Boxes upon boxes and the wonders of technology

Sorry for the break in my blogs recently, but I’ve been very busy moving house!

I’ve downsized into a smaller home and it’s currently full of boxes which represent a lifetime of accumulated possessions. My husband and I are working through them trying to decide what to let go of and what to keep - we’ve had to think really hard about what’s important to us.

This reminded me of some of the difficult decisions our Board had to make last month, where we really had to focus on what’s important to us as an organisation.

The first one was about the future of our Health and Wellbeing College; we were so grateful that students and staff came to our board meeting to share their stories, so we could hear first-hand the value of the college and what it means to them.

We recognise the importance of this service which is heavily focused on supporting people’s well being and recovery, but know that we have to balance investment in this service against all our other services that are also under pressure and require more money. And this is in a context where we are currently running a deficit.

However, after very careful consideration, we decided to continue funding the development of the college, while we work with our commissioners to explore priorities for investment, as part of our wider mental health transformation programme.

The other challenging decision our Board faced was around mixed sex accommodation. Like many trusts across the country, we still have some mixed sex accommodation in our inpatient mental health services. We recognise that for patients to have safety, dignity and privacy this needs to change. These changes could impact on how accessible our services are though, with some patients having to travel further if their local inpatient service is single sex instead of mixed.

Again, we were grateful to our staff who attended Board and shared their views about the proposals. Over the next few weeks, we are going to be carefully considering the impact of the changes that were agreed in principle, so we can ensure we find ways of mitigating these as much as possible. The Board will be receiving a final business case in September, and in the meantime, we will be talking to people about the proposed changes so we fully understand the concerns and can develop the best way to implement the proposed changes.

While my husband and I may be making progress sorting through our boxes of possessions, we’ve been less successful with our internet connection in our new house! We’ve also got poor phone signal, and I’ve come to realise just how much I rely on the internet and how important digital access is to my day-to-day life. It’s no different at work; on a clinical visit this week, the team told me how difficult it sometimes is for them to get onto the IT system.

That’s why our new refreshed digital healthcare strategy is so important. We want to become recognised as a national leader in the use of digital technology, to improve the safety and convenience of our services. I know we have a ways to go yet, but we have made massive progress already in the implementation of an electronic patient record across a lot of our services.

I wanted to thank everyone who is working so hard to make this aspiration a reality, whether that’s the technical teams supporting this work, or staff in services shifting to working in different ways. It’s a huge programme of change but I appreciate people’s commitment to making this happen.

We know how essential technology is to the delivery of front line services and we want to make the most of it – whether that’s making everything you need accessible on mobiles, tablets and computers, or standardising systems so care is safe, consistent and effective. We’re planning some events later in the year, so you can tell us what matters to you and what ideas you have to improve our services through technology.

I’d like to apologise to the Irwell unit as I had to cancel my visit a couple of weeks ago, but I will visit the North and South wards soon to meet you and hear about your work.

I did manage to squeeze in a visit to our children and young people mental health units, Hope and Horizon, at Bury this week. I was struck by the great leadership team they have: passionate leaders who are clearly visible and make a real difference to their staff. It’s no surprise Lindsay Baucutt, their operational manager, has been shortlisted for the Inspirational Leader award, and the team has been shortlisted for the Team of the Year award in this year’s Pennine Care People awards.

Despite having such amazing staff, their work is not without its challenges. It’s clearly a great place to work but they still struggle with the same issues as many of our services, such as staffing and recruitment. We’ll be working together to try and find a solution.

So that’s another hectic week over. Have a good weekend everyone - I am off to fix a leaking shower and do a bit more unpacking before a bit of R&R next week on holiday!!

Best wishes,
Claire

Seek forgiveness,not permission

When I’m out and about visiting teams, I’m always struck by the fact you feel that you don’t have permission to take your bright ideas forward.

It puzzles me, as I’m not sure why people feel they need permission to make improvements they think will make things better. At the end of the day, you know your services better than I do.

And I always think its better to ‘seek forgiveness, not permission’ and to trust in people to do the right thing. The role of the Board, clinical and professional leaders and managers then becomes one of encouraging this approach and providing air cover to those brave enough to try new things.

Of course we can’t be reckless or irresponsible. We do need to respect that many protocols and processes are there to keep people safe.

