Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 21:25
Celebrating the Emergency Services
In recent years, more than ever before, the work of all the emergency services has been in the spotlight. Whether it was working through a worldwide pandemic, managing extraordinary demand and pressures across the system, or the contribution that you make in the local community, there is a much greater understanding of the work that you do and the impact and toll it can have.
This Saturday (9th September) is Emergency Services Day and across the country we will be celebrating you, your dedication and resilience and expressing our thanks that when any of us needs emergency support, you are there. Here at EEAST, we’ll also be sharing stories from colleagues who also volunteer their time with another emergency service, and there are many of you out there. If you’d like us to share your story, then please get in touch.
Heading in the right direction
The results of our most recent Pulse survey are now published in an easy to read infographic, which gives you an overview of how the results compare not just with our previous quarterly results, but also the year to date figures.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond, the snapshot it provides us with is extremely useful in pinpointing where we should be focusing our direction and efforts as a leadership team, and in a large organisation like ours, it really is the only way to gather feedback from colleagues across the region in a consistent way.
I won’t go through all the results here, except for a couple of points which were that on the whole they show an upward trend, more of you would recommend EEAST as a place to work, feel your workloads are more manageable and are enthusiastic about your role.
There was, however, a decline in the satisfaction colleagues had with management, and that is something we are working to address. Programmes such as Time to Lead will give us the opportunity to better support and develop our managers, giving them the skills and time to provide really great leadership, which is often difficult particularly on the front line. Change takes time, but we are heading in the right direction and your continued feedback will allow us to ensure we stay on track.
Asking for your views
Whilst we’re on the subject of surveys, the 2023 Workplace Behaviour Survey will open next week. We have already implemented a number of positive changes as part of the feedback from previous surveys and this latest one is necessary, in order for us to assess the impact of these changes. It will also help us pinpoint where to take action and implement new improvements following your feedback on colleague behaviour.
It will be open to all staff and volunteers, completely anonymous and will be open for three weeks, closing on 29th September. Look out for details on how to complete the survey next week.
For leaders across EEAST
The Emerging System Leaders Programme (ESLP) is a new and inclusive system leadership development programme that offers an exciting opportunity to ambitious mid-level leaders to broaden and develop their leadership skills and knowledge. Developed by Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE) system, the programme is for mid-level professionals from health, care and the wider public sector in that footprint. Available to all leaders across EEAST, this will be a virtual training apart from two days that can be arranged to accommodate any needs. The programme aims to ensure we develop inclusive and diverse senior leadership for our system.
ESLP aims to help people progress more senior leadership roles within 1-2 years and an Executive Director role within 3-6 years. It is a standalone career development programme, but participation may provide a pathway to the highly acclaimed HWE Accelerated Director Development Programme (ADDS).
Expressions of interest will be needed by 9th October. Please contact the Learning and Development team for more details.
Winter preparations
Given the current heatwave we’re experiencing, it seems slightly ironic to be talking about winter preparations, but there’s no better time to ensure that we have plans in place for coping with the inevitable pressures to come.
Last week, all of you will have received an email from our business continuity team, asking you to complete a short questionnaire to identify the skills and capabilities we have across the organisation, which could be called upon to support critical business functions during winter, or other major business continuity events.
If you haven’t already, please do complete the questionnaire, which takes less than ten minutes and covers areas such as driving qualifications, current training, qualifications and your ability to work from home. Having an accurate picture of the wider resources we have available will all help us to be as resilient as possible, if and when, we need to call on additional support.
Sharing our work
Yesterday, we held our Annual General Meeting which was open to everyone, and covers our progress to date and plans for the year ahead. If you joined us, then thank you. If you’re interested in finding out more about how we’re progressing as an organisation then you can find a recording of the AGM as well as all our monthly Board reports on the website.
Meeting Basic Needs
The quality improvement and professional standards team are hosting their next basic needs event today for anyone dealing with unresolved issues to do with the recruitment process.
Today, the team are basing themselves at Kempston ambulance station, but you can also contact them virtually, via this Teams link from 10am. The team will seek to find a resolution to your issues concerning recruitment. If they cannot resolve the issue during the session, the team will then provide a proposed resolution date.
For more information and a full list of future sessions, see Meeting Basic Needs Programme on Need to Know.
Thank You Thursday
This week’s thanks goes to Stevenage PTS.
‘I would like to pass on my thanks to the staff on my journey. Thank you to you all. You are all stars! Thank you for flagging my breathing problems to the hospital.’
Thanks for all that you do.
Kevin Smith
Director of Finance
Published 7 September 2023