It’s been another busy week here at NELFT and one that has been full of awareness days that colleagues have been celebrating and raising awareness of across the Trust. I have found it really informative seeing the Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) campaign led by Christopher Tuckett, our Associate Director of AHPs and the team, to mark National AHP Day that happened on Friday. It has been great to see so many of our AHPs showcased via this campaign and encouraging others to consider one of the many varied roles available to work with us as an AHP.

It was also great to see all the love for our pharmacy technicians on social media on Tuesday as it was Pharmacy Technician Day. Thank you to all our pharmacy technicians and our wider pharmacy service for all you do to help keep our patients safe. Our focus on patient safety is stronger than ever and I was heartened to see so many teams and services engaging in activity on World Patient Safety Day last week.

I’d also like to thank Harjit Bansal, our Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and out Ethnic Minority Network (EMN) for all their work encouraging colleagues to engage in our Black History Month activities across the Trust. There are more events that are happening during the rest of the month here and the recipe book filled with brilliant recipes from our colleagues looks amazing.

As you will know, October is also Speak Up month. Thank you Simon Evans-Evans, our Director of Corporate Affairs and Kate Pollock, our Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, for the presentation to our People and Culture Committee this week. It was helpful to discuss the barriers to colleagues feeling able to speak up and the support people may need to enable them to do so. The theme for this week in Speak Up Month is Speak Up For Inclusion and I know Kate has been working hard with our staff networks to ensure we seek feedback from colleagues about how we can make it easier for people to speak up.

Tuesday was World Menopause Day. I’m really pleased that we are running our Menopause Lunch and Learn Programme, it’s so important that we all understand the potential impacts of the menopause on our working lives and how we can support colleagues and of course ourselves if we are experiencing it.

At the start of the week, Board members took part in governance training for our charity, The Health Way Foundation. It was a really good reminder of our roles and responsibilities as trustees of the charity as we as a chance to reflect on some of the ways we can further enhance the experience of our patients, their loved ones and our colleagues through the work of the charity. If you would like to find out more about The Health Way Foundation click here.

Finally, I would like to end this week by thanking you for all your hard work, I know when there are so many activities happening across the Trust as well as our busy day jobs it can sometimes feel overwhelming. Do make sure you look after your own wellbeing as well as that of your colleagues.