But its about knowing when to push the boundaries or not wait for approval to do the things you need to do in order to make things better. We trust you with people’s lives, so we should trust your judgment when it comes to making changes.

This is exactly what two of our new values are about; ingenuity and determination. And this is how we build an innovative culture.

So, the next time you're on the fence, wondering whether to take a small, considered risk that could propel things forward – just do it.

And, if it doesn’t work out, then I’m sure we’ll all agree that an ‘oops’ is better than a ‘what if’ and we should use our Just Culture approach to learn from this.

Because small mistakes can be corrected and creating a culture of ‘seek forgiveness, not permission’ can empower a workforce. What’s the point in having lots of fab ideas if we aren’t able to put them into action?

Ingenuity is a solution to so many problems and its often not about money. The ability to balance creativity with canny use of resources is at the heart of so many of your ideas.

You are an ingenuous group of impressive people, but we’ve not yet managed to create the right environment to nurture this consistently. Many of you feel ‘the organisation’ won’t have your back and that you will be questioned and criticised.

We want to be a continuously improving organisation, where we value ideas and that’s why we’re putting a lot of effort into supporting and developing an all encompassing improvement approach.

At our board development session this week it was brilliant hearing how we’ve recruited 15 people with lived experiences of mental health to work with us on different improvement projects.

We’re also developing a clinically-led improvement team, and teams will be able to bid for money to take forward ideas that need a small amount of funding. A ‘dragon’s den’ style approach, but much less stressful and dramatic than the TV show!

A new improvement academy will offer different levels of training in improvement methodologies, and our #MakeOneChange initiative will encourage everyone to think about the small things we can very quickly do to keep making things better. Small changes eventually add up to huge results.

The plan is to weave improvement across absolutely everything, from the tweaks to the major transformational pieces already in place such as the integrated mental health programme and informatics.

We’ll be launching our long-term improvement campaign in the autumn to bring this to life and inspire, celebrate and share your stories and successes.

Let’s not forget also, that our fairly recently introduced Just Culture approach goes hand in hand with improvement. Our values of ingenuity and determination will feed an improvement culture, and our kindness and fairness values underpin a Just Culture where we steer away from blame.

Our patient safety lead Matt Walsh spoke recently at a national conference (well done Matt) and said, ‘If we want Just Culture to mean something more than simply political glitter, we have to put the effort into polishing our approach until it truly shines’.

If everyone feels the outcome, then it’ll have lustre – meaning a deeper and more lasting legacy than simply shining for a short time.

So true, and exactly the same goes for an environment that enables ideas to happen.

We’ve got a way to go, as these things take time and effort. But every time I visit teams I’m inspired by the abundance of amazing qualities you have and the incredible results we can achieve by supporting you to maximise this huge potential.

I visited Orchard House day hospital in Oldham last week and spent time talking to the service manager Liz, and occupational therapists, Donna and Marie. I was bowled over by their passion and commitment and what they’re doing to champion their profession; because they see the huge value and contribution of what they do for our patients and organisation. We had such a good chat, particularly in light of our new emerging strategy, about the significant role the profession can play.

It was also heart-warming to hear about the Pretty Muddy 5k efforts and determination of our Taylor ward team this weekend. The Tameside ward was named after their colleague Martin Taylor who sadly died from cancer in 2010 and the pink T-shirt group braved the mud to raise £1400 for cancer research.

You are awesome and we want to help you do awesome things. So, I would encourage us all to stay constantly curious and if you have a small change you want to make, crack on and do it.

Hasta luego and a cup of awesomeness

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks. There’s been change and loss and it’s come in very different ways

We’ve said goodbye to many of our colleagues as they’ve left to join the Northern Care Alliance. I know this transfer is a positive opportunity and the best thing to do for patients, but it’s impossible not to feel sad at saying farewell.

I like to think it’s more ‘Hasta luego’ than ‘Adios’, which the Spanish say when they are likely to see someone again or cross paths in some way. It’s still hard not to feel a bit wobbly when you hear about some of the wonderful send-offs people have given in our boroughs and within teams.

There have been cards, cakes, pizzas, balloons, gifts and songs.  We’ve also had ‘cups of awesomeness’ presented as gifts and rapping farewells with guitars.

