A super week for NELFT with three nominatons and two wins in national prestigious awards. 

Matthew McArdle is a Senior Pharmacist here at NELFT, working in our Essex CAMHS service.  He will be carrying out a range of activities over the coming months in an attempt to raise money for mental health issues, particularly in children.

Self Care Week is the annual national event that raises awareness of what we can all do to improve our physical health and mental wellbeing. This year, the theme is Practise Self Care for Life.

This Saturday (13 November) is World Kindness Day, celebrated annually, participants attempt to make the world a better place by celebrating and promoting good deeds and pledging acts of kindness, either as individuals or as organisations.

Why not mark the occasion with a random act of kindness, perhaps you could leave one of our patients or service users a message to brighten up their day.

Mental health services for children and young people across Essex, Southend and Thurrock have been secured for another seven years.

This is my last CEO blog post before I leave our organisation. I wanted to express my personal thanks and gratitude to each and every one of my colleagues and all of our partners for all that you do. It has been such a privilege to serve alongside you, particularly during the pandemic.

This week is International Fraud Awareness Week and an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of the work undertaken to tackle fraud against the Trust and the wider NHS. We can all do this by;

• Being vigilant and knowing how to spot fraud
• Knowing how to report fraud if you suspect it
• Following anti-fraud advice and guidance designed to stop fraud from happening in the first place
• Spreading the anti-fraud message

Thank you everyone who joined us last week for our Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM is a formal meeting where we present our annual accounts and report for the previous financial year, but it is also an opportunity to reflect on the previous 12 months and to celebrate our achievements.

Oliver Shanley CEO, NELFT met with Jacqui Van Rossum, our Executive Director for Integrated Care in London, and Marie-Antoinette Ferreira-Pursley, Co-Chair of our Disability Staff Network and co-chair for Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties Network, to talk through the disability support available for NELFT staff and our ambitions to make sure that NELFT is a fully disability inclusive employer.

I have been working with the communications team at NELFT for the past two weeks, on a placement from my usual role as Strategic Communications Manager at NHS England and NHS Improvement. It’s been a great two weeks getting to know the comms team, who have all been so welcoming, and learning a bit more about how communications work in a different part of the NHS.

As part of Black History Month this year, NELFT Knowledge & Library Service worked with the EMN and allies to host a discussion around the book Black, Listed by Jeffrey Boakye. The book is a thought-provoking glossary of terms linked to black British identity, ranging from terms of endearment (‘Queen’) to official terms (police codes). Boakye discusses painful topics with insight and welcome bursts of humour (his section on Quentin Tarantino’s films is well worth a read!). Contributors to the discussion did not need to have read the whole book – as it was non-fiction, there was no danger of spoilers and it’s the sort of book that you can dip in and out of.

I couldn’t start my weekly message without sharing and reflecting on the tragic news about Sir David Amess. I know many colleagues live in Essex and others may have met Sir David through your roles within the NHS. I would like to offer my condolences to his loved ones and all who knew him, and the comments made by his peers and colleagues about his kindness, compassion and tolerance have really resonated with me, particularly in light of the work we are doing across NELFT to embed a just and compassionate culture.