Sue's Post Board Blog - June

A blog for our Chair following the June Trust Board meeting

Welcome to the second of my post-Board blogs. I’m writing these summaries of our monthly Trust Board of Directors meeting to help people engage with our agenda and to provide some transparency about what goes on for those who aren’t able to attend our public meetings.

I’ve had some good feedback about the first blog, so please do get in touch with any feedback you have about this or anything else, by emailing me at sue.proctor1@nhs.net.

This blog summarises some of the key items of interest from June’s meeting, which was held at our learning disability inpatient unit at Parkside Lodge, Leeds, on Thursday 29 June. The agenda and papers are available on our website.

Service user stories
We were joined by our Anti-Stigma Volunteer Coordinator, Trisha Thorpe, and Prevention and Management of Aggression and Violence (PMVA) Tutor, Emma Oldham-Fox, who have been working with service users to review our staff training programmes.

They shared two videos of service users describing their experiences of being restrained while on our wards. Hearing those personal stories was powerful and, at times, uncomfortable to watch. It reinforced just how vital it is that the service user voice is heard to help challenge our practice and influence positive change.

This collaboration with service users aims to ultimately reduce the use of restrictive practice, through more preventative interventions and proactive de-escalation strategies. The presentation provoked much discussion and some actions which I will follow up with keen interest.

Conversations
We heard about a number of conversations happening between Sara Munro and staff across the Trust in the Chief Executive’s report.

These discussions, part of a series of engagement events that Sara is hosting over the coming weeks, have been focussed around the Trust’s new values and the behaviours that support them. Much of the conversation to date has been around the context of these behaviours, and what we can do to learn and improve from experiences.

One of the key themes to emerge already is the support offered to teams, and a piece of organisational development work to support this will be led by Director of Workforce Development, Susan Tyler.

Susan will also be holding conversations with staff throughout July, as part of the development of our workforce strategy. This comes hot on the heels of the first workforce paper coming to Board last month. This is proving to be a really valuable addition to our agenda, as our workforce is so vitally important in the delivery of our services.

Forensics services
The response to the external review of the Trust’s forensic service has been a regular feature of our Board meetings. This month Medical Director Claire Kenwood shared an update in the form of a logic model, which you can find in item 10 in the meeting papers.

It’s a multi-faceted and complex process, spanning issues in the service including culture, commissioning and staffing resource. An update on the temporary closure of one of our forensics wards at Clifton House, York, was published on our website earlier this week.

The project team have identified a number of priorities and actions, along with some quick wins, medium-term goals and longer-term aspirations. The Board acknowledges that building relationships and trust, which lie at the heart of the forensic service improvement project, will take time and that this isn’t a situation that will be remedied overnight. We’ll hear another update on progress in October.

PREVENT
At the May Board meeting, which took place in the days after the Manchester terrorist attack, the Board sought more information and assurance about the Trust’s approach to the national counter-terrorism strategy, PREVENT.

The strategy aims to reduce the threat of terrorism in the UK by preventing people being drawn in to extremism. I want to make our commitment as an organisation to the strategy, and to safeguarding and protecting vulnerable service users absolutely clear.

Deputy Director of Nursing, Nichola Sanderson, assured the Board that the Trust is represented at both regional and city-wide PREVENT forums, and that a number of actions to raise awareness of our responsibilities through ongoing training, information and education are being taken forward by our Safeguarding Team.

Fire safety
Following the terrible, tragic events at Grenfell Tower in London, the Board sought assurance around the safety and suitability of our sites and premises, and our fire risk assessments. None of our buildings use the type of cladding that we’ve all heard so much about over the last two weeks. We do have a heightened fire risk at The Becklin Centre, which is linked to our no smoking policy. A full fire service inspection has been scheduled, and we will do all we can to minimise these risks.

Compliments, complaints and concerns
We received a report on the numbers, issues and trends in feedback from service users over the last 12 months. The Trust gets feedback, both negative and positive, from a range of sources, including letters, calls, emails and contacts with our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).  We asked that feedback via social media is also captured, monitored and reviewed as this is an important source of information for us to learn about our service users’ experiences.

Hope
Earlier this month, I attended the second annual Arts and Minds Network grant award ceremony at The Becklin Centre. Six grants were awarded to support the development of creative projects within the Trust, all with a theme of ‘hope’. These projects offer an opportunity for service users to have an enriching and inspiring experience, and I look forward to keeping track of them as they progress over the year.

In the context of recent events, the theme of ‘hope’ is so important. Hope is so much more than wishing for the best. It reflects the desire and importance of even fleeting optimism and positivity for us all – but especially for those in the midst of despair and hopelessness.

The emotional effects of these events will be felt by survivors, bereaved families, friends, emergency services, health care workers and the general public. We published some advice for anyone who has been affected on our website.