Senior leader reflections: Beverley Baker

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust runs Good Hope, Heartlands, Queen Elizabeth and Solihull hospitals, and Solihull community services.

I started my career in the NHS at the age of 19 in 1983, so it will be my 40 year anniversary next year. At that age I wasn’t really focused on a career. Before that I’d been working in a youth training scheme that my dad lead as a community leader, which I did once I left Sixth Form College. My dad actually wanted me to be a secretary so he paid for me to take shorthand lessons, but I just couldn’t understand it. As part of the youth training scheme we just made curtains, but it was good money - ￡60 per week! I remember getting my first pay packet and thinking it was huge.

Two of my best friends were working as auxiliary nurses at hospitals in Birmingham and they’d try to encourage me to do the same. So, after the youth training scheme ended I sat down with the huge address book and wrote to every hospital in the midlands applying for auxiliary nursing jobs. I hadn’t even heard of Good Hope Hospital or Sutton Coldfield before that, but they were one of three hospitals to write back to me. I still remember that interview like it was yesterday! They told me on the day that I was successful, but asked me how I was going to get all the way to Sutton Coldfield for the start of my shift at 07:30. I lived 15 miles away and it was a two bus journey! I told them I’d figure it out.

The first week was so hard, leaving my house at 05:30 every morning; I didn’t think I’d last the month! But after I got used to it, I loved my time there. It was hard as a young girl to see some of the things we saw, some of the unspoken truths about nursing that you just don’t bring up in normal conversation outside work.

One day whilst I was working on the ward, the Nursing Officer approached me and encouraged me to start my training to become an enrolled nurse. Well, she actually booked the entrance test for me to take the very next day! The training took two years, before going to work as an enrolled nurse in female orthopaedics. I really enjoyed working in that team, but after a few years I decided I wanted to do my registered nurse training. At the time the conversion training to become a registered nurse at Good Hope Hospital was not available, but it was being offered at other local hospitals. I applied to a hospital which offered the course and was successfully appointed to an elderly care ward at Selly Oak Hospital. I was sad to leave Good Hope Hospital after seven years, as it was like home to me. I made it clear in my new post about my desire to do my registered nursing training. By the second year of me working at Selly Oak Hospital I was a fully-fledged registered nurse. My parents were so proud of me.

From there I decided I wanted to go for a senior nurse position, but I wasn’t successful at interview at Selly Oak. I had been doing a lot of the roles as a senior nurse, so I was really deflated that I didn’t get it. However, there were some jobs also going at Heartlands Hospital. In 1996 I was successfully appointed as a Junior Sister at Heartlands Hospital, and I have worked in the Trust ever since.

I worked my way up from being a Senior Sister to a Matron, a job I originally took on as a secondment, but after I got the taste for it I wanted to continue in that role. I didn’t want to take a step back. I eventually got another secondment opportunity working as a Matron at Good Hope Hospital, back on my old stomping ground. It was strange for me to now be the Matron to some of the staff nurses that had been there 20 years before when I was an Enrolled Nurse…it was probably a bit strange for them too!

Over my nearly 40 years in the NHS I have built up a reputation as someone that stands up for others and is really passionate about fairness. I just won’t stand for inequality, discrimination or prejudice. As a result of that I’ve taken on a lot of roles in this area, for example I was a Union Steward and a Cultural Ambassador, and more recently I am a Confidential Contact for the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian. I’m also a fair recruitment expert at the Trust, as well as the co-chair of the BAME Staff Network.

As well as being a nurse, my main role now is the Trust’s Fairness Taskforce Lead. I sometimes struggle to define this role, because I’m not a fairness guru; but I understand fairness, I know what it looks like and I understand the impact of it. This role is about ensuring that we have a culture that believes in fairness. It will be hard to fully embed, but I will work as hard as it takes to influence and ensure we are working towards sustainable cultural change. There are a lot of great leading examples of this in the Trust, but it’s about making sure it’s felt across the organisation. As part of this I lead the actions of the Fairness Taskforce, which is chaired by our Chief Executive and sits within the Strategic Projects team. The taskforce comprises of colleagues from every area of the organisation to make the necessary steps towards this change.

There are some areas within our organisation where staff face more abuse and discrimination from patients and the public than others, like in our Emergency Departments for example, so it’s about ensuring those colleagues are supported and looked after too.

I never really saw my career going this way, but after managing people and seeing the dynamics of teams, and seeing what can happen when unfairness disrupts a whole team, I really have developed a passion for it.

As a leader you have to set certain standards in your behaviour and you have to be a role model – you have got to practice what you preach. It’s about being fair and unbiased, being non-judgemental and being true to yourself. ?Most importantly it’s about valuing your staff, so that they feel welcome, appreciated and worthy. Just saying thank you can go such a long way.

I think it’s sad that some people go to work and feel they don’t belong. I think it’s a poor reflection of the environment than it is the person, and if you work like that for long enough you become conditioned to it. That’s why I think good leadership is so important. Not only will it help with retention because you’re able to nurture your staff, but it also helps with loyalty and being able to understand your team.

I really value authenticity and I think people respect you when they think you are your authentic self. Sometimes though, it is hard to be entirely authentic. As a black woman I have always been conscious of first impressions. We’re all judged from the moment we step into a room, whether it’s good or bad. When I walk into a room I am conscious of how I look and how I speak. I’m outspoken, my tone’s louder than most and it doesn’t always sit favourably with some people, and it can play on stereotypes.

I personally have taken part in a number of the Trust’s mentoring programmes, most recently the reciprocal mentoring programme where I was randomly paired with a more senior leader with the purpose of being completely equal partners and both learning from each other. I think all forms of mentoring feed into our culture and that sustainable change we’re after. Mentoring is an opportunity to give you a different perspective. For me personally it has offered me a critical friend when I have needed it, somebody I can talk to in total confidence and almost bear all. It’s not always just about enhancing your professional skills, but also your interpersonal skills.

Something very important I learnt from one of my first mentors was the value of sitting back and listening to what others have to say first, especially when in a heated group setting. I have learnt not to let my passion overshadow others.

I think that often it’s the senior leader, or the mentor’s, eyes that are opened the most during mentoring. They get to hear first-hand how people are feeling and what they are experiencing. They have the power to make the big decisions, so the more informed they are the better.

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