Improving Together – Improving outcomes for those who have been cared for by us, those who need our care and those who work with us - Deputy CEO Cath Byford's Blog - 5 August 2024
As I’m writing this blog, Caroline is taking some leave. This gives me an opportunity as your Deputy Chief Executive to step in and make sure that as a senior leadership team, we keep you up to date.
Before I get into the detail of what’s been happening in NSFT recently, I want to stick with the theme of taking time away from work. It is so important that everyone makes time to do this. I know it can sometimes feel difficult to step away from the important roles we all deliver – but to be able to sustain delivery the most important thing you can do is to make sure we are taking leave at regular intervals throughout the year. This must be a priority for every one of us - making sure we do this to help refresh, invigorate, and ultimately maintain and improve our wellbeing.
Booking leave at regular intervals through the year also benefits our ability to maintain service delivery - it means there isn’t a rush for everyone to take accumulated leave at the end of the year. So, if you’ve not had a break for a while, I’m reminding you today to hop onto ESR and raise a request – you never know, this late appearance of summer may still be here for you to enjoy!
The rest of my blog today is going to focus on some of the conversations we had at our Board meeting in public which was held on Thursday 25 July. There is not enough space here for me to cover everything in detail so for more information about any of the items I cover you can view the full agenda and papers pack on our website.
First and importantly, as mentioned in detail in Caroline’s last blog, we were able to provide a detailed update about the progress we have made with our Learning from Deaths programme. This included both our bi-monthly report and report covering deaths since 1 April 2019. I want to share my huge gratitude to the many, many colleagues who have contributed to this vital work which helps us as a Trust to further learn from the sad deaths of people within our care. I also want to thank the families and carers who are working with us to help us deliver and embed vital learning in this area. And finally, thanks to our local media who helped us to share this sensitive and important update across our communities.
At the meeting we also heard a service user experience story – this came from Vicky who bravely shared her experience of being discharged from our services. This was a powerful story to hear and one that identified the need for us to improve our discharge process. We must make sure there are no times when people at this point in their recovery are left to feel that they are not being listened to, communicated with or in any way vulnerable in a way which could be avoided. Fortunately, whilst Vicky shared how information about available support was not provided appropriately as part of her discharge, she was later provided with a link to our Recovery College. This changed Vicky’s experience for the better – she shared how she enjoys the courses, finds the tutors informative, compassionate, and funny and in her words “Regular Recovery College pit stops will save lives”. You can find out how the Recovery College may be able to help you by visiting our. It was clear from Vicky that we must do more to ensure that our patients and partners are informed about this hugely supportive service. You can listen to Vicky’s story here.
This would not be an update without referencing our strategic priorities; improving health, improving care, improving culture, and improving value. These priorities and how they link to our 12 large scale change programmes are fully explained within our new five-year Trust strategy which was formally approved at the board meeting.
Our strategy sets out our commitment for continuous improvement to create a safer, kinder, and better organisation.
Alongside our Trust strategy are a series of ‘enabling strategies’ which will help us to deliver the ambitions and commitments laid out in the Trust strategy – five of these enabling strategies were also approved at the meeting (Service User and Carer strategy, Quality strategy, Clinical strategy, Communications and Engagement strategy and People and Culture strategy) with the remaining enabling strategies due to be bought to our next Board meeting in public in September.
Linked to this is progress with our Recovery Support Programme (RSP). As you may know, since 2017, the Trust has been either in ‘Special Measures’ or the new RSP which succeeded it. To exit the RSP, we must show we have made improvements and can sustain those improvements – we our measuring our progress against the 12 large scale change programmes detailed in our Trust strategy. This is an ambitious programme as it aligns to the scale of improvements we are making. We held a detailed conversation about the progress we are making and our drive to exit this programme by the end of the financial year, which is achievable.
Board members were pleased to see the improved grip we have on this programme, and we will continue to share details of progress at future Board meetings in public.
Whilst we are on track to deliver in most areas, our Efficiency, Value and Improvement (EVI) programme is an area where we have much more to deliver. We have a target to find efficiency savings of £17.4m target by March 2025. The programme delivery year to date currently has a shortfall of £1.2m. This is a concern but is now receiving significant focus under the guidance of our recovery director Saj Minhas and I am confident this will lead to improved delivery.
I’m aware that there will be some concern that finding cost savings could lead to a negative impact on the quality of services we provide. We absolutely want to avoid this and to make sure, any potential efficiency savings will be subject to a rigorous Quality Impact Assessment process enabling any risks to quality to be identified and remedied. In fact, as part of this process many changes should have an improved effect on the quality, access, and experience of the services we provide.
Another discussion at the meeting focussed on how long people wait for our services and what we can do and are doing to improve this.
Our Waiting List Improvement Programme, which started in September 2023, has continued to drive improvement in this critical area. This includes improved waiting times for 18-weeks wait (referral to treatment), 4-week (referral to assessment) and our 52-week wait position.
Finally, I want to give a shout out for our new Service User and Carer Council (SUCC). This new forum will place our service users, families, and carers at its heart. I’d like to thank those that have been involved in engagement sessions for their valuable feedback which we are taking on board. In the meantime we are now asking for people across Norfolk and Suffolk who are receiving mental healthcare services, either currently or within the past five years, or people with experience of supporting a person receiving or having received mental healthcare services within the past five years to join this Council.
Please do encourage anyone who may be interested to apply for a position on the SUCC – the application period is open until midnight on Sunday.
More information about this exciting opportunity, and vital development is available on our website.
Take care,
Cath