And then two days ago we said a heart-breaking goodbye to Phil Cheetham, a truly special and wonderful man.

The large church was absolutely packed for his funeral, a measure of how loved and popular Phil was. He brought the best out of people and the sheer number of his work colleagues attending the church service reflected the huge contribution he made to Pennine Care in the 15 years he worked here.  He has had an immense impact on everyone who was lucky enough to know him.

As we said in our eulogy; if Carlsberg did work colleagues, then Phil would probably be the best colleague in the world. One of the musical pieces played during the service was Handel’s ‘See, the conqu’ring hero come’. What a fitting piece of music for Phil. He conquered with kindness, humility and humour. He had huge integrity and inspired us all with his positivity and calm determination. He was very much a hero, albeit a quiet one. It was an honour to work with him and we will miss him greatly.

I know the incredibly ambitious timescales for this first transfer of staff, and the sudden death of a colleague, has left many reeling as well as feeling depleted. Some teams have not only had to put in a huge amount of effort to manage the transfer, but have been directly affected by it.

You have been so professional in managing your anxieties and feelings, whilst cracking on with work. I am so appreciative of your commitment in doing so.

We’re still on a journey, as we’ve got more transfers taking place later this year, but taking some time to recoup and reset is important. So, put yourself at the top of your next to-do list. Whether it’s doing something fun with family or friends, watching an entire season of television in one weekend or exercise. Whatever soothes the soul.

As we launched our new values yesterday, I can’t help but reflect on just how meaningful they are right now. There’s a quote from Bernie Sanders, the American politician which says, ‘Difficult times often bring out the best in people’.  And I’ve definitely seen so many examples during the last tough few weeks of our values being lived in all their glory.

I’ve seen kindness in people supporting others who have felt overwhelmed with work, worried about change or facing looming deadlines. I’ve also seen kindness between colleagues united in grief at the loss of Phil.

There’s also been fairness demonstrated throughout the transfer process, with people trying to be as inclusive and open as possible, as well as even-handed with decisions. And with that, reassuring others there is no hidden agenda or secret plan.

I’ve heard about great ingenuity in how teams have juggled capacity issues with workloads and gaps. There’s also been wonderful ingenuity in creative send-offs for colleagues, which couldn’t fail to make someone feel special.

And, your determination in the continuous provision of high-quality services amidst all the change has been tremendous. I stand in awe.

You are already living and breathing these values. They’re not a collection of four good words we think people will like; they represent the essence of our organisation.

They’ve come from you because they reflect who you are, what you stand for and how you act. So I know they will continue to serve as a guiding light in everything we do.

Best wishes,
Claire

The heart and heroes of our health and care system

I talked about unseen and unsung staff in my last blog and the positivity, power and presence these colleagues can bring with their modest, quiet kindness.

So, the unseen and unsung were fresh in my mind when other board members and I teamed up with different volunteers across our services for national Volunteers Week. If ever there’s a group that deserves our utmost admiration and respect, it’s these dedicated helpers who give their time so generously.

The invaluable and diverse contribution of our 151 volunteers is amazing and they are a hugely important part of our organisation. l was therefore really disappointed to miss our volunteers’ celebration event last Monday, although Evelyn, our chair and other exec directors were there to personally thank many volunteers, and I've had great feedback about how inspiring they found it.

There are so many different forms of volunteering, but it was certainly an eye-opener for me when I spent time with Pauline, a big-hearted volunteer on our Taylor Ward at Tameside Hospital. Pauline was a patient on the ward for some time, although she’s not used our services for the last four years, and I was blown away by her story of recovery and how much hope she is providing to others.

I joined in Pauline's bucket-list session with patients where they were encouraged to talk about their hopes, ambitions and dreams for the future. When a lad called Josh shared his interest in working in IT, it felt good to be able to offer some advice about potentially volunteering in our corporate services. I tried to do my own bucket list as part of the activity, but was distracted talking to people about theirs! I had such a good afternoon talking to Bernie the ward manager, spending time with Pauline, and listening to the stories and aspirations of people on the ward.

Claire and Pauline, our amazing
Taylor Ward volunteer

The mutual benefits that volunteering can bring struck me. Not only does the organisation benefit hugely as the activities that our volunteers are running make them an indispensable part of many teams; it was clear that volunteering for Pauline and for many others is part of their therapeutic journey, and a potential way back into paid employment if that is what is desired.

