Posted on: 12 February 2021
Hello, my name is Suzanne Dunkley and I am Executive Director of Workforce and Organisational Development at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT).
I joined the Trust (and the NHS) three years ago this week following HR roles in councils, transport and the private sector. I am both a patient and a colleague at CHFT which means a lot to me – it means I can do lots of secret shopping and stand in the shoes of our patients AND our colleagues at the same time.
When I started my career in HR 20 years ago, there was a predominance of HR directors who had joined the profession late on in their career and a lot of HR directors who didn’t then have a seat around the Board table. I’m pleased to say that this has changed and that HR/workforce teams are now really proving their worth in organisations. We are no longer seen as the team who hire and fire. In the NHS, HR plays a pivotal role in harnessing the power that sits within any Trust or health care organisation. That power is its workforce. As many as 80% of any health care organisation’s employees are also patients of the organisation they work for. In the private sector, putting oneself in the customers’ shoes is sometimes a difficult task, but in the NHS we are gifted with direct feedback and shared experiences of our colleagues. This means if we engage and involve those colleagues, we have an excellent opportunity to improve the service we provide.
The last 11 months has been a testing time for all of us, but for HR teams not just in the NHS but in all organisations it has been the ‘sink or swim’ moment for our profession. What we prioritised, what behaviours we championed and what value we added will have either set a really positive course for the importance of HR in our organisation, or have left us with a mountain to climb.
The time is absolutely right for a rethink about HR and organisational development in the NHS. The NHS People Plan has prioritised the strategic purpose of HR – by setting the values, behaviours and engagement in health care organisations – over reactive, transactional and subservient HR. I look forward to playing a part in that review alongside my fellow HR directors across the patch.
I’m pleased to say that at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust our workforce, and our workforce activity has been at the helm of our response to COVID-19. We set up support systems for colleagues very early on in the pandemic, and the support we provide to colleagues, and the reach we have across our Trust, has never been greater. Our ‘One Culture of Care’ approach recognises the importance of the health and wellbeing of our colleagues in their ability to deliver outstanding compassionate care to our patients. It is an equation, once solved, that is so obvious it is never forgotten.
Not all workforce decisions we made at CHFT have been the right ones and it is clear that no one thing will have been right for all 6,000 colleagues in our team, but 100% of the time, the safety and welfare of our colleagues has been the primary driver for decisions. For that, I am enormously pleased.
I’m really proud of what the workforce and organisational development team have achieved over the last year. As the director leading that service, I have seen the power in harnessing talent and allowing it to thrive. The pandemic has allowed colleagues who may previously have been happily unnoticed to thrive and to discover their talents.
What I have learned as a leader during the pandemic is to forget everything you thought you knew about leadership, engagement and involvement. In fact, forget everything you thought you knew about anything, including yourself. ‘Leadership’ has had many fashions over the last few decades. From command and control to situational leadership to compassionate leadership, I think a leader’s ability to lead is now more than ever not about them, but about the people they lead.
HR teams know more about their customers (the people who look after our patients) than they ever have done. Colleagues have had to bring their ‘whole self’ to work. We know about colleagues’ strengths, limitations, physical and mental health and their personal circumstances. We know that we are all juggling so many balls at so many times that we really do have to look out for ourselves and each other if we are to look after our patients.
What has kept us all going in Team workforce organisational development over the last year has been each other – and we will keep each other going for a very long time I am sure.
Have a safe weekend,
Suzanne
The Partnership’s Check-in campaign
On 4 February we launched our innovative staff suicide prevention campaign targeted at more than 100,000 health, care, voluntary and community service colleagues working in organisations large and small across the area. Over 170 organisations registered to get involved alongside hundreds of other colleagues.
Preventing suicide in targeted areas by 2022 is one of the Partnership’s 10 big ambitions. National figures published by the Office of National Statistics on 1 September 2020 show that Yorkshire and the Humber region had the highest suicide rate in England at 12 suicides per 100,000 population over a three year period between 2017 and 2019. In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, there was an increase from 10.6 per 100,000 between 2016-18 to 11.9 between 2017 and 2019.
The staffcheck-in.co.uk/
As well as the above some of our colleagues have been bravely sharing their personal experience of suicide including Jim Barwick, Chief Executive of Leeds GP Confederation. Jim lost his brother Alistair, to suicide. Jim has shared his experience in a bid to encourage colleagues to look out for their own, and each other’s, mental wellbeing - our sincere thanks to Jim for his honesty on this very sensitive and tragic topic.
