Friday 8 December 2017

Delivering on our intent

I’d like to start off by saying thank you to everyone who took the time to read or respond to last week’s blog – it has been viewed nearly 1600 times and I have received direct feedback and comments from around 40 members of staff.  

If you haven’t read it, the post basically talks about how we need to strike a better balance between the capacity and demand on services, so we no longer compromise on quality standards.  Too often our services are being stretched too thinly to meet increasing demands.   It obviously struck a chord with many of you and I am very appreciative of you taking the time in your busy working lives to read the blog and comment. We just have to deliver on this intent now!

As I mentioned, we have started to address these issues with commissioners and a key meeting is being held next week between our executive team and the chief officers from our clinical commissioning groups to discuss the approach we would like to take and to put some stakes in the ground. We need to find ways of supporting our managers and clinical leaders to have some of these conversations too, within a framework but knowing we have your back.  Whilst it may involve complex negotiation, I am determined that we will be driven first and foremost by quality standards that ensure our services are safe.  

Because we know this will involve transformational change, we need to find ways of bringing the leadership of the organisation together to have those difficult discussions about how to tackle our financial challenges in such a way that we don’t compromise quality. To support our collective leadership, I will be holding a workshop next week involving our managing directors and senior leads to agree how we will approach this. As you know, the Board has agreed to run a deficit for this year and next and we know we can’t improve the financial position by simply top slicing budgets further and further. But we do need to explore how we can deliver our quality aspirations in an affordable way.  

The Board and the Council of Governors had a workshop this week to go over some of the Trust’s main priorities.  I have talked about these in my blogs before, but this includes:
  • being clearer about our long term strategy; 
  • implementing priorities around quality, people, partnerships, money and infrastructure; 
  • and changing the way the organisation is run to create a positive culture of learning and improvement.
It was a welcome opportunity to work more closely with our Governors as representatives of people who use of our services and it was helpful to listen to their views.  We had a particular focus on progress on delivering our CQC Improvement Plan and in particular, the need to address mixed sex accommodation issues on our mental health wards. I am keen to ensure we continue to have an open, co-production approach with the Governors, involving them in future service redesign.

Finally, because I had such a good response to the last blog, I am really keen to hear from staff about what other topics you think are important.  Whilst my blog is an opportunity for me to tell you what I’m up to, it is a platform for you to ask for comment or feedback on burning issues.  If you have anything you think staff would like to know more about, do drop me an email to let me know. 

Many thanks
Claire  

Claire Molloy
Chief Executive 

E: ceo-penninecare@nhs.net
@ClaireMolloy2

4 comments:

  1. I feel that due to last weeks blog and todays the morale of the staff has been boosted, we feel listened to and trust that appropriate action is being taken.

    Thank You

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  2. We must be driven by high quality, safe and efficient services for the people in our communities and I agree with the majority that there is an inspired feeling as a consequence of your open and honest words.

    Any proposed solutions/organisational changes need to be fully considered and shared with stakeholders with the lessons from previous experiences learned.

    Staff who work incredibly hard to provide the best care possible, operating on an unparalleled level of goodwill, deserve to see the positive outcomes we all hope for.

    Many thanks.

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  3. Mike Livingstone8 December 2017 at 19:15

    Fully endorsed by me as a Board Member. Keen to see all parts of the workforce and patients fully engaged in agreeing how we tackle the challenges ahead whilst being driven by the priorities of improving quality and supporting our staff in the great job they do .. every day.
    Mike Livingstone
    Non-Executive Director

    ReplyDelete
  4. I echo the comments above. I also believe that the size of the organisation and the complex footprint means that we are not necessarily taking good practice from across our own divisions. The costs and structure of our services can vary from Borough to Borough and whilst some of this is driven by varying commissioning models I believe we should be using our expertise as a provider to drive forward the shape of our services to reduce the huge differences in care provision across the postcodes. I feel that the devolved structure we have often leads to a diluted trusted vision.

    ReplyDelete