Thursday 29th September – Leadership message from Emma de Carteret, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs and Performance

Emma De Carteret

CFR Expenses
The difference our volunteers make across the region is significant, providing care and reassurance to our patients and valuable support for our frontline teams. I’m really pleased that we have taken the decision to reimburse any reasonable out of pocket expenses accrued by our CFRs from the beginning of November, which will align the process across all our volunteering roles.

The expenses will largely be for mileage accrued when travelling to attend a patient, but we will also remove the fee that our CFRs currently pay for their induction course and will cover travel expenses for those who teach on the L3 induction course. Alongside this change, the benefits and support which are currently available through the charity and local fundraising will continue.

We are still working on the final stages of the policy and will share that with you, along with details of how to make your claims as soon as they are agreed.

Take the time to speak up
Having the ability to speak up is so important, and it’s something every one of us should be able to do in their workplace. The National Guardian’s Office is currently carrying out a review of the speaking up culture across Ambulance Trusts in England and they would like you to share your views. The findings will be used to identify learning and make recommendations for improvement, and no responses will be shared outside of the National Guardian’s Office. Please do consider taking the time to respond, but there isn’t long left to do so as the deadline is Friday 30th September. You can find details for responding here.   

New EEAST film launched
There’s a new addition to our EEAST homepage this week. We’ve just launched a new film, which features four of our colleagues talking about their experiences within EEAST and the importance of ensuring that, as an organisation, we are wholly representative of the community we serve. Thank you to those who took part in sharing your experiences, and if you haven’t seen the film yet you can watch it here.

Staying Fit for the Future
Last month we received our CQC results which highlighted key areas for improvement. Our Fit for the Future programme is guiding these improvements at both an overarching strategic level as well as for teams on the ground. You can find out more about the key workstreams and the improvements they are delivering in our recent blog.   

We often talk about the culture of our organisation, but what do we mean by that? As part of our Fit for the Future programme, this month we are looking at the culture workstream and the importance of understanding that we all have a role to play in shaping the culture we would like to see at work. Our culture is created by the way we speak, the language we use and the way we interact with each other.  

Our Director of Strategy, Culture and Education, Hein Scheffer, has recorded a podcast explaining how we can track and measure improvements in our culture, to ensure we’re heading in the right direction. We’re also sharing a visual dashboard with you, which shows our progress, based on your feedback from the last Pulse survey. Your responses to these surveys are key to measuring our progress, so please continue to take part when you are invited to do so.

National Staff Survey
On that note, this year’s annual National Staff Survey opens next week, and I would urge everyone to take a couple of minutes to respond. The invite will be emailed directly to you and, as an added bonus, this year we’re giving a £5 Costa Coffee voucher to each colleague who takes part so please do get involved.  

Reminder about mandatory training
A quick reminder for all our managers that you must complete your mandatory passport training as soon as possible please. 

Additionally, every member of EEAST staff must complete our Values and Behaviours EHRC training. This is an important part of the improvements we are required to make as a Trust, so if you have not yet done so then please prioritise this in the coming days.

Flu and Covid vaccines
Our annual flu vaccination programme begins in the next couple of weeks, and it’s crucial that we all take up the offer of a vaccine, to protect ourselves and our patients this winter.

Everyone will be offered a Flu vaccine via a local Flu clinic and this year, we have even more clinics available as well as a flu vaccine bus which will be travelling around the area. We are hoping to share clinic details with you in the coming days so please keep an eye on Need to Know.

COVID-19 boosters are also available for frontline staff and can be booked via the NHS National Booking Service.

Thank you Thursdays
This week we’re sharing a thank you message from a patient in Norfolk.




Emma de Carteret
Executive Director of Corporate Affairs and Performance

Published 29th September 2022