Chief Executive’s Message – Friday 19 January

January 19, 2024

Dear colleagues,

We are now more than halfway through January, so let me firstly take this opportunity to thank those who have taken the time to complete the pulse survey. I have also been impressed by the way that some of our managers have taken real ownership of the response rates in recent days. We have seen leaders going out, engaging with their teams, and encouraging, and supporting staff to complete this very important survey. We have also seen this hard work starting to be reflected in some (though certainly not all) of the response rates, by way of example one of our groups has increased their response rates by over four per cent (Thank you Admitted Care B)  in the last few days.

As of today, we stand at 22 per cent for the Trust, with 1,750 staff having completed the survey out of the total workforce of 7,955. This shows that we need to really push response rates in ALL areas during the next two weeks ahead of the survey closing at the end of the month.

I have highlighted below the group level response rates. As you can see, except for Imaging (thank you) all our other clinical groups are below 20 per cent and corporate areas haven’t yet broken 30- per cent which shows that there is much further to go.

I have asked all managers to spend time with their teams over the next 13 days to increase the Trust response rate to a minimum of 40 per cent.

Engaging regularly wit their teams is an important part of being a line manager and is in line with the level of staff engagement that we have committed to fostering within our SWB People Plan (which remember was developed as a direct result of feedback from you).  Your feedback helps us to gauge the overall engagement level at SWB, it allows us to see the areas of strength which we can share across the organisation, but most importantly it allows use to see areas where we need to improve to enhance your experience of being part of our SWB family.

Some of the feedback I have heard is that colleagues think they can’t feedback any concerns because their comments will be identified. I can assure you that the survey is completely confidential. It is run by a third-party organisation, and any comments that we receive as a Trust have been redacted to avoid individuals being identifiable.  So please don’t think that you can’t take the opportunity to have your say, and I would encourage you to be open and honest about how you feel.

Let’s work together over the next two weeks to achieve a position on the staff survey that we can all be proud of, and which provides us with reliable and meaningful insights into the experiences of our people, which we will act upon.

The survey will take you no longer than five minutes to complete, and don’t worry about finding a link in your e-mails – it can be accessed by clicking on the one below:

Click here to complete your survey

As we progress throughout the year, and edge closer to the opening of our new hospital, each of my weekly messages will bring you an update on Midland Met – you will see it, hear it, and hopefully feel it more and more over the coming weeks and months.

On Monday next week, we will be bringing all our corporate senior leaders together for Midland Met Corporate Readiness Day. These away day events are an extremely important part of the calendar in the build up to opening the new hospital as they offer an opportunity to not only hear the latest updates on progress but also ensure how they and their teams are working on the right things prior to move to meet critical milestones.

This away day will be themed around delivering success and corporate readiness to move into MMUH, and the roles that our corporate teams undertake are all imperative to ensuring a successful move for colleagues and patients. I am sure it will be an enlightening and useful day for those attending.

Looking further ahead, February will see the launch of phase three of the Midland Met management of change programme. This will see approximately 3,600 colleagues enter a formal process of consultation about some changes to their roles/base to enable us to successfully open and move into Midland Met.

I know this could bring some worry to some of you, but the process is designed not to be onerous, and you will enable you to ask any questions and raise any concerns that you have. You will also find out more information on travel, parking, facilities on site, rest areas etc. More information about the process and timescales will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

If there are topics around Midland Met you would like me to addresses, or questions you would like me to answer, please do let me know.

Have a great weekend.

Many thanks

Richard