Impact Magazine - May 2024

Together, we are on an exciting journey of continuous improvement and change. The new financial year brings even more opportunities for us to build on what we have already achieved so we can create a great place to work and receive care.

Our Operational Plan for 2024/25 will set out our organisational priorities for the next 12 months. This will help drive forward our transformational work as we strive towards achieving our vision to provide excellent care for the communities we serve. We will share more detail about our plan in a future edition of Impact.

One of the biggest changes we are making as a Trust is the transition from our outdated patient administration system to Electronic Patient Record (EPR). A huge thank you for your support earlier last month when we launched the first phase of our ambitious digital programme.

The switchover weekend was a big success thanks to all the efforts and preparations that were put in place. Transforming our digital capability is a crucial part of our improvement journey as it will not only improve patient care through more modern systems, but also your working experience. Phase one was a massive undertaking and it now paves the way for the rollout of further exciting developments. You can find out more about the next stage of our digital journey on page 12

We are also investing and putting new interventions in place to enable patients with suspected cancer to get a diagnosis and the treatment they need as quickly as possible. It is testament to your hard work, and the improvements that you have driven, that we have been able to make fantastic progress on reducing our 62-day backlog over the last 12 months, ahead of trajectory.

We have also improved our Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) performance which ensures that patients should not wait longer than 28 days from referral to finding out whether they have cancer

or not. This is so important for our patients and their families. Our progress has been recognised by NHS England as we have made some of the most significant improvements nationally. You can read more on page 4.

The executive team and I are so proud of everything you have achieved over the last few weeks and during 2023/24, and for your dedication to our patients and your colleagues. This is a strong foundation on which we will continue to build over the next 12 months.

Thank you.

Dear colleague,

MESSAGE

Mary Aubrey Getting to Good Programme Director

We are continuing to make good progress on our Getting to Good improvement journey.

Together we are making and embedding sustainable changes that will help us to achieve our vision to provide excellent care for the communities we serve.

Thank you for everything you are doing to help us to drive forward and deliver these improvements for our patients and each other.

You may be aware that a key priority for our organisation is improving flow through our urgent and emergency care pathways. This is to ensure that our patients recieve the right care, in the right place and will result in better outcomes and improved patient experience.

Through our Emergency Care Transformation Programme, we have continued to see improvement in the time to initial assessment for adults. This means that more patients arriving in our emergency departments are being triaged within 15 minutes. Plans are now in place to improve these metrics for children and young people. You can read more about our urgent and emergency care transformational work on page 8

We are also continuing to make good progress on our:

• Cancer performance – see page 4.

• Diagnostics recovery with our current DM01 (monthly diagnostic waiting times) performance at 79.41%.

• Quality governance programme with the PSIRF (Patient Safety Incident Response Framework) processes for falls, pressure ulcers and infection prevention now in place and working well

• Delivery of the Quality Strategy, with improvements seen across all nine of our quality priorities. The strategy is being refreshed and we will share this with you in Impact later this year

• Workforce transformation, with our draft workforce plan now submitted to NHSE for review

Our current Getting to Good project status is at 104 remaining milestones, of which:

• 42.2% - not yet delivered

• 11.8% - delivered not yet evidenced

• 29.4% - evidenced and assured

• 16.7% - descoped

Thank you for everything you are doing to contribute to our Getting to Good journey. We know we still have more to do, but we are making positive changes.

If you would like support with an improvement idea for your area, please get in touch with our fantastic colleagues in the improvement hub – sath.improvementhub@nhs.net

Thank you.

DELIVERING HIGH QUALITY CANCER CARE

We are continually striving to improve cancer pathways for our patients to reduce waiting times for a diagnosis and the care they need.

Our focus continues to be on reducing the number of patients waiting over 62 days for treatment and achieving the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which means that patients are not waiting longer than 28 days from referral to finding out whether they have cancer or not.

Our recent performance has been recognised nationally by NHS England highlighting our organisation as one of those that has made some of the most positive progress nationally.

To support further improvement, a number of key projects are underway to ensure our patients are seen as quickly as possible after they have been referred by their GP.

This includes a new replacement linear accelerator and a new gamma camera at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH). Both will increase capacity for

cancer scanning and reduce waiting times for our patients.

The gamma camera, which is used to detect cancer, paediatric conditions and other acute conditions, will be in use from this summer. It will produce better quality images, improve turnaround times for issuing reports and reduce scanning times which is good news for our patients.

