams session titled Your Pension and the Public Service Remedy will take place between 9:30am – 11:00am, aimed at helping colleagues understand the key pension changes that have resulted from the public sector age discrimination ruling – sometimes referred to as the McCloud remedy.

All courses, including future dates for each course, can be found via the ‘My Learning‘ area of ESR, while future retirement cafes (currently planned for May, August and November) will be promoted via the website and Gateshead Health weekly closer to the time.

Further learning and development opportunities across various areas can be viewed at any time via the Gateshead Health 2025 Prospectus. This can be accessed at anytime via the Learning & Development area of StaffZone.