Hello my name is Jim
I lost my 44-year-old brother Alistair in 2007. I remember that day as if it was yesterday.
I vividly remember my dad calling me. I can picture it in my mind. My phone ringing, looking at my phone, seeing it was ‘dad’, answering it. I was on the platform in Leeds - I had just got off the train from London. He told me. It was as if someone was trying to push me down onto the floor.
Alistair decided to end his life on his 44th birthday; in one of the letters he left behind, he described how debilitating his depression was. Like ‘walking a tightrope over a deep gorge, just managing to get to the end, only then having to turn back and do it all over again’.
He just said he couldn’t do it again.
I didn’t think of him as being selfish for feeling that way; I just felt sympathy. It made me think about if there was anything I could have done – to protect him.
That questioning of myself was torture for me. I happened to be in London that day to give a talk, I chose to return home and I regret not seeing him that day - I could have saved his life. I still carry the tube ticket from that day with me, a reminder to do things that are important - to see people; speak to them.
Whenever you talk to anyone about suicide, it’s generally a really difficult thing to talk about but the important thing is that we do talk about it.
You hear lots of stories about people who take their own life and often, in response, people say: “But they had everything going for them” but I think, well no, perhaps that’s not what they thought. The truth is you just don’t know sometimes. That’s why it’s important to remain open and available to talk to one another.
Not just relatives but also your colleagues; that person in your team, or in the tea room, who just doesn’t seem themselves. In any group you interact with there might be someone who needs to open up and speak to someone they know. They may seem absolutely fine on the surface but deep down they might not be. You don’t have to go around questioning everyone, but you can be more aware. Knowing that a person can sometimes become so low that they may even consider not being here at all might change your behaviour with that person.
The pandemic and its enforced isolation has made it harder for us all – to keep conversations going and to nurture our own personal mental health. The situation has meant many are struggling with jobs, family, security – it’s likely to be affecting how many of us are coping with our mental wellbeing and its making it harder for us to reach out to one another.
We need to have more conversations about our mental health and Suicide Prevention Week; the Partnership’s Check-In campaign is a great opportunity, a reminder to us all to do that. I’m not suggesting that everyone’s circumstances are as extreme as the one my family experienced but I do want to highlight the importance of checking in with ourselves, our colleagues or friends and family. It’s a timely reminder to ask people how they are and then make sure we really listen to what they say in return.
We can’t meet up as we might normally do, but we can still check in and, when we do, we should talk about how we’re feeling. These conversations have perhaps never been as important as they are now, as we all navigate uncertainty and change during these unprecedented times.
If this article has struck a chord with you and you are someone who has been feeling distressed or you are someone who has noticed someone else who may need some help please reach out to ask for, or to offer, that help.
Whatever you do, please don’t remain silent.
Jim
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership's Check-In campaign website is at https://staffcheck-in.co.uk
Hello, my name is Rob.
I’m moved to write this very personal “blog” as its LGBTQ+ History month which the NHS celebrates specifically with a number of events celebrating “Mind, Body and Spirit” which have been shared in the staff bulletins. There are some amazing people with lived lives who have achieved great things – the first ever female MP to openly have a same-sex partner passed away this week. She “came out” in 1979 – she was threatened with deselection. Last year we saw the outpouring of emotion when George Floyd was killed. Some people may think that what followed is an act of civil disobedience, I don’t. If it wasn’t for the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 who knows whether that very same MP could have come out ten years later.
It’s also very timely because I attended the clinical commissioning group unconscious bias training which prompted me to personally reflect on my experiences – please be warned the next paragraph is highly emotional and very personal. You might recognise a theme here - pandemic, personal protective equipment, testing and prejudice.