The new linear accelerator (also known as a LINAC) will be a replacement of our current machine and will be more advanced. It is a vital component in the treatment of cancer patients and delivers high-energy X-rays or electrons precisely to the tumour. The bunker to house the LINAC is currently being built at RSH with the work expected to be completed by the end of 2024, with the replacement LINAC installed in early 2025.

We exceeded the national 75% faster diagnostic standard (FDS) target with 77.3% of patients told they do or do not have a cancer within 28 days from referral from their GP.

We ended 2023/24 in a strong position having met the NHSE requirements of no more than 214 patients exceeding 62 days on a cancer pathway and no more than 80 patients waiting more than 104 days.

Our year end position at the end of March was 197 patients exceeding 62 days (an improvement of 56.2%) and only 60 exceeding 104 days so far, ahead of targets set.

To support further improvements, we have put in place:

• Deep dives into our more challenged cancer pathways to identify any constraints so we can develop and implement improvement actions

• A teledermatology service at the Community Diagnostic Centre in Telford to help diagnose skin cancer quicker

• More detailed patient friendly letters in Endoscopy so patients leave the department knowing the outcome of their procedure

• Realigned the prostate cancer pathway so patients are triaged and contacted within 3-5 days following referral

• Changes to the gynaecology pathway since June 2023 which has resulted in improved turnaround times for scanning and assessment. Further improvement work will start in May 2024 aligned with national post-menopausal

bleeding (PMB) guidance

• Neck Lump Clinics which have been set up alongside radiology capacity to enable one-stop scans

• Additional support through the further recruitment of Oncologists and Haematologists to enhance the Oncology/Haematology service

In addition, we have put in place a Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SBAR) radiotherapy service for patients. SABR is a highly targeted form of radiotherapy which targets a tumour with radiation beams from different angles at the same time. Previously, patients had to travel to other trusts for this service, but we now have the equipment and expertise to deliver this at SaTH.

Our organisation is also participating in the GRAIL trial. The trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help detect cancer early when used alongside existing cancer screening.

“It is really important that patients on a cancer pathway can access diagnostic tests and the treatment they need as quickly as possible.

“Continuous improvement work is key to ensure we are moving forward with the ever-changing healthcare picture. We are incredibly proud of the progress we are making.”

Jessica Greenwood, Head of Cancer Services and Lead Cancer Nurse

DELIVERING PATIENT-CENTRED CARE

Ensuring we are delivering patient-centred care is a key priority to support our patients and their loved ones affected by cancer. This includes:

Focusing on Living With and Beyond Cancer together with Healthwatch

Monthly Living Well Sessions within the community open to anybody affected by cancer

“As treatments become more and more complex, our nursing roles and our wider nursing team are hugely important to help patients manage and cope with those treatments. Roles are changing to adapt to the needs of our patients. We have more treatments available than we have ever had before, the treatments often last longer and are more complex and our patients need us to help them navigate their care pathways.”

Angie Cooper, Oncology and Haematology Matron

Initiatives developed following patient feedback, including our Men Like Us Cancer Support Group

Continuous development of the Cancer Wellbeing, Information & Support App which enables people to access information easily (over 1,000 downloads to date)

The Information, Support and Wellbeing Guide is being relaunched by Cancer Services. This is a booklet containing details of services, useful contact numbers and a space for patients to write their own notes.

Working collaboratively with services and charities - most recently with Lingen Davies - on several initiatives including a horticultural therapy course and a wellbeing experience for those living with cancer.

TRANSFORMING URGENT AND EMERGENCY CARE

Improving flow through our hospitals is critical to ensuring our patients are receiving the high quality care they need, in the right place.

We recognise that some of our patients are having long waits in our emergency departments to access a hospital bed. We also know there are delays to patients leaving our hospitals when they no longer need to be in our care.

Over the next 12 months, improving flow through our emergency departments and our medical wards will remain a key priority.

This is not something that we can improve on our own, and so we are working with our health and care partners to put in place interventions to better support flow and reduce waiting times for our patients.

This includes new rehabilitation and recovery units, expanded same day emergency care centres, specialist integrated discharge teams at both hospitals and better joined up care out of hospital such as virtual wards.

We are currently in Tier One for UEC, which means we are receiving the highest level of support from NHS England. Six workstreams have been created to support improvement with four being led by

One of the very first events to support the transformation programme was the Urgent and Emergency Care Transformation Grand Round held last month.