I also visited the Health and Wellbeing College this week with Jackie Stewart, managing director for mental health, and we heard lots of powerful stories about the value and impact the college has had in people’s lives. I am very appreciative of the students, peer trainers and staff for their passion and commitment, and for giving up their time to share their views and concerns in such an open and brave way. I know that there is a lot of anxiety about the long term future of the college, but we are all committed to exploring how we can enhance and develop its contribution in different ways, given its very positive contribution to recovery.

Still on the theme of unseen and unsung, we then had Carers Week which runs until 16 June to recognise the immense contribution they make to families and communities. I met with the Stockport carers group on Wednesday evening and  heard about the tremendous impact being a Carer has on their lives. Apparently one in 10 people in the UK is a carer in some capacity and I’m in that group having reduced my hours at work to support my daughter who is suffering from post natal depression. But for many carers it’s a full time job and it wasn’t easy listening hearing from the Stockport carers about the difficulties their loved ones sometimes have being able to get the right care and support.

As a parent, I know I would do anything for my children and, despite the fact that they are now adults, this hasn’t changed. It is hard watching someone you love in pain and not being able to ‘solve’ it, and I came away with a real appreciation of the distress and stress this is placing on the carers, but also of their commitment and passion for working with us and other partners to improve things. 

Getting out of the office to understand more about other people’s roles can be so rewarding and humbling, but also educational, and our board certainly learnt a lot when we did a condensed version of the prevention management of violence and aggression (PMVA) training this Tuesday. We played the roles of both staff member and patient and I can only imagine how scary and distressing it must feel for both in a real situation where physical restraint is being considered.

My heart was beating ten to the dozen and I was in a safe, controlled environment! We undertook this training as we wanted to understand more about restraint, given we regularly receive reports about this difficult area and it is in the national spotlight. The insight gained in the training will genuinely help our board.

We are very lucky to have such a brilliant PMVA team to provide this training. We hear many positive comments from staff about their professionalism and skill, and certainly saw this in action. We are very grateful and appreciative of their immense experience and commitment.

On the subject of outstanding teams and individuals, please don’t forget to nominate for the Pennine Care People awards. We want to recognise and celebrate our stars and, as I said in my email to launch the awards, this very much includes our community staff.

There’s only a fortnight until many community service colleagues transfer to the Northern Care Alliance on 1 July. We’ve got a number of things happening to say thank-you, but being able to acknowledge and applaud your special successes as part of our annual awards would be a fitting tribute.

So, finally here’s to all the volunteers, carers and staff who are the heart and heroes of the health and care system. We see you, we thank you and we applaud you.

Best wishes,
Claire

Unseen, unsung

Last week I watched the last ever episode of Game of Thrones. Apologies to those of you who have never watched a single episode (this blog may not make a lot of sense!) and to those of you who do, I will try not to do any spoiler alerts.

I got into this television juggernaut only about six months ago, and after an intense binge of two to three episodes a night, I caught up with the many millions in loving this epic drama.

Whilst there has been a lot of noise on social media about whether the finale lived up to expectations, there was one scene that struck a bit of a chord with me.

Tyrion Lannister, as the newly appointed King’s 'hand' has gathered his Council around him to assess the devastation of the wars. He is handed the A Song of Ice and Fire book which the clerics have written to tell the story of everything that has happened.

Tyrion asks with trepidation how badly he is depicted in the book, only to be told he doesn't feature at all! As viewers of the show will know, Tyrion has been absolutely pivotal in every series, one of the characters with the greatest integrity, and in some sense, one of the most influential people in the story. So it's surprising that he isn't mentioned.

Rather unfairly, the kings and queens, knights and nobles are the people talked about and portrayed with immense power, but so often it is the unseen and unsung heroes - not recognised in the stories - that make the biggest difference.

And that’s true in our everyday lives. There are lots of people doing great things who remain quietly in the shadows. We need to find ways of acknowledging the impact and importance of these unsung heroes, and find ways to show our appreciation.

Because it is these quiet heroes, which we have all across our organisation, that keep moving us forward. They’re not high profile, but each and every day they work hard, shape things and make a difference. They aren’t seeking the limelight, as all they try to do is the right thing.

