Sara's blog - March 2018

This month, our Chief Exec Sara Munro talks CQC inspections, investment news and thanks staff for their grit during the snowy weather.

Spring is finally here, the clocks have gone forward and after some wintery spells over the past few weeks hopefully we can look forward to some sunnier weather and brighter days.

One thing that did warm me up recently was our staff survey results for 2017 which have now been published.  

Our Director of Workforce Development Susan Tyler is providing a more detailed update to Board on 29 March. In short, our results show continued improvement with particular highlights in staff health and well-being, experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic staff and support from managers. Thank you to all those staff who took the time to make their voices count in the survey and for providing valuable feedback to help us improve year on year.

Care Quality Commission inspections update

I am delighted to confirm our Specialist Supported Living Service has moved from requires improvement to good overall with an outstanding rating for being caring. This is testament to the excellent leadership provided by Service Manager Gill Galea and the commitment of her team to quality improvement.

The report on the CQC website details the impact our staff in this service have on the quality of lives of those who we support.

We are currently working through the fuller draft reports from our well-led inspection as part of the factual accuracy process.  Once this has been concluded and the reports finalised we will be able to share the full outcomes – probably in late April.

Signing on dotted lines

Following meetings with the executive team and our commissioners we have now agreed our contracts for 2018/19 with the Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS England.

I am pleased to confirm this includes additional investment in our Liaison Psychiatry Service, recurrent funding for memory support workers which is provided by the Alzheimer’s society, and funding for the new care model for the Eating Disorder Service for West Yorkshire which goes live on the 1 April.

We have also secured ongoing support for the costs of placing service users out of area with a mid-year review in September 2018.  We will be closely monitored by the CCG and NHS Improvement on this but we’re confident that the leadership arrangements we’ve got in place for this can help us deliver better outcomes for service users and reduce the need for people to be treated far from home. 

Welcome and farewell

Photograph of Cathy Woffendin, Director of Nursing and ProfessionsI am delighted to welcome Cathy Woffendin (pictured) as Director of Nursing and Professions who joins us from Bradford District Care Trust. Cathy is a qualified nurse who began her nursing career at Dewsbury District Hospital and worked in a variety of organisations both within the NHS and private sector for ten years. She then undertook further training and obtained a degree in Public Health Nursing and worked as a health visitor developing a child health and safeguarding specialism. Read more about Cathy. Huge thanks to Paul Lumsdon who has been covering the vacant director post for over six months.

We will also be saying goodbye to Susan Tyler, our most experienced executive director, who will be retiring from the NHS on 31 May 2018.  Susan is such an experienced and valued member of the executive team and the trust board and I know she is going to be difficult to replace.  We are grateful for all her work and support during her time at the Trust and wish her well for the future.

Reasons to be proud during the bad weather

Thank you to all our staff who showed true grit and determination to keep services running safely during the recent snowy conditions. We thought we had seen the worst of the weather after the first spell, but it’s fair to say the whole of Leeds was caught off guard with the heavy snowfall on 8 March.

We’re grateful to everyone who battled through the elements to get to work, covered for a colleague in another unfamiliar team or worked over and above the norm. I have heard some amazing stories of night staff staying on past their shifts, walking long distances through the snow (like the tweet below from one of our Charge Nurses Hannah Wilkinson) and helping one another out to get in and out of work. All this to ensure we provide safe care to our patients.

 

Find out more about Sara or follow her on Twitter @munro_sara