NELFT’s Havering Community Learning Disabilities Team (CLDT) have been shortlisted for a Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) award under the category ‘Psychiatric Team of the Year: Intellectual Disability’.

The national charity for working parents and carers, has announced that NELFT has been awarded a place on its prestigious and competitive list of the top family-friendly employers in the UK.  Now in its thirteenth year, employers large and small from across the public, private, and third sectors compete annually to gain a coveted place on the charity’s list of Top Employers for Working Families. 

The Government has confirmed that the day of the Queen’s State Funeral, Monday 19 September, will be a bank holiday to allow the nation to pay their respects and mark the Queen’s remarkable 70 years of service.

The Leaders Empowered to Achieve Potential (LEAP) programme within NELFT has been recognised as a finalist for the Nursing Times Workforce Awards in the category of Best Employer for Diversity and Inclusion.

NELFT today, 26 August 2022, welcomed the publication of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) report into our services following the Well-Led Review earlier in the year. We are delighted with the new overall rating of ‘Good’ as this reflects the improvements we have made to move from our previous ‘Requires Improvement’ rating.

As exam results season approaches, students’ mental health is once again under the spotlight as many struggle to cope with expectations.

Partnered with BHRUT, NEL CCG and NEC Rego, NELFT have been shortlisted for a HSJ award under the category ‘Using data to Connect Services’.

Apprenticeships are available within both clinical and non-clinical areas across NELFT. Some of the job roles we currently run apprenticeships in include Health Support Worker, Nursing Associate, Business Administrator, Assistant Accountant, Data Analyst, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapist and many more.

At NELFT we also support our current employees with continuing professional development opportunities where they can complete an apprenticeship in a topic that supports their current job role such as Team Leader, Senior Leader and Nursing Top Up.

On Tuesday we held our Trust Board meeting in public and as always, we started with a patient journey. Thank you to Sara Boorman and Dr Annie Cardinal from our Kent and Medway All Age Eating Disorders Service for attending and sharing the story of a 13 year old young person and her family.

This week I have the pleasure of deputising for Jacqui, while she takes some well-deserved leave. I am just back from annual leave myself and it has been lovely to come back to the buzz across the organisation about our CQC rating of Good. I would like to take this chance to thank you all for the work you do each day to support the delivery of the best care by the best people. I am looking forward to working on our improvement areas as we continue our journey towards outstanding.

It’s been great to see our Cavendish Square Group #OpenYourMind campaign go from strength to strength over the last week given it is exam results season and the campaign aims to signpost young people to appropriate mental health support. Thank you to Dr Leon Wehncke, who supports young people in our Brookside unit for supporting the work from a clinical perspective and for acting as a media spokesperson. Was good to hear Leon live on the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC Radio 2 yesterday and fingers crossed there will also be coverage on BBC London TV news this evening.  I am always so proud of the work colleagues do daily across NELFT and it is extra heartening to see us leading the way with work beyond the Trust to make real impacts.

I was lucky enough to take a couple of days annual leave at the start of this week in order to look after my grandson and granddaughter. It was lovely to spend time with them and they are at an age where I really enjoy there company and we had loads of fun together.  I was lucky enough to take a couple of days annual leave at the start of this week in order to look after my grandson and granddaughter. It was lovely to spend time with them and they are at an age where I really enjoy there company and we had loads of fun together. 

It has been another busy week here at NELFT and on Tuesday we held our public Board meeting. We opened the meeting with a patient journey and I am so grateful to Bridget, who was supported by her daughter Margaret, for joining us to share her experiences. Bridget has used mental health services for most of her life and most recently, at 81 years young, she has been supported by our memory service at Broad Street in our Barking and Dagenham directorate.

Firstly, a huge thank you to all our colleagues and partners for all your efforts as you have been working through the heatwave! I know it has been really tough to work in the recent hot weather. I am hoping that the weather will be cooling down over the coming days, at least for the foreseeable future. I really appreciate your efforts in ensuring that our most vulnerable patients have been well supported over the last few days.