Nicola Scrivings standing down as EEAST Chair

Our Chair, Nicola Scrivings, has decided to step down from the role in the new financial year. Nicola has made an incredible contribution to our improvement as an organisation. We would like to thank her for her dedication, and commitment to making our organisation a better place to work for our people and her passion to improve care for the communities we serve across the east of England.

Nicola has asked that we share her farewell message below with you all.

When I joined EEAST it was into the eye of a storm. There were numerous challenges including our culture and how consistent we were in caring for colleagues and patients. We then responded to the pandemic and its impact on staff welfare, patients and communities. I was very excited, though, to join a passionate team who wanted to make EEAST a great place to work and provide professional compassionate care.

Whilst there is more to do to achieve our vision, I am really proud of how far we have come in the last three years. Our cultural issues are now visible and being addressed with collective understanding and ownership, leading with our values and integrity. We have a more comprehensive wellbeing offer for our people and I am proud of our staff-led equality and diversity groups who are focussed on making sure that everyone has equal access to fulfilling their potential.

We have also worked hard on partner relationships and our Clinical Strategy will support better clinical careers and greater patient pathways.

At all times, I have been in awe of the passion and commitment of my colleagues to provide the very best patient care and I have learnt so much from working alongside you all.

Our progress has been acknowledged by the CQC and NHSE, and the first phase of our plan is drawing to a close. We now have a stable Board with professional, committed members, with a range of combined talents to lead the Trust to the next level.

I feel it is the right time for a new Chair to build upon these foundations and lead the second phase of our Board Improvement plan. In the meantime, our Board is very focussed on working with our partners to address current  performance issues.

Finding the right successor will take a little time, and our plan is for a staged transition to a new Chair, aiming for appointment in May 2023. Until that time I will continue to lead the Board with pride and support you all in your work.

It has been a great privilege and experience to travel alongside you in these tumultuous times.

 

Best wishes

Nicola

Published 22nd December 2022