Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 13:36
Inspiring through excellence
Recently, I had the privilege of sitting as a member of the judging panel for our upcoming Stars of EEAST Awards. The category we were choosing a winner for was our ‘Excellence in Leadership’ Award and, whilst I knew it would be a really positive process to be part of, I didn’t realise just how inspiring and thought provoking I would find it.
All the nominations made me feel so proud and moved, and whilst I can’t share too much detail before the event, I wanted to highlight to you the top ten qualities that came out of the nominations that you feel makes your colleagues great leaders.
Working for the ambulance service is not always easy, and all of our jobs can be incredibly challenging at times but having supportive and approachable leaders can make all the difference. These nominations show that many of you feel you have a great leader in place, who you know will be there for you when you need them.
However, we aspire for this to be the case for everyone across EEAST and so we’re working with our managers to support them in their development as leaders. This includes helping them to access necessary training and encouraging them to share their experiences and learn from others. Great leadership is key to the changes that we all want to see within EEAST and taking part in the judging panel really made me feel we’re heading in the right direction.
Time to Lead
What is it all about? We have been working on and talking about Time to Lead for some time. This is one of the most significant pieces of work that we have committed to as a Trust and will bring significant benefits for our patients, people, and our performance.
Time to Lead is the name of the executive-led programme that will mean we will properly size our leadership teams through increased capacity and capability within operations. This will ensure that all our people get the support, care and compassionate leadership to allow them to be their best, thereby providing fantastic care to our patients. We are currently focusing on frontline operations and the EOC workforce, but in future we will be looking at other areas such as HART, PTS and other units.
Why do we need it? We need to grow as an organisation in order to provide better patient care - and we have received additional funding to do this.
We’ve been listening to feedback from people across all levels of the service, and in particular, those working as a Leading Operations Manager (LOM). There are key issues with the number of people our LOMs line manage - many responsible for around 25 people each and, in some places over 40. This makes it very hard for any manager to provide high quality support whilst also fulfilling operational roles.
We want to provide additional roles to reduce these very large numbers and provide better support for the health and wellbeing of our people. By investing in this way we can improve the way in which we all work. We will be sharing details of the new roles very shortly.
During engagement sessions with you, you have consistently said you would welcome more clarity around career pathways and development support. As part of Time to Lead, we want to develop clear career pathways for all grades, including opportunities to develop and enhance leadership skills, with the ultimate goal of providing fulfilling opportunities for our people whilst also improving our care for patients.
What happens next? This week, the Executive Team have spent time working through how this can be implemented and planning how they would like to see the strategic delivery of the programme of work.
Any organisational change, even one that is as positive as Time to Lead, can cause uncertainty but we are confident that we can place everyone into a role. As you would expect, we will be consulting with colleagues about the programme in detail and during this process all staff will have the opportunity to have one to one conversations, ask questions and provide feedback which will be considered in delivering the programme.
The next steps will be worked up in greater detail over the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please take some time to talk to your executive director.
Caring for your wellbeing
Looking after your wellbeing is so important, particularly in a busy, pressurised environment such as this. In addition to the support already on offer for all our people, from the end of June the Trust is offering Mental Health Awareness training on Evolve to all managers and Wellbeing Champions. The wellbeing team is also working on the provision of Mental Health First Aid training and recruiting additional wellbeing champions.
We are working on a new model for Chaplaincy to support the organisation, aiming to provide a more diverse and inclusive support service which represents our communities. The service will aim to offer a confidential, trusted listening and support service across the patch. More information will be provided in the coming weeks.
We have purchased six welfare wagons which are currently being made ready for a re-launch of our welfare wagon service. In addition, we have applied for a grant to provide a broader service and hope to hear the outcome in June. The wagons will be used in all areas of the Trust rather than just at hospitals, will have a wider variety of food on offer and will have a timetable for attendance by counsellors, physiotherapists, chaplains and other support. We’ll share more information once we have the funding approved, watch this space.
If you have any ideas or suggestions you would like to share, about any of these projects please email wellbeing@eastamb.nhs.uk.
NHS Pay Award
The NHS Staff Council has now accepted the government’s pay offer, you can find full details here. If you are eligible, you can expect to receive related payments in June’s pay. Although, it is worth noting that some individuals may wish to have the non-consolidated elements paid in instalments (the deadline to apply for this is 5th June). Details of the process to be followed can be found here.
Thank You Thursday
This week’s Thank You comes from a Greatix for Bedford’s Samantha Knibbs.
During several training courses that were running simultaneously across several sites, we experienced significant training CAD failures which impacted on training delivery and had the potential to severely disrupt and delay the delivery of these courses. Samantha, in the absence of her line manager, stepped up to act as the conduit between the trainers (who were also trying to continue the training) and the IT team who were working 'behind the scenes' on the training CAD.
If you work with a colleague who you feel really makes a difference, then why not nominate them for a Greatix?
Thank you for all that you do, stay safe and be kind.
Marika Stephenson
Executive Director of People Services
Published 18th May 2023