Speakers from within our organisation included Professor Koottalai Srinivasan, Honorary Professor for Medical Education and Respiratory Medicine and Hospital Dean.

There was also insight from colleagues from Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) and the National Clinical Advisor for Secondary Care, Chris Morrow-Frost.

Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Integrated Care System.

Two are being led by our organisation focused on Acute and Emergency Medicine and improving the four hour standard.

We will soon be rolling out an overarching Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Transformation Programme across our Trust. This will help us to achieve our ambition of becoming a high performing organisation with the best outcomes for our patients.

The UEC programme will incorporate the current Emergency Care Transformation Programme and the Medicine Transformation Programme.

The event brought together colleagues from across the Trust, along with GIRFT colleagues, to discuss the issues we are facing, in particular, flow, and how we can work differently and more efficiently to improve patient and colleague experience.

Look out for further updates on the transformation programme, and the progress we are making, in future editions of Impact.

“Improving flow is everybody’s responsibility. We all need to work collaboratively to improve hospital flow as cohesive multi-disciplinary teams to support SaTH to deliver high performing urgent and emergency care. The Grand Round focused on the challenges we face, feedback and recommendations from our GIRFT colleagues and insights into the practices of high functioning Trusts.”

Dr Laurence Ginder, Associate Medical Director

We continue to make good progress on the improvements we are making as part of our Emergency Care Transformation Programme.

We are seeing positive impact from changes we have made in adult initial assessment times.

This means that a significant proportion of adult patients who haven’t been assessed prior to arrival in the emergency departments are being triaged within 15 minutes.

It ensures that the most timecritical patients are seen first, and also enables appropriate prioritisation of other patients and improves efficiency, for example, if diagnostic tests are required.

The next step is improving time to initial assessment for paediatric patients with plans being progressed to move some UTC services to the Mallings Health Building at Princess Royal Hospital.

This will increase capacity of the children and young person’s area to provide an expanded triage facility by this summer.

Other highlights from the ECTP include:

• Follow up process for children who may have left the EDs without being seen

• A review of same day emergency care by external colleagues with actions to increase throughput

• New ED intranet zone is under development

To date, the ECTP action plan contains a total of 177 actions. Of these:

• 37 (20.9%) are delivered

• 55 (31.1%) are evidenced and assured

“We are absolutely determined to drive forward the changes we need to make so our patients are being cared for in the right place at the right time. We are making good progress despite the pressures that the departments are under, and we know we have more to do.

“A huge thank you to every single colleague working in our emergency departments for their ideas, feedback and ongoing support. Much of the improvement work is being done on top of day-to-day roles demonstrating commitment to deliver high quality and compassionate care for our patients.”

Dr Saskia Jones-Perrott, Divisional Medical Director

PROGRESSING OUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The replacement of our 20-year-old patient administration system with system C has been a significant step forward in our digital journey. This will transform the way we work and care for our patients.

The introduction of CareFlow in April, as part of the rollout of our Electronic Patient Record (EPR), marked the completion of the first phase of our exciting multi-million-pound digital transformation programme. This will provide colleagues with more modern tools to help us improve care for our communities now and in the future.

The switchover has been a huge undertaking involving colleagues from across the organisation with a significant amount of work taking place behind the scenes, including data cleansing, testing systems and IT patches.

Whilst there has been a lot of focus on the digital systems, the real benefit will be on both our patients and colleagues. The new patient administration system (PAS) is not just a digital tool, it is fundamentally a new way of working.

Saskia

Jones-Perrott, Divisional

Medical Director

for Medicine and Emergency Care, said: “It is a fantastic opportunity for our teams to be able to work with more modern systems, and I know the difference this will make long-term to the care we provide.

“It is important we all support each other as we know a new system takes time to embed and colleagues will learn at different rates. I am really excited by the opportunities this brings for our departments. Whilst the new IT system is impressive, it is only a tool and it will be our fantastic colleagues who will make this a success. Everyone who uses the system, or interacts with our Emergency Departments, is part of this cultural change.

“We know how frustrating it is for our patients waiting in our Emergency Departments when they do not know how long they will have to wait.

“Better data will help us to stay connected, improve flow and ultimately deliver better care. However, we all absolutely need to support input of data in real time. This is fundamentally a new way of working and we need the support of colleagues to ensure that every patient record is updated after every patient interaction.

