Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 04 May 2024 at 08:51
Over the past couple of days, we have once again welcomed the CQC back into the Trust, to inspect us on the ‘well-led’ domain.
This has involved looking at leadership at all levels within the organisation, and interviewing members of the leadership team and other senior leaders. We expect to receive some feedback from the inspectors over the next day or two and hope to be able to share an initial summary of their findings with you before the end of next week.
These recent visits give us the opportunity to share the progress we are making to improve the Trust as well as the long road we have ahead of us to tackle all of the issues and challenges we face so we can sustainably improve the care we provide to our communities.
To find out more about the progress we’ve made, and our plans for the future, you can also listen to our Fit for the Future Podcast. I had the pleasure of recording the latest episode, which focuses on the importance of looking after our people and building a strong, resilient workforce for the years ahead.
Our People Strategy
Learning from each other is so valuable, and a big part of the organisational transformation to date has been around listening to the issues that matter to you and building our improvements around this. During May and June, we will be running a number of focus groups, via Teams, to discuss themes from our People Strategy such as health and wellbeing, digitalisation, developing our people and innovation. Each group discussion will last for an hour and will comprise 6 to 8 people from across the Trust.
Please do consider taking part, as the more people who get involved, the more meaningful the session in terms of what we learn. You can find out further details here.
Your questions answered
The recent Q and A sessions raised some questions about the forthcoming Long Service Awards taking place in June and when we will be presenting Jubilee medals and coins.
Long Service Awards
A formal announcement with details of the arrangements for the Long Service Awards will be shared next week. In the meantime, I can tell you that we are hosting two award ceremonies. The first, on Tuesday 28th June in Newmarket, Suffolk, and the second, on Thursday 30th June, in Wyboston, Bedfordshire.
Awards will be presented for the following categories: the Queen’s Medal for 20 years frontline service, 20 years for non-frontline roles, 25 years, 35 years and 40 years as well as long service volunteer awards. Each recipient will be sent an invitation, explaining which ceremony they are being invited to. These will be sent out from next week (week beginning 9 May).
Jubilee Medals
To commemorate the Platinum Jubilee, the government have decided to thank NHS staff for their work during the pandemic and will be giving those with more than five years frontline service a Jubilee medal. At EEAST, we think it’s important to say thank you to everyone and will be giving all those staff who do not receive a Jubilee Medal, a Jubilee thank you coin. Both the medals and the coins will be presented during the middle two weeks of June and will be given to you by your line manager.
You can read more about the coins and medals here.
Local Q&As
Our local Q&A sessions have been running for just over two months now and so far, you should all have been invited to at least one session for your sector. Although the Trust wide Q&As run fortnightly, the local Q&As are monthly, and each session will be held at some point in the two alternate weeks. Please do keep sending us your questions through these sessions. They’re useful for us to find out about what’s happening in each area, and we’re also trying to ensure that we do provide feedback, whether it’s on the day, through this message or on Need to Know. We can’t always answer everything at once, but we do keep a record of the questions that are asked and try to follow up as many as possible.
Chelsea garden for Chelmsford
Chelmsford Ambulance Station now boasts a garden designed and featured at last year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which was gifted to the Chelmsford team as a space for them to enjoy and unwind in. A formal opening of the garden is currently being planned for August.
Chelmsford is the latest in a series of wellbeing gardens which have been created across the Trust, thanks to the support of our Charity and volunteers giving up their time to help install the gardens. Further sites across the Trust have been identified as potential sites for future wellbeing garden projects, so watch this space.
Thank you and take care,
Marika Stephenson
Executive Director of People Services
Published 5th May 2022