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 delighted to learn that NELFT have been shortlisted for two awards. Our Ethnic Minority Network (EMN) has been shortlisted in the Nursing Times Workforce Summit Awards for ‘Best Employer for Diversity and Inclusion’ for our Leaders Empowered to Achieve their