AHPs’ Day, Thursday 14 October, is an annual opportunity for us to come together and celebrate being part of the AHP family, whilst also giving us an opportunity to showcase to our NELFT colleagues the impact we make to the delivery of high quality care.

October is Black History Month and here at NELFT we're excited to mark this important month with celebration events, highlights on the work of our EMN and profiles of our NELFT colleagues. We will be hearing from network members and some of our allies, who will be sharing around this year’s theme ‘Proud to be’.

We regretfully announce that the NELFT AGM on Thursday 23 September 2021 has been deferred.

NELFT are pleased to announce the appointment of Julie Jaye Charles as our very first Board Advisor and Patient and Carer Advocacy & Co-production Lead.

The Ethnic Minority Staff Network were honoured to host a virtual visit from Liz Fenton, RN, QN, Deputy Chief Nurse at Health Education England.

World Suicide Prevention Day is held on 10 September each year by the International Association for Suicide Prevention. Each year has a different theme and focus to bring to light a specific aspect of suicide prevention. 

We are proud to announce that work-life balance charity, Working Families, has awarded our organisation a place on its prestigious and competitive list of the top family-friendly employers in the UK. 

Art psychotherapist Katie O’Donoghue, who worked here at NELFT until last year, has had her own children’s book published. The book, The Little Squirrel Who Worried, was written and illustrated by Katie whilst she was working here at NELFT.

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. 

Recently, NELFT Knowledge & Library Service hosted an online Digital Literacy Week programme for student nurses. Content was based on the Royal College of Nursing’s digital skills framework and covered health literacy and how to mitigate misinformation and fake news online. We asked the students to write reflective blogs as part of the week. Here we present the two winners! We hope you enjoy reading their reflections.

Every year, the clinical audit department hosts our Annual Clinical Audit Awareness #CAAW20 which is a national annual campaign to promote and celebrate the benefits and impact of clinical audit and quality improvement work in healthcare. This year we are hosting our 6th Annual Clinical Audit Awareness Week which will be held between Monday 23rd – 27th of November 2020.

From Carol White, Integrated Care Director, Havering ICD

When I was asked by Harjit to write a blog for Black History Month, I was surprised as I wasn’t aware I was officially an ally. That said, I am very pleased to be an ally and will do what I can to understand the journey and experience some of my colleagues have.