There’s a new series on Channel 4 called It’s a Sin which tells the story of coming out in the 1980s and how HIV and AIDS became a focus for homophobia. It’s really moved me. I’ve been gay all my life. I grew up in the countryside so I didn’t know what it meant and how this would affect my life until I left home at 18 in 1986. I came out that year. I felt I had to tell my line manager at the time in case it affected my career, yes I had to worry about my career because I was gay and yes this was only a little over 30 years ago. I moved to London to live with Nigel, one of my first long term boyfriends in the early 1990s. He was confirmed with HIV soon after I moved in. He’d suspected it – I had no idea. I had to go for a test. The results took two weeks to come back. Imagine the wait. I had to have counselling for those two weeks – it was part of the “deal” of having the test. The result had to be delivered in person. It came back negative. I was one of the fortunate ones. Nigel wasn’t; after we split up because he didn’t want to risk my life, he passed away two years later. So this month is one of celebration – look at how far we come – but for me one of sombre reflection too as it will be for many who have lost loved ones in any pandemic.
So I wanted to share this – not looking for any sympathy – I’m one of the lucky ones. During the NHS’ celebration of LGBTQ+ and given we’re at the peak of our third wave of a pandemic, I thought it was especially relevant. I hope you can find a way to support this celebration, possibly by downloading and using one of the graphics from the LGBT+ history month website as a backdrop for Microsoft Teams calls.
Rob Goodyear, NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group
What else has been happening this week?
Government White Paper for NHS and social care reform
The Health and Social Care Secretary, with the support of NHS England and health and care system leaders, set out new proposals to build on the successful response to the pandemic on 11 February 2021. The proposals will bring health and care services closer together to build back better by improving care and tackling health inequalities.
The measures set out in a Government White Paper, will modernise the legal framework to make the health and care system fit for the future and put in place targeted improvements for the delivery of public health and social care. It will support local health and care systems to deliver higher quality care to their communities, in a way that is less legally bureaucratic, more accountable and more joined up, by bringing together the NHS, local government and partners together to tackle the needs of their communities as a whole. Read more about this White Paper on the Partnership website.
Video consultations
NHS Digital has made an agreement, in principle, to extend the AccuRx video consultations in primary care until 31 December 2021. The new short-term arrangements will provide some stability to primary care colleagues during this time of intense pressure. It will also allow sufficient time to do a thorough procurement and engagement exercise to assess needs and develop solutions in the longer-term. The Partnership’s Digital Programme is also making arrangements to extend the video consultations from January 2022 to 31 March 2022 and maintain the functionality for two-way messaging and adding attachments from 1 April 2021 for 12 months. Our main goal is to enable a smooth transition with no disruption to services and we will keep you updated.
Keeping care home residents connected
NHSX has teamed up with Jigsaw 24 to distribute and support care home residents in using iPad tablets. Not only will this initiative help residents stay connected to loved ones it also means staff can access healthcare information quickly and make virtual appointments.
Using the free iPads helps reduce the risk of infection from people going into homes whilst still providing a gateway to friends and family. On behalf of the resident, care home staff can reorder medications, update their GP record and access NHSmail – a secure NHS internal email service. Each tablet is ready to use and comes with a range of support materials to help care home residents get the most out of their devices.
Diversity in leadership
Sayma Mirza, Associate Director for System and Leadership Development for the Partnership talks about the work we are doing to ensure the talents of BAME colleagues are recognised in this video interview for NHS England/Improvement Beneficial Changes.
Healthy Hearts
Last week, Dr Steve Ollerton, Clinical Champion for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts project and Clinical Chair for Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group, was invited to present alongside Dr Shahed Ahmad, National Clinical Director, Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, NHS England, at our three-day launch event of the Partnership’s Inequalities Health Academy last week.
Dr Steve Ollerton had an opportunity to talk about the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts project and how we are working with our partners across the region to support the work of primary care in tackling risk factors such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes to help reduce cardiovascular disease.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts team is developing clinical resources for phase three of the project that focuses on Type2 diabetic patients who are at high risk of CVD. New treatment guidance, focussed on sodium glucose inhibitors, has been developed following engagement with primary, community and hospital colleagues over the last few months.
Sodium glucose inhibitors are a new type of drug that can reduce blood glucose. Evidence shows that they can lower blood glucose levels significantly, reduce weight and lower blood pressure, and have shown to lead to a 38% reduction in CVD death, a 35% reduction in hospitalisation for heart failure and also reduce overall mortality by 32%. These numbers, using data from the original Healthy Hearts project, have the potential to reduce over 100 avoidable early deaths.
