Thursday 18th August - Leadership message from Hein Scheffer, Executive Director of Strategy, Culture and Education

Recruiting in preparation for winter

I am really pleased to tell you that as part of our winter preparation the Executive Team is taking action to ensure that we have enough people trained and ready to support our patients and communities over the winter.

Firstly we have invested in an additional 100 new posts and we want to attract registered staff into the following roles

• Pre-hospital practitioners and advanced practitioners to support with ECAT
• Permanent HALO roles

These roles are open to both internal and external applicants. With the advanced practitioner recruitment, an internal advert will be live this week for qualified advanced practitioners to submit an expression of interest. The full job description, person specification and brochure will be available on the advert on Trac. There will also be an external advert published. However, if you are interested in this opportunity, please submit an expression of interest via the internal advert only as this is a shortened application form. If you have any questions please contact recruitment@eastamb.nhs.uk.

Secondly, we are looking increasing the flexibility around our recruitment criteria to attract more candidates by changing the core skill requirements for a number of roles including call handlers and ECAs and we will be providing more information over the coming weeks.

We are also keen to increase the number of people able to drive ambulances by recruiting people with C1 driving licences (who may not have the required qualifications) into ECA roles with the expectation that they gain the qualifications within their first year of employment. Again, if that is something that you are interested in applying for, please contact recruitment@eastamb.nhs.uk.

Welcoming new colleagues to Strategy, Culture and Education

I have recently made a number of permanent appointments to my Directorate of Strategy, Culture and Education. You can read more about our new colleagues here but in summary:

• Lauren Singleton, MCIPD, will join us Deputy Director of Culture and Leadership Development at the end of October to develop our leadership capacity and training.
• Alisdair Smithies also joins us in October as Deputy Director of Education and Professional Development. He will work on our training, education and professional development function.
• Craig Penfold MBA has joined us as Head of Strategic Workforce Planning and is charged with helping us develop the workforce of the future.
• Caroline Nwadu MSc, MCIPD is our Head of Culture and Inclusivity. Many of you already know Caroline, as she is currently EEAST’s Head of HR Policy and Projects. I am delighted that Caroline will be heading our work on creating an equal and diverse culture.
• Tanya Dewsnap-van der Merwe will join us in late November as Head of Talent Management and Succession Planning, to make sure you have opportunities to progress and develop your careers whilst at EEAST.

Civility saves lives

All of us prefer to be spoken to in a way that is polite and respectful. It helps make the working day more pleasant and is an important part of developing a better culture here at EEAST. But did you know that being civil to each other can help save lives too?

Read my Fit for the Future blog on Civility at work to find out more about how the way in which we treat each other at work impacts on how teams perform, and the consequences for patients. I would ask all of us to reflect on how we talk to our colleagues and the impact of our language.

Developing a diverse and inclusive trust

One of the best parts of my role involves working with our EDI networks to ensure that everyone who works or volunteers for EEAST has the same opportunities and can progress their career as they wish.

• There are many faiths represented within EEAST. We would welcome your views on how our Multi Faith Network can better support you, your colleagues and our communities. Join us on 6th September at 9am. Please contact multifaith@eastamb.nhs.uk for the meeting link.
• Sadly, recent staff survey results have shown that some of our BME colleagues have much less favourable experiences of working at the Trust. I would encourage all of our BME colleagues to anonymously complete our survey. Please share your experiences so that we can change things for the better BME colleagues survey.

The launch of our new Interim Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Strategy

The development of this interim strategy was led by our patients and the public. I am delighted that we have gained national recognition for this work after being asked to present our strategy to the Heads of Patient Experience (HOPE) network. It will also be included in a case study for the NHSE&I new statutory guidance on working with people and communities.

You can find out more by watching our launch video for the PPI strategy.

Thank you Thursdays

Every Thursday, we publish feedback from patients and their families about colleagues who have gone above and beyond on social media using the hashtag #ThankYouThursday. This week’s message plays tribute to a crew from Ipswich who supported a patient and his family to have a peaceful end of life:

At times like this, when the service is under huge pressure, it’s even more important that we remember to focus on the great care that we deliver day in and day out across our region.

Thank you for all your hard work and please look after yourselves.

Hein Scheffer
Executive Director of Strategy, Culture and Education

Published 18th August 2022