“Long-term we will be able to improve flow and discharges for patients through better information. Thank you to everyone who is helping to deliver this new way of working.”

“A massive thank you to everyone who played a role in the successful launch of the new CareFlow Patient Admin System and ED system. 90.2% of colleagues completed their training ahead of go-live, which is a phenomenal achievement. So many people were involved over the go-live weekend, which helped to make it a success.

“We know the next few weeks will be crucial as we embed this new system and way of working. However, I am also excited for phase two of our transformation. The CareFlow PAS is the foundation for more advanced digital upgrades that will improve care for patients. In this edition of Impact, we focus on just a few of our exciting opportunities and will continue to keep you informed and involved as we progress our digital transformation.

“This is just the beginning, and as a Trust we will focus on continuous digital improvement as we strive towards delivering excellent care for patients. We have a roadmap for the future, which will involve many phases.”

Nigel Lee, Director of Strategy and Partnerships

NEXT STEPS...

Key highlights for phase two include:

CareFlow Connect

CareFlow Connect is an integrated communication platform delivering faster clinical communication, better collaboration and safer care. It allows collaboration within clinical teams, including; patient lists, team updates, team referrals, team files and photos, team handover, patient alerts/push notifications and alert subscriptions and feeds.

ePMA

CareFlow ePMA (e-Prescribing and Medicines Administration) is an electronic solution to replace handwritten prescriptions which allows to prescirbe and record the administration of medicines in an inpatient setting. The product is part of the CareFlow PAS system and all content will be visible within CareFlow, rather than using a separate application.

This will fundamentally transform flow within our hospitals as we know how important timely medication supply is and having prescriptions ready for discharge.

Order Comms and Results Reporting (Inc. Laboratory Information Management System)

The Order Communications and Results Reporting functionality within CareFlow PAS supports the electronic ordering of tests, examinations and services.

Orders and results will be available to view alongside the patient’s record in PAS and through CareFlow Connect, creating a more holistic view of the patient’s record in one place.

Patient engagement platform

We want to ensure that our care is more personalised for patients. We are excited to be launching a new patient engagement portal which will enable two-way communications and empower patient choice. More patients will be able to view their records and record their preferences, which will ultimately deliver a more positive experience for everyone.

“This is an exciting time to be part of SaTH as we work to improve care through more modern systems. From listening to teams, we know they are excited and eager for the next phase to go-live as it will be key to transforming the care we can deliver as professionals. Please bear with us as our digital teams work to prioritise these systems.

“There is a lot of complexity involved as we integrate all these systems and ensure they interact with one another. This is why we have committed to a multiyear programme, and we are grateful for your ongoing patience.

“I’d also like to thank our amazing Change Agents. We hope that they will stay with us on this journey as we need their experience, skills and passion for improvement as we bring new systems online over the coming years.”

Joshua Pagden, Chief Nursing

Officer

HOSPITALS TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME (HTP)

Our plans to develop two thriving hospital sites are really starting to take shape. They will improve health and care for patients and the communities we serve.

The Hospitals Transformation Programme (HTP), together with other initiatives, is part of our longterm strategic ambition to provide high quality, sustainable healthcare and improve outcomes for all our patients.

The HTP plans will see the Shrewsbury site (RSH) specialising in emergency care, with the Telford (PRH) site specialising in planned care.

Subject to national approval of our Full Business Case, the construction work of the main HTP build at RSH should start from early summer. This will be a new four storey building housing our new Emergency and Women and Children’s services.

Enabling building works are currently under way and these are progressing well. This includes reconfiguration works on Ward 30.

“It’s fantastic to see progress being made as we enter a really exciting stage of our transformation programme. This clinically-led new model of care will make a huge difference to our patients, with fewer cancellations and reduced delays for operations through our new planned care hub and streamlined emergency care services, in a purpose-built facility.

“This is a once in a generation investment for our Trust and we will all need to work together to make our vision of two thriving hospitals a reality.”

THE PRINCESS ROYAL HOSPITAL

SITE SPECIALISING IN PLANNED CARE

Planned Care Hub

Construction work is almost complete on a new £24 million Planned Care Hub, which will provide modern theatres and designated recovery areas.

This exciting new development will be open and receiving first patients requiring planned care in

Day case chemotherapy services

Patients will benefit from the expansion of our day case chemotherapy service which is currently provided at RSH.