Agreement was reached that it would be of benefit to primary care to develop simple treatment guidance, similar to that developed for hypertension and cholesterol as part of West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts, and adapted from the work that has started to be developed in Leeds and other areas across the country. This will then be subject to robust governance through our Clinical Forum and Joint Committee of the Clinical Commissioning Groups, anticipated to be finalised later this year.
The team has also been busy working on improving access to information through the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts website. Patients and GPs’ feedback was vital to guide any decision to reorganise the design of each web page to ensure it was easier for users to navigate the website and find what they were looking for.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts is committed to ensuring people have access to useful information to help manage CVD including people with disabilities and other access needs. Since last year, BrouseAloud has been installed on the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts website, a functionality that supports online visitors with a variety of accessibility issues.
Individuals with dyslexia, visual impairment and other reading difficulties can hear on-screen text read out loud, accompanied by an on-screen highlighter. There’s also a handy screen magnifier, and a screen mask function to help readers with perceptual impairments like Irlen Syndrome that can make text hard to read. Page content can be instantly translated to any of 99 languages. In addition, there is an MP3 maker for patients who want to turn web pages into audio files for listening at their convenience.
For more information about the project please get in touch with Pete Waddingham, Project Manager on 07947 220524 or follow @WYHHealthyHeart on Twitter.
Having a stroke is a medical emergency – Act F.A.S.T and dial 999 immediately
With all the publicity around the coronavirus, it is easy to forget that there are other serious health conditions that cause death and disability. As a Partnership we continue to remind the public that the NHS continues to be ‘Still here for you’ during the coronavirus outbreak and we urge people not to ignore signs and symptoms that could be potentially life changing and life threatening.
Stroke is the largest cause of disability in the UK and the fourth biggest killer. In West Yorkshire and Harrogate, around 3000 people a year have a stroke with two thirds of stroke survivors left with some form of physical, mental or emotional disability – often completely life changing. During the first wave of the pandemic, many people with medical emergencies were reluctant to hospital and may have missed out on life changing treatment. Knowing the signs of a stroke is key and people need to Act F.A.S.T. if they or someone close to them experience the following: Face – has their face drooped? Arms – do they have arm weakness? Speech – Is it slurred or absent? Time – Time to dial 999 immediately!
Prabal K Datta, Stroke Consultant at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Lead Clinician for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Stroke Delivery Network (ISDN) said “Since the start of the pandemic our experience shows that many people have remained at home with stroke symptoms. I strongly want to remind people that stroke services across the whole of West Yorkshire and Harrogate have been fully operational throughout the pandemic and continue to be so. I urge people not to delay seeking emergency medical attention for a fear of coming into hospital and contracting COVID – 19.” Read more on our news page
Rotational trainee nursing associate course expressions of interest deadline
During 2020, we promoted an opportunity to the health and care workforce of a rotational trainee nursing associate course ran by the University of Huddersfield in partnership with Health Education England and the West Yorkshire and Harrogate urgent and emergency care programme.
The course builds on the already highly successful nursing associate course ran by the University with the addition of a rotational work-based element designed to promote collaborative working and facilitate the movement of skills and experience across the system. The course, originally due to start in December 2020, was put on hold due to mounting system pressures and pandemic-related complications. We are now re-launching course for June 2021 and are looking for expressions of interest by 28th February 2021 (if not given already). We have additional funding for this due to a successful bid to provide further support employers to release staff for teaching and alternative placements and invite all employers to apply for additional funding of up to £4000pa (please note, funding is still limited). Also GP employers with the addition of the nursing associate role to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, general practices can now apply for full reimbursement of trainee and qualified nursing associate salaries We understand that pressures are still very high owing to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic and supporting trainees in the work place may not be a current priority. However, we urge employers to take advantage now of this heavily supported initiative as a way to grow and develop your existing workforce in order to build resilience and reduce workforce pressures of the future.
An application pack for employers is available via the Partnership's web page. You can also get in touch with bobbi.
Think big, start small, scale fast
Innovation in health and care is set to take a dynamic new pace and scale across Leeds and the City Region, according to a new report from Leeds Academic Health Partnership, ‘Think big, start small, scale fast’.
Area Partnership Group (unions)
Colleagues from the Partnership meet with HR directors and union representatives from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate today (Friday). Agenda items include an update on the pandemic and our response; the next steps on integrating care; the suicide prevention campaign and the proposal for an anti-racist movement across the area.