Volunteering in NHS Trusts

A new strategic vision

Source: The King’s Fund

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the huge potential and contribution of volunteers and both the NHS Long Term Plan and the most recent workforce plan recognise and commit to maximising the value of volunteers in the NHS. There is now an opportunity for NHS trusts to consider the role of volunteers, develop a strategic approach to volunteering and identify how to move volunteering from an ‘added extra’ to making an integral contribution to the delivery of health care.

Their latest research draws on the current evidence, analysis of NHS trust volunteering and the experiences of trust volunteering services and is presented in two reports:

Lunch and Learn

May session reminder

Just a reminder that this month’s lunch and learn will be held this Wednesday the 18th May with our key speaker Suzie Smith who will be talking about the wellbeing hub at Minerva and the recovery team.

Please follow the Team’s link emailed to you to access the session or email katie.roper@lscft.nhs.uk to ask for an invite to the session.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

King’s Fund Podcast

Leading with compassion: supporting the health and wellbeing of NHS staff

In this new podcast episode the Director of Policy, Sally Warren, sits down with Annie Laverty, Chief Experience Officer at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and Steve Ned, Director of Workforce at Barnsley and Rotherham NHS Foundation Trusts, to explore the role of compassionate leadership in supporting the health and wellbeing of staff.

To listen click the image below:

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Young Changemakers tackling mental health inequalities in racialised communities.
Centre for Mental Health; 2022.
https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/voice-change
[It is well documented that people from racialised communities face inequalities in mental health. Young Changemakers is a programme created by UK Youth, The Diana Award and Centre for Mental Health to equip young people with the tools to produce youth-led social action projects aimed at tackling these mental health inequalities. This is a three-year programme funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery and Comic Relief to support mental health in young people from racialised communities.]

Evaluating a community programme to promote young Black men’s mental health.
Centre for Mental Health; 2022.
https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/shifting-dial
[Young Black men are overrepresented in restrictive mental health settings, but are less likely to get early community-based mental health support. Shifting the Dial shares learning from a three-year project to promote the mental health and wellbeing of young Black men in Birmingham. The project built upon the findings from an earlier pilot, Up My Street. Shifting the Dial has worked with over 500 young Black men, offering peer support, mentoring, skills development and community events.]

The People and Nature Survey.
Natural England; 2022.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/people-and-nature-survey-for-england#full-publication-update-history
[The People and Nature Survey for England gathers evidence and trend data through an online survey relating to people’s enjoyment, access, understanding of and attitudes to the natural environment, and its contributions to wellbeing. 13 April 2022: New data for February 2022 added to monthly interim indicators data section. Also new data for year 2 quarter 2 (1st April 2020 – 30th September 2021) added to Adult Survey section.]

Daily Insight: Infection control calls heeded.
HSJ: Health Service Journal (Daily Insight) 2022;:7032315.
[NHS England has relaxed the isolation period for inpatients with covid-19 after the UK Health Security Agency changed its recommendations. Also: Although describing integrated care system ratings as a “bit of a distraction” in an interview with HSJ the CQC chief executive Ian Trenholm set out what systems could soon expect to see over the coming months. 20 April.]

The public’s experience of monitoring their blood pressure at home.
Healthwatch; 2022.
https://www.healthwatch.co.uk/report/2022-04-26/publics-experience-monitoring-their-blood-pressure-home
[People with high blood pressure are increasingly being asked to monitor their condition at home. The NHS programme ‘Blood Pressure @Home’ (BP@Home) enables people with high blood pressure to measure and share their blood pressure readings with their GP from home. This report evaluates that programme to see how it is working for patients and how GPs use their readings, and suggests steps the NHS can take to improve support and outcomes for people who monitor their blood pressure from home.]

Adult tier 2 weight management services provisional data for quarters 1 to 3, 2021 to 2022 (experimental statistics).
Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID); 2022.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/adult-tier-2-weight-management-services-provisional-data-for-quarters-1-to-3-2021-to-2022-experimental-statistics
[Provisional data from the adult tier 2 behavioural weight management services data collection from quarter 1 and 3 of the 2021 to 2022 financial year.]

NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard

2021 data analysis report for NHS trusts

This year’s report shows the number of BME staff at very senior manager level has almost doubled between 2020 to 2021 – up from 153 to 298. The analysis also shows the number of BME board members across all NHS trusts has increased by a quarter between 2020 and 2021, and is up by three quarters on 2018 when the data was first published. The survey also showed the NHS workforce is more diverse than at any point in NHS history, with more than 300,000 staff from a BME background – the equivalent of 22.4 per cent of all NHS staff. This is up from 18 per cent in 2017. However, despite this rise, BME staff remain underrepresented in senior positions – particularly in board executive roles. The survey also shows that 29 per cent of BME staff experienced bullying, harassment or abuse from patients last year – 3 per cent higher than white staff.

Podcast

Exploring the best ways to implement digital innovation into our health sector

Source: Finger on the Pulse podcast

Former Chief Nurse at NHS Digital, Anne Cooper discusses her experiences of implementing digital ways of working into healthcare during her time with the NHS firstly as a nurse then then in her later role at NHS Digital.

Podcast

Tackling health inequalities

Source: The King’s Fund Podcast

Helen McKenna talks with Dr Bola Owolabi, Director of Health Inequalities at NHS England and NHS Improvement, about the NHS’s spheres of influence, the power of gathering around a common cause, and whether the experience of the pandemic will lead to a step change in tackling health inequalities.

Listen to the podcast here

Podcast

Well-being: Speaking out about mental health in the NHS

Source: BMJ Talk Medicine podcast

Ashling Lillis is a now consultant in acute medicine at Whittington Health NHS Trust, and she was almost a consultant in intensive care medicine – but a mental health crisis just 6 months before she qualified made her reassess her career, and choose a different path.

In this podcast, Ash talks to Abi and Cat about the difficulty many doctors have when discussing their mental health – and how speaking out about her own experiences, has encouraged others to talk to her privately – and opened her eyes to the extent of the problem in the NHS.