We're very modest as an organisation, but I would love to applaud and celebrate these quiet heroes more.

So, it's great to see a recent wave of teams and individuals getting more public recognition for their work, such as our estates team who won a prestigious national award last week and Chris Reynolds in our Informatics service who has just been listed in the 'top 100' chief information officers in the UK.

We’re also hearing about many other local heroes, via visits to clinical teams and uplifting social media stories. Judith Crosby, our service development director recently tweeted about her great visit to the Tatton unit in Tameside, where she gained greater insight into the rehabilitation journey that patients are on. Judith described a “lovely calm feel and positive atmosphere” and name-checked Michelle Davies for rightly being so proud of her team.

Nicky Littler, our workforce director, also tweeted about her visit to Prospect Place in Rochdale. She thanked Gemma Mlambo, our rehab services manager and Pip for “sharing his poem” - let’s keep ‘sharing the love’ via social media.

And while we’re on social media, I’m also going to name-check and thank some staff members for bravely sharing their personal stories during Mental Health Awareness Week which ran this year under the theme of ‘body image’-: Katie Benson, Sam Hartley, Shusha Smith, Sam Mooney and Ciaran Wilkinson. You impacted and inspired so many people.

Well done also to social media queen Inez Ingham, whose powerful photo post on our HMR children’s respiratory specialists Facebook page encouraging people to use their inhaler has gone viral reaching 4.5 million people.

There are so many others that I could name, but that would make this blog ridiculously long, so let’s all keep giving our quiet stars the attention and appreciation they deserve.

We want to do more to recognise and thank people through sharing your stories, recognising your achievements and celebrating your successes. We’ll be launching our staff awards in June, with new categories.  Please look out for these and put people forward. The awards are open to both individuals and teams and you can nominate yourselves and others.

I know that many of our community service colleagues will be leaving us shortly, but we really want your nominations. These awards are an important opportunity for us to acknowledge and celebrate your tremendous successes and contribution.

Best wishes,
Claire

The value of bullet-proof hair and hairspray

Many of us did hilarious and cringe-worthy things with our hair in the 80s.

And I'm no exception.

Yes, this is me, with the bullet-proof hair in this photo. When I fished it out to use in my introduction to the vision and values workshop this week, my daughter joked that it demonstrated I valued hairspray above everything!

I used this photo to kick off the workshop as a way of sharing what has shaped some of my personal values.

Some of you will know, I dropped out of university after finding out I was pregnant which was a total shock as my husband was recovering from cancer and had been told he couldn't have children.  So, when I look at this family picture, it reflects the strong values of hopefulness and optimism I hold; that life can bring you wonderful things even when you least expect them.

It also reflects my value of determination (or as my husband occasionally refers to it - stubbornness!), because I did manage to return to university as a mature student and completed my degree. It was tough, but if you work hard enough for something you want, it is possible, even if it takes a bit longer than you thought.  And given that I am still married to my hubby, I could throw in loyalty as another value close to my heart.

There's also resourcefulness, as it’s clear from the photo I cut my children's fringes to save money (which they have never forgiven me for). And finally, surely sharing this photo of our amazingly bad hair cuts demonstrates openness and bravery!

You'll each have your own values shaped by your experiences and lives. But we spend a lot of time in work, so it's important we have values for our organisation; and that those values resonate with all of us. Our values should inspire and guide us.  Values determine our behaviour, which determines our culture, which determines our outcomes. It's why they are so important to get right.

So, that was what this first workshop focused on, as we wanted to test the work we've done to develop new values, as well as look at the behaviours that we'd like to see in order to bring these to life.

We're giving some thought as to what to do with our existing CARES values. Its recognised that these work well as guiding principles for clinical teams. But we want our new values to be more distinctive and really able to guide all of our interactions; not only with the people we serve, but with each other and with our other partners.

We'll be sharing our new values of course, once we have assimilated everything from the workshop this week and another that is taking place next week. We're also doing some testing of the values with service users and carers, as it’s critical they have an opportunity to shape them as well.

There was great energy, ideas and input in the first workshop this week. We had people attending whose experience, in terms of NHS service, ranged from 40 years to four months, which was great as a richness of different views is so valuable.

