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Improving Together: Supporting each other for a stronger future – CEO Caroline Donovan’s Blog – 2 September 2024 | News and events

Improving Together: Supporting each other for a stronger future – CEO Caroline Donovan’s Blog – 2 September 2024

Hi all  

I hope some people managed to get a break over the weekend and thank you to those that were working.  

The last couple of weeks have been busy with interviewing for our new Locality Directors which, as are aware, is the first phase of our new organisational restructure aimed at strengthening our working with local partners in localities, improving leadership visibility and support in clinical services and improving the quality of service delivery. Nurturing and developing talent is a high priority and lies at the heart of implementing our new locality structure.  

It was great to have so many of our own leaders as well as external applicants apply for the roles and demonstrating great potential.  

We were delighted that many of the applications were from people already working at NSFT, highlighting our internal strengths, but also showing how committed those people are to supporting our new locality structure. I was also really pleased to see that many external people applied for our roles indicating that people are keen to come at work at NSFT.  

Strong leadership is vital as we improve as a Trust. These leaders will nurture and grow their  teams. We are appointing leaders who will lead our cultural change, retain and develop good people, and develop sustainable long-term progress across their areas of responsibility. Most importantly, leaders who will make sure we deliver the absolute best care for service users and carers.  

We will be announcing the successful appointments to these leadership roles soon.  

As we now progress through the next phases of the restructure, more people will be affected by the change. I really do appreciate that any change can be unsettling, and I want to remind colleagues of the range of support available. As we move into phase 2 and 3 of the leadership restructure, we will offer support to people involved in the process. This will include drop-in sessions and ‘looking after yourself through change’ webinars – staff can find out more on our intranet.  

Whilst it has been a pleasure to see the talent we have, it is really important that we recognise and reward our staff for the excellent improvements they have been involved in. Our staff awards are a really great opportunity to say ‘thank you’ and celebrate our talent.

I am delighted to launch our Staff Awards for 2024, celebrating all that is special about our staff, under the new title of ‘Safer, Kinder, Better Awards 2024’. This of course lines up with our new vision and acknowledges our shared vision of improving together for safer, kinder, and better care. While we know there is much to do, it is right that we reflect on and celebrate both individually and collectively everyone's hard work, achievements, and milestones this year.

This year there are ten categories for you to nominate fellow colleagues and teams – watch out for full details this week on how you can nominate colleagues. Whist we are so very busy in our day-to-day work, it is really important to take some time to consider who you would personally like to be recognised for their excellent work. There are so many people involved in our improvement programmes or maybe doing a sterling job everyday – let’s try to make our awards this year the best ever! Everyone who nominates an individual or team who is selected as a finalist will be invited to the ceremony. 

I have met a range of partners in the last couple of weeks that I’d like to give you the heads up on. The executive team for NSFT meet the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) executive team on a regular basis to discuss progress and areas for concern. It was really good to hear positive feedback from our ICB colleagues about progress with our transformation plans and increased visibility of leaders across the system. There is clearly some excellent partnership working. We also discussed how much we need to do to work more closely with our primary care colleagues and build more confidence as we transform and improve access into our services and support for people in a crisis. You may be aware we are currently reviewing our crisis teams across the trust as a baseline for the transformation programme that will follow. Whilst there has been some good progress and a big thank-you to teams who are embracing the improvement work, we have much more to do.

I was really pleased to meet the Chair and CEO of Suffolk MIND last week. I was so impressed with their determination to work in partnership with us to improve mental health support to our communities. As we move into our localities, there will be even more opportunity to embrace local partnership working.

I was also very pleased to be invited to a presentation on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust on plans for their new hospital. It is so brilliant to see plans that will really benefit local communities. We discussed the opportunity to work in partnership with them, particularly around community mental health pathways. This will no doubt be a priority for our new west Norfolk locality leadership team.

There is so much that locality working can achieve as we embrace partners and consider how integrated care can be delivered together.

I want to finish with a huge thank you for your hard work, your commitment to you teams and to supporting our journey of improvement.  

Until the next time  

Caroline

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