This will enhance the quality, capacity and efficiency of cancer care. This supports the wider healthcare ambitions of providing care close to home where possible for those who may be receiving chemotherapy. Currently 40% of patients requiring this treatment within our catchment area live in Telford.

Urgent treatment services

Patients will benefit from a 24/7 enhanced urgent care service at PRH which will be enhanced through the SDEC (same day emergency care), frailty services and diagnostics. About 60% of people who currently attend ED will be able to use this service under the HTP proposals.

June this year. The hub will substantially increase capacity for day case operations resulting in much shorter waiting times for our patients.

The development complements the vital HTP.

Therapy-led wards

Linked to PRH becoming the site specialising in planned care, there will be an increased offer of therapies on the wards to support patients’ postsurgical recovery.

Why will this benefit our patients and staff?

• Faster access to the right care and clinicians

• Buildings that support modern healthcare practices

• Shorter waiting times for planned surgery

• An improved work environment for our colleagues

• Shorter stays for our patients

• Continuous investment in both our hospitals

Keep up to date with the ongoing investment at PRH.

THE ROYAL SHREWSBURY HOSPITAL

SITE

New main entrance

The new building will also provide patients and visitors with a vastly improved main entrance to the hospital, with the ED entrance directly adjacent.

Inside, there will be a new café and waiting area. We will shortly be sharing updated visuals of what the building will look like.

New and expanded critical care unit

The new unit will provide essential care for the most critically ill patients and will be supported 24/7 by all the required medical and surgical specialities on one site. The new facility will see an increase in the number of beds.

Patients will also benefit from single occupancy rooms to provide greater privacy and dignity and a more positive environment to support their recovery.

Improved emergency care facilities

There will be a new Emergency Department (ED) designed to meet future needs of the population we serve. This will ensure patients with life or limb threatening and serious conditions will have immediate access to emergency doctors, specialist surgical and medical professionals, who will all be based at the same location.

The ED will be located on the ground floor of the proposed new four-storey healthcare facility at RSH.

It will benefit from a new dedicated entrance, protected ambulance canopy, modern resuscitation bays and a separate paediatric emergency area.

Upgraded acute medical floor

The acute medicine service will also be located in the new building, in close proximity to the expanded ED.

Keep up to date with the ongoing construction work at RSH.

A JOURNEY TO FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

A key priority for us is ensuring we are managing our resources effectively so we can reach our ambition of achieving financial sustainability.

The 2023/24 financial year was challenging for our organisation, as well as the wider health and care system, and we ended the year with a significant financial deficit. This has been largely driven by additional escalation costs of caring for patients who no longer need acute hospital services, as well as high agency and bank expenditure.

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure we are spending every penny we have effectively to benefit our patients. To support us to do this, we have a long-term financial plan in place to ensure we are using all our resources in the best way possible.

Our ambition over the next five years – as part of our Trust Strategy – is to stabilise our deficit so we can improve our financial position, whilst retaining our commitment to deliver our quality and safety priorities.

In 2023/24 we safely reduced our expenditure on high cost agency staff by £5.3m (11%) compared to the previous year, with further reductions expected. Our aim is to continue to reduce agency spend further by ensuring we have the right skill mix in place to meet our needs now and in the future.

We have changed the way that we recruit into vacancies with a focus on reforming roles rather than automatically replacing leavers. This gives us more flexibility to tailor how we deliver service in the future.

Dr John Jones, Medical Director, said: “We are working with colleagues across our organisation to understand opportunities to work more efficiently, including new ways of working.

“Despite the challenges, we remain committed to having safe staffing levels across our services and

we won’t compromise on patient safety. We know that by improving quality we can also support financial efficiencies.”

Through delivery of our cost improvement plan (CIP), we have made efficiency savings of £18.8m, nearly double that of the previous financial year. This is down to our divisional colleagues who have done a huge amount of work to understand what is causing our deficit and put in place action plans to help reduce it.

In the current 2024/25 financial year, we intend to devolve budgets as much as possible so our divisions and specialties can manage their budgets effectively.

Our finance colleagues are also continuing to collaborate with health and care system partners looking at how we can share opportunities, support each other and maximise efficiencies.

Throughout the year, we will also:

• Continue with our nationally recognised finance training offerings which are available for free to budget holders via LMS

• Make available Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) bitesize courses to all colleagues via the ESR platform

• Continue to support and develop our finance colleagues to give the best service to the Trust and ultimately to our patients. This includes investing in apprenticeships and leadership development.

We are giving colleagues the opportunity to share ideas and suggestions on how they can save money in their division in a safe, anonymous online space through our latest Making a Difference conversation which is open now. The conversation is about identifying what changes we can make, no matter how small, to save money within our Trust.

“We know we have more to do as we continue our journey towards restoring financial balance within our organisation and across the wider health and care system. It will be challenging, but we have plans in place to ensure we are maximising every penny we have for the benefit of our patients.”

Helen Troalen, Director of Finance

CREATING A GREAT PLACE TO WORK

As part of our Getting to Good journey, we are striving to make our organisation a great place to work and receive care for everyone.

A culture improvement programme is in place to help us to achieve our ambition. This includes supporting the health and wellbeing of our colleagues, investing in developing great leaders, and increasing learning and development opportunities.

Cultural change takes time, and our latest NHS Staff Survey results show positive progress is being made. Whilst we remain below average, statistically our organisation significantly improved in all nine elements of the People Promise and the themes of engagement and morale.

The focus over the next 12 months will continue to be on listening to what our colleagues have to say, and acting on the feedback so we can make the changes that are important to them.

This will include:

• Focusing on health and wellbeing, especially

for those who have personally experienced discrimination at work

• Staff retention

• Working closely with divisions and teams to develop action plans across all the elements and themes of the People Promise.

“We should all be really proud of the progress we are making on our culture improvement journey.

“We have fantastic colleagues and together we will continue to strive to be amongst one of the best places to work and receive care. Change doesn’t happen immediately, but we are really pleased with our progress to date and your valued feedback and ideas are really helping to shape our onward journey of improving our culture.

“Although we are moving in the right direction, and in many areas are closer to the national average, overall our NHS Staff Survey results remain below average and so we still have much more work to do to create the culture we all want. We should all feel proud of how far we have come and must continue to work together to make our organisation a better place for everyone.”

Rhia Boyode, Director of People and Organisational Development

WE WORK FLEXIBLY Case Study

We want colleagues, regardless of their role, to be given the opportunity to achieve a better work-life balance. Following feedback, we have strengthened our flexible working offer.

Hannah O’nions and Karen Gordon job share the ward manager’s role for Day Surgery at RSH. They requested to work as part of a job share to enable them to achieve better work-life balance.

Hannah said: “The job share has been so beneficial to us personally, as well as to our

colleagues on the ward. The feedback from staff has been extremely positive as we’ve been able to be more present for colleagues when they need it and be more visible on the floor.

“We have divided ownership and manage different elements of the role, which has improved timeliness of feedback for complaints and Datix. Training compliance has also improved. We are both able to have a great work-life balance, meaning we can rest and recuperate on our non-working days.”

WE EACH HAVE A VOICE THAT COUNTS Case Study

Colleagues in Medicine and Emergency Care (MEC) felt more could be done to support the workforce and patient safety.

As a result of this feedback, the following changes have been implemented:

• Safety huddles have been reviewed and improved by expanding attendance, introducing standardised talking points and cascading key information, quality themes and shared learning

• The recruitment plan was delivered, leading to a sustained increase in the MEC workforce. The substantive workforce has increased by 9% overall, including an:

8% increase in junior doctors

11% increase in nursing colleagues

5% increase in other clinical roles

4% increase in non-clinical staff

Case Study

WE ARE COMPASSIONATE AND INCLUSIVE

We strive to provide the best care to our communities. This requires having a diverse workforce who are able to bring their full self to work. It is fundamental to ensuring our services are fully inclusive.

As a large local employer, we want to be an employer of choice and a place of work where everyone’s uniqueness is valued, embraced, understood and nurtured.

Feedback raised an issue that we may not have always been supporting colleagues with neurodivergent needs. We identified there was more for us to do to support awareness, education, and understanding around what a reasonable adjustment is.

As a result, we launched our Neurodiversity at

Work Programme, which features guidance for colleagues and managers to support our workforce.

Emmeline Venn, Fluid Nurse Practitioner, who has ADHD, has been supported by the Trust to put in place reasonable adjustments at work.

She said: “I was diagnosed the week before I started in my current role. I had the conversation with my manager, and she was incredibly supportive and she referred me to occupational health at my request.”

You can hear her full story here

In our next edition we will be focusing on:

Research, Innovation and Improvement Week