It's mental health awareness week and so it was appropriate that we also spent some time at the workshop talking about our future strategy, as we shift our focus more to mental health and learning disabilities in the future.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to come and for sharing your views. I look forward to another engaging session next week.

For those of you who haven’t been able to come, don’t worry; we will find a way of sharing the work, and I will give an update on the development of our strategy in a future blog.

Best wishes,
Claire

Looking out for each other and SAS Who Dares Wins

One of my most recent service visits has been truly profound, and not in a way any of us could have imagined.

A couple of weeks ago, I spent time visiting several mental health services in Oldham, which included our Cedars Assessment Ward for dementia patients at Oldham Hospital.

As I witnessed the skill, commitment and compassion on Cedars Ward and in all the mental health services in Oldham, I thought about how incredibly close a team must become working side-by-side day after day; sharing care, ideas and experiences.

I was so impressed and impacted by the team spirit and camaraderie I saw in the services there, and so just a few days later, I was heart-broken to hear that Saima Riaz, a nurse on Cedars ward for 10 years, tragically died over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

We were all so shocked and upset with the news, and devastated for Saima's family, friends and colleagues. Our hearts and thoughts are with everyone that has been impacted by this and I hope you are getting all the support you need.

The Cedars Ward staff have described Saima as "a great nurse who was full of life, knew how to make people laugh and lifted people's spirits". They are putting a book of memories, tributes and photos together for her family, and if you would like to contribute the details will be on our intranet and in Connected, our weekly email update.

It puts everything into perspective, but I do want to touch on some other things in this blog.

We're approaching a significant couple of months as we prepare for the transfer of our community staff in Bury, Oldham and Rochdale to the Northern Care Alliance on 1 July. This will be the single biggest TUPE, with staff in Trafford, dental, child health information and Rochdale children community services then transferring to providers at later dates.

Alongside this, we're finalising work on our new values and progressing our strategic plan, with more workshops and events this month to ensure everyone can contribute. Please keep coming to these events and feeding in your views; we can’t do this without you.

The timescales for everything are tight, the milestones are momentous, the challenges are complex and the details are complicated. So, basically no mean feat and I know there’s an immense amount of work going on and pockets of real pressure. I am so grateful for everyone’s hard work and keeping going despite the uncertainty and sheer volume of work. 

Again, I hope you are all getting the information and support you need, looking out for each other and looking after yourselves.

I said in a previous blog that I was planning to drop in and see our corporate teams, just to see how you are doing. I know we all work in the same building, but I'm very aware we rarely get to see each other (maybe we need to knock down some walls!?). I have arranged to drop in on a couple of corporate team meetings and although I haven’t yet managed to do a walk around, I am still intending to do this as soon as possible.

I just want to end this blog with name-checking some important campaigns and awareness weeks…

A powerful and poignant Shining a Light on Suicide campaign has launched this week in Greater Manchester, which we have been involved in. It aims to take the subject out of the dark by getting people to talk openly about suicide. It’s the biggest killer of men under 49 in our region.

I don’t know whether any of you have been watching Celebrity SAS (where a bunch of TV personalities and former athletes are being put through the brutal entry assessment for the SAS as part of the Stand-up to Cancer charity), but I’ve been fascinated watching this from the comfort of my settee. It’s clear just what physical and mental stress this sort of assessment puts people under, but also the long-standing emotional issues that surface within people’s lives.

In a recent episode, former footballer Wayne Bridge broke down talking about the things that had impacted on his confidence and how hard finding purpose has been for him after his footballing career ended. What struck me the most, was the heart-warming scene with a couple of his fellow male competitors hugging and comforting him as he cried; and just how compassionate and supportive they were in their response.

I have a son who has experienced challenges with his mental health and so know just how hard it can be for men to open up and share their feelings. So, I am so pleased to see that we’re running two mental health awareness sessions especially for male staff on 16 May at Horton House in Oldham, as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.

We’ve also got Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Week coming up and International Nurse’s Day on 12 May. Look out for information about all of these and help us raise awareness and celebrate via social media. I will no doubt say more about both of these in a future blog.

Finally, I hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend (despite a lot less sunshine predicted for this one). Thank you to those who are looking after patients over this time, and I hope you also get some time to relax.

Best wishes,
Claire