Sue's Post Board Blog - May 2018
This month our Chair, Professor Sue Proctor, pays tribute to everyone involved in managing the fire at the Becklin Centre, doing better on co-production and involvement and improving the recruitment of new nurses and building their confidence when they arrive.
Welcome to my post-board blog following the May 2018 meeting of the Trust’s Board of Directors.
Before I talk about Trust Board business I want to recognise some fantastic work in the wake of a recent serious incident. In the early hours of 23 May we had a fire in Ward 5 at the Becklin Centre. Thankfully everyone was evacuated safely. However there was considerable damage to the ward and huge disruption to services, for service users and staff.
I already know how blessed we are to have such talented, caring staff working across the Trust, but last week we were tested, in the most challenging and dramatic circumstances. All through last week I was kept informed and advised about the progress following this fire, and last Thursday the Board were briefed too. On their behalf I want to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at Becklin, those in estates, those in management roles and the directors for all their dedicated, compassionate and practical handling of this very difficult situation.
Also, thanks to our partners in the police, fire and rescue and Leeds Teaching Hospitals. Working together, we have been able to support staff, service users and their families and to ensure our services are as safe as possible. Finally, thanks are owed to the staff who are helping service users settle in safely to a temporary base at a ward made available to us by Bradford Care Trust.
Back to Board business
The Board meeting last week received our draft Annual Report for 2017/18, the quality account, and the financial accounts. This is a really important part of our governance cycle and demonstrates how we manage our resources, strive to maintain standards and work to deliver on our contractual and strategic obligations.
The reports will now be finalised and submitted to be laid before Parliament along with similar reports from NHS trusts across the country. They will be presented in their final ‘signed off’ format at our Annual Members’ Meeting on 31 July – I hope to see you there.
At the start of the Board meeting we heard from Leanne Winfield; a former service user and now a member of our Service User Network (SUN). Leanne also chairs the local SUN Rays group in South Leeds.
She spoke to us about service user and carer co-production and involvement, offering constructive but also critical feedback on what we do well to engage and involve service users, but also what we could do better. Leanne was keen for the Trust to move away from what she sees as somewhat tokenistic involvement and to embed it into our planning processes so it’s more proactive and considered from the start. A good example of where this could be applied is the Community Redesign project that’s currently in full swing.
Leanne highlighted good pieces of work that had gone on in the past, such as the development of clinical risk training, but questioned why this wasn’t still happening. We thanked Leanne for her feedback and agreed to look further into the issues she raised.
Update from the Chief
There’s a lot going on across the health and care system at the moment. This has been captured in the Chief Executive’s Report – item 7 page 40.
Sara covered the new integrated care system for West Yorkshire and Harrogate, as well as the Mental Health Collaborative that’s forming between us and three other trusts across the same area.
Sara also reported some great news on the outcome of our bid for investment in community perinatal services. Our bid was successful which will enable the development of a new service in Harrogate and the expansion of the service we already provide in Leeds. This means we will be able to support many more families.
Earlier in May we co-hosted the first ever Positive Practice Convention. The event, which was run alongside the Positive Practice Mental Health Collaborative, saw over 25 organisations and over 130 people come together to share and discuss ideas and opportunities to improve care. There were five themed conversations covering quality improvement, workforce, staff health and wellbeing, digital innovation and recovery.
John gives staff the freedom to speak up
The Board received an update from our Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, John Verity (pictured). Since his appointment in October 2017 he’s raised his profile and the ways in which he can support staff to raise a concern.
In his latest report which covers October 2017 to April 2018, 19 concerns were raised. The main reasons for these were:
- Behavioural or relationship issues – where working relationships have become strained or have broken down, and where low key facilitation was required or signposting to appropriate services or policies and procedures.
- System and process – where staff were unsure of to how to proceed and needed help with signposting / support to the appropriate services or policies and procedures.
Building the confidence of newly registered staff
Our Director of Nursing and Professions, Cathy Woffendin, gave us some positive news in her Safer Staffing Report (Item 11 page 122) about a programme to help build confidence of newly qualified nurses and allied health professionals.
In her report Cathy says: “We know that the period of transition from being a newly registered practitioner to becoming an experienced member of the multidisciplinary team can be both exciting and challenging. To support staff through this transition we’re enlisting staff onto the Nursing and Professions’ Preceptorship Programme.”
The programme is a period of structured transition for newly registered practitioners which helps to develop confidence as an autonomous professional, refine skills, values and behaviours and to continue on their journey of life-long learning. We believe through networking with our partners and feedback from our staff, that this programme is one of the best in the country.
Newly qualified nursing appointments
In her final workforce report to the Board before her retirement, Director of Workforce Development Susan Tyler updated us on a decision we’ve taken to start making conditional offers of appointment to all Year 3 nursing students who’ve been on placement with the Trust.
The initiative is part of a bid to improve recruitment and is being led by the Nursing Directorate in partnership with operational managers and the Workforce Directorate.
A task and finish group is supporting the process to ensure a smooth transition into employment for these students, taking account of individual preferences, safe staffing levels and the capacity in services to accommodate newly qualified staff.
Good luck Susan
And finally on behalf of the Board we wish Susan Tyler a happy retirement following over 40 years of NHS service – pictured here with Sara Munro at a surprise retirement fuddle in May. Her role will be covered by Deputy Director of Workforce Lindsey Jensen on a temporary basis before we recruit permanently into the role later this year.
Find out more about our Chair Professor Sue Proctor.