Sara's blog for September 2019
Sara’s blog for September features CQC inspection initial feedback, the big conversation with staff on culture, our strategic priorities, a response to issues regarding our gender identity service, and many many reasons to be proud including award nominations, service improvements and brand new services going live.
Hello,
Welcome to my blog for September 2019. I hope you’ve all enjoyed the slightly sporadic summer we’ve had.
In what can be a quieter time for some, there’s no let-up in the pace in the NHS over the summer and I’ve tried to capture the highlights of what’s been going on here since my last blog in July.
Care Quality Commission inspection update
Our well-led inspection concluded on 29 August 2019 and we got some positive initial feedback specifically on the well-led part. You can read the letter in full here, but in summary . . .
The inspectors felt staff had responded positively to the recommendations from their last visit and there had been good progress on training and supervision, which is something we knew we had to do better on.
They recognised that our Staff Survey results had improved, which is good, however we recognise not everyone’s experience is good and there are areas we need to focus on. This is one thing driving our Improving Culture Improving Lives big conversation (more on that below).
They said the Board were living the Trust’s values of integrity, simplicity and caring; we are open and transparent, and we had strengthened our governance – which they observed when they attended our Board and sub-committee meetings.
The inspection team felt we were well informed of what the priority areas were. This includes areas of workforce development (such as staff health and wellbeing), equality and inclusion, patient and carer involvement, and embedding our approach to quality and continuous improvement.
They said we had strong financial management – so well done to Dawn Hanwell’s team and to all budget managers across the Trust for your help with this.
They really liked our use of blogs and social media (get me!) for communications with staff and partners, and commented on our recently improved intranet ‘Staffnet2’.
And finally, they said we have clinical services we should be proud of, and I completely agree. We are proud of our clinical services and I’m very proud of the way they presented themselves throughout the inspection. Our CONNECT community eating disorders service, perinatal inpatient unit and veterans mental health service got a special mention so well done to you all.
The inspection team is now pulling together the findings and we expect the draft reports before the end of September. It really was a team effort from across all departments and teams in the Trust, with exceptional leadership from Cathy Woffendin, and I want to reiterate our appreciation to everyone involved. Our trust values of caring, integrity and simplicity really shone through along with passion and professionalism.
Big Conversation on Culture
We’re constantly listening to staff feedback about what it’s like to work here. This is so important and we’re always grateful for it. In the last 12 months we’ve received three significant reports which have all talked about staff culture. I’ve taken the feedback I’ve seen, heard and read very seriously, and I want to make some positive changes to improve staff experience. That has included setting up a group called the Culture Collaborative. I explain more about what we’re doing in this five minute video . . .
A key part of our cultural ambition is to make real improvements to the experiences and opportunities for colleagues from black and minority ethnic groups, those who have a disability or are LGBT+.
The Chairs of our staff network groups are members of the Culture Collaborative and we’re engaging with members of these groups over the coming months. No one should experience bullying, harassment or discrimination in our Trust. The workshop we held in September with the senior leadership team, equality and inclusion group and members of the staff network groups made a number of suggestions about what more we can do collectively. There’s more about this in the Workforce Report being presented to the September Board meeting.
Our strategic priorities
I’ve been attending my usual number of health and care partnership meetings over the last two months, which have been discussing long term plans and five year strategies (amongst other things).
The NHS Long Term Plan makes a renewed commitment that mental health services will grow faster than the overall NHS budget, with a protected investment worth at least £2.3 billion a year for mental health services by 2023/24. This funding will ensure the NHS “provides high quality, evidence-based mental health services to an additional two million people.”
The challenge I and my senior colleagues face is to turn this national drive into meaningful plans for our local populations. I did my best to condense this down into something accessible for our Council of Governors at our session on 3 September.
You can read my full presentation here.
Gender Identity Services – responding to service user feedback
We received a very frank and brave account from a gender identity service user at our July meeting. She described her torment at the length of time it is taking for her and people like her to receive treatment.
Our Chair, Professor Sue Proctor, and I have since written to NHS England to set out our concerns and those expressed by our service users regarding the impact on the delayed procurement of gender services nationally, and the lack of capacity to meet the current waiting list.
Since then the procurement for the new model has started, which will see an increase in the number of clinics nationally from seven to nine. However, at the time of writing, not all the components of the new service model have been put out to tender. I’m pleased to report we’re on track to submit our bid on 8 October.
Reasons to be proud – bumper edition!
As I said at the start, the pace in the NHS does not let up and there’s a lot to cover here. So here goes . . .
The Trust’s Deaf Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (pictured) has been shortlisted in the Royal College of Psychiatry Awards 2019. The bid was led by Dr Sophie Roberts and the team will be attending the awards ceremony on 8 November.
Our Specialist Personality Disorder and Adult Eating Disorder services have again been shortlisted in the National Positive Practice in Mental Health Awards. The ceremony is on World Mental Health Day (10 October!).
The Veterans Complex Mental Health Service has been shortlisted for a Nursing Times Award. Results revealed at the ceremony on 30 October.
Our Leeds Autism Diagnostic Services celebrates its tenth anniversary on 29 September. They have also just achieved 92% in their access standards following a significant amount of work supported by our Continuous Improvement Team. On top of that they have achieved accreditation with the National Autistic Society. We are the first service to have achieved this and it is all credit to the team for the work they have put in and the results they have achieved.
New services
September has seen the launch of two very important new services led by the Trust in partnership with other organisations.
The first is the Leeds Recovery College led by Simon Burton. The second is the Northern Gambling Service led by Matt Gaskell.
Both of these services, whilst very different share the following; passionate leadership, team work, collaborative working and community focus. I’m inviting both Matt and Simon to come and speak to the Board about their work.
Looking forward – some things to look out for . . .
World Mental Health Day is 10 October and the focus this year is on suicide prevention. To mark the occasion, we’ve recorded our second ever podcast – the first being a feature on our forensic services in York for World Mental Health Day 2018.
We’ll hear from Leeds Rhinos’ Stevie Ward who also writes for Mantality magazine, Chris O’Connor – a Leeds-based writer whose recent plays tackle men’s mental health, and the Trust’s former leader of the year Josef Faulkner – Community Mental Health Service Manager and mental health nurse. We should expect conversations about men’s mental health, suicide prevention and some inspiring projects which highlight the importance of talking about mental health. Listen out for this on 10 October!
There will be a celebration of 100 years of learning disability nursing at a special event on Thursday 31 October. Learning disability nurses are very proud of the impact they have. They make big differences to the lives of the people they support, but they are not always good at shouting out about themselves.
This is going to change, at least for one day, at a special event at the Bridge Community Church on 31 October. Find out more on our website here.