Building on the CQC feedback to make EEAST Fit for the Future

Last month I shared with you the CQC results. I was pleased to be able to tell you that the CQC has recognised that we have made marked improvements on issues that we needed to address from previous inspections in improving our culture and making sure that the Trust is a place where bullying, harassment and discrimination are not tolerated and where people can speak up with our fear.

However, as I have  said previously, this is only the first step in our work to improve our culture and our service. The overarching improvement programme for the Trust is Fit for the Future. This programme has continued to develop over the last year. One of the reasons that there were few surprises in the CQC report is that we have been working hard to identify the key changes needed to make EEAST the best it can be for its patients, communities and people .

The projects that will drive the improvements sit under five workstreams (each led by an executive director) as below with the aim of:

  • Fix - first fixing the things that making it hard for people to do their jobs well
  • Embed - making sure that ‘fix’ is embedded into business as usual
  • Transform – transforming EEAST as a place to give and receive care

Download the Fit for the Future steering group chart

We will only make the improvements needed by all working together. Fit for the Future is a really important way of doing this.

Through staff surveys, Q&A sessions with staff, workshops and focus groups, we have an idea of the changes that you want to see.

So some of the issues that Fit for the Future is addressing include:

Logo Workstream Key issues
Culture
Hein Scheffer
Getting home on time
Access to training
Managing secondments
People
Marika Stephenson  
 Recruiting and retaining enough staff
Internal progression 
Developing our leaders (Time to Lead)
Partnerships
Kate Vaughton
 Handover delays
 Consistent approach to HALOs
 Commercial strategy
   Impact
Emma De Carteret
 Clearer data that helps us measure our progress
 Quality improvements
 Training all our managers to use data well
Delivery
Melissa Dowdeswell
 

Implementing the CQC Must Dos and Should Dos

 

Each of the Fit for the Future workstreams has included workshops and consultation with our people. But we would like to do more. If you have ideas for improving the way that we do things at EEAST you can put forward your ideas by emailing:

  • The exec director who leads the workstream
  • Talking to your manager, GM or Head of Ops
  • Asking questions at Trustwide and local briefings

You can access our Fit for the Future blogs and podcasts on NeedtoKnow.

We will only improve our service and our culture by continuing to work together as one team. This will be the work of months and years, but a job I believe is achievable.

Thank you for everything you continue to do for our patients, for our communities and for our service.

Tom

Published 22nd September 2022