Board Talk

This month the Board welcomed Sarbjit O’Brien, Rachel Rayner, and Natasha Khan who were joined by Tim Hamer from Cerebral, an online mental health support platform for children and young people.

Thanks to the pioneering partnership between the Children and Families Care Group and Cerebral, more children and young people across South Staffordshire are accessing and benefitting from mental health support in a way which is engaging and meaningful to them. The innovative digital approach to health care was unanimously praised by the Board.

For many services the pressures of winter are starting and this was reflected in reports to the Board. The winter plan is starting to be mobilised as beds at Cheadle Hospital will open in coming weeks and work continues to take place to support the roll-out of virtual wards where people get the care they need at home rather than being in hospital.

Workforce continues to be a challenge, not just here, but across the country and significant work is taking place to tackle these challenges in the short and long term. The Board were presented with the updated People strategy which provided assurance to the Board. In addition to the People strategy is the concentrated transformational work to support our approach to recruitment and retention through ‘Project Synergy’.

Liz Lockett (Chief Nurse and Director of Quality and Clinical Performance) was able to advise the Board that during the week commencing 7 November, 91%t of shifts on inpatient wards across the Trust were filled with substantive staff. This is the highest rate in some time and a positive achievement which was acknowledged by the Board. As a result of using substantive staff we relied less on temporary staffing, and where we did, the use of bank staff increased whilst off-framework agency staff decreased which demonstrates further success in decreasing our use of agency staff.

The Board were updated on the visit made to inpatient mental health services earlier in the month by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A small group of inspectors visited the Birch Ward at The Redwoods, and Brocton at St. George’s. The Board will receive a written report from the CQC in due course. However, high-level area of focus appeared to be fire safety. Work is taking place to ensure that all appropriate training is in place regarding fire safety. Appropriate training opportunities are and will continue to be made available.

Acknowledgement was made to Ravi Bhakhri, a former Governor, who has sadly passed away. The Board expressed their sincerest condolences to Ravi’s family and Neil Carr (Chief Executive) described Ravi as “a true advocate for patient care.”

Finally, this was Chairman Richard Cotterell’s last Board meeting before he steps down from his role. Richard’s contribution to the Board and organisation was recognised collectively by Board members. Richard said, “It has been an absolute honour and privilege to be your Chair and to have had the opportunity to work with such a committed and engaged team.” Jacqueline Small will act as Chair from January 2023