Dr Sara Munro's CEO Leadership Blog for April 2024
Our Chief Executive, Dr Sara Munro, posts her leadership blog for April 2024.
As we shake off the remnants of what has been a challenging winter period and start to sense the onset of warmer weather and lighter nights it is important we focus on the opportunities that lie ahead. I’m truly grateful for the hard work of all our colleagues who have worked over the Easter break and I hope there have been moments of respite and opportunities to rejuvenate yourselves.
Our Springtime treats coffee van has been making its rounds at our main Trust sites delivering free hot drinks and treats to our hard working colleagues as a thank you gesture. The Health and Wellbeing Team were also on hand to deliver insights into the wide range of wellbeing services at LYPFT and beyond. Meanwhile, our Hands at Work team lent their healing touch with complimentary massages. These small gestures are hugely appreciated by staff, as one colleague expressed: “I have had a really bad day, and this break is helping me get through it!”
The importance of supporting and involving dads
We were treated with some inspiring stories at our latest Board meeting from our Perinatal Service, highlighting how important it is to support and involve dads and partners whilst mothers are in our care. Our Fathers Peer Support Worker Errol Murray helps run our mental health service for partners, which is one of only a few in the country. He was accompanied by a service user who detailed how the support provided by the perinatal team benefited both him and his wife. You can read some of these stories on our website.
Let’s delve into some more recent highlights from our care services.
New gambling clinics and transformed community services
You may have seen in the news that three new gambling clinics opened in March to much fanfare – the North West Gambling Clinic in Liverpool, the North West Gambling Clinic in Preston, and the North East and Yorkshire Gambling Clinic in Sheffield. Responding to a huge increase in demand for gambling services, the new clinics provide treatment for people with gambling problems, those with mental and physical health conditions and those who may be at risk of suicide. These clinics are already offering a beacon of hope for those on the brink of despair in these regions.
A new approach to providing community mental health care and support has begun at three ‘early implementer’ sites in Leeds. Delivering a new way of providing community mental health care, they aim to get people the right care and support in an easy way, where and when they need it. It puts services closer to people who need them, joining up effectively with other services, and removing barriers to accessing care. Find out more and keep up to date on the MindWell Leeds website.
Care services 10 year plan
These developments are important parts of our recently published Care Services Strategic Plan which sets out a ten-year ambition to improve the care we provide to the thousands of people who receive our services every year at LYPFT.
To craft our strategic blueprint, we’ve comprehensively reviewed our care delivery model, evaluating its efficacy and identifying key areas for innovation and improvement. Central to this process was engaging in candid conversations with both our dedicated staff members and, crucially, those who use our services. Our three refreshed priorities are:
- We co-create and co-deliver care services with people who have lived experience.
- We collaborate with our partners to understand our populations and provide proactive integrated care.
- We provide high quality, equitable and sustainable care services.
You’ll be able to read the full plan on our website soon.
Growing financial challenges
We must deliver this plan within the constraints of a difficult financial picture. As you’ll know the health and care system in Leeds is facing a financial deficit in 2024/25. Unfortunately, our situation isn’t unique and other health systems are facing similar issues. This is without doubt the most challenging position the NHS in Leeds has faced in recent years and comes despite increases in demand and remaining post-COVID recovery in areas such as obesity, mental health, neurodiversity, cancer and elective activity.
Our Trust priorities for the year ahead include improving patient flow between community and inpatient settings, embedding clinical outcomes, implementing the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), fulfilling our commitments to staff in our refreshed People Plan, and efficient estates planning. All so we can live within our means and ensure we are spending money on the right things for services.
Improvements in staff experience
And we must deliver our services whilst listening to our colleagues and continually improving. Each year our colleagues contribute their important views to the NHS Staff Survey, the largest survey of its kind in the world. Thank you to everyone who contributed giving us vital feedback on what we are doing well and areas for improvement. The 2023 results are in and show some fantastic favourable improvements in staff experience at our Trust. They give us much to celebrate while showing areas for us to focus on and improve. Already, the wheels of progress have been set in motion, which has only been possible thanks to staff making their voices heard.
Reasons to be proud
Sharing my reasons to proud is always one of my favourite parts of my job, giving fully deserved recognition to some of our amazing colleagues’ achievements. Too many to include here as always, so here’s a selection.
An impressive art piece produced by patients and staff has been unveiled at The Mount. Patients and staff from our Older People’s Inpatient Services collaborated with Artlink West Yorkshire to create the piece.
We’re celebrating five years of the Nursing Associate role at the Trust. This role was developed in 2019 to bridge the gap between Health Support Workers and Registered Nurses and these colleagues are going from strength to strength.
Mental health inpatients on our Complex (Locked) Rehabilitation ward at the Newsam Centre launched an album having written songs as a means of improving mental wellbeing and aiding recovery. You can watch the video and get the album here.
We celebrated the first year of our veterans OpCourage North service at an event attended by dignitaries from the armed forces and elsewhere, with VIPs including the Lord Lieutenant for West Yorkshire Ed Anderson CBE.
Our latest teams of the month are:
- Our team at 156, Austhorpe Road who provide a Specialised Support Living service for people with learning disabilities. They’ve displayed a wonderful example of team working, putting a service user at the heart of their work to help them with their hoarding behaviours.
- Our Resuscitation and Physical Health Emergencies team have gone above and beyond to support clinical services and ensuring a high level of training.
Over in our Research and Development department, our Research Heros have been delivering the UK MINDS project to push forward understanding of why some people experience problems with their mental and cognitive health.
Well done to those mentioned here, and apologies to those I’ve missed. If you have a success story to share, please let me or our Communications Team know so we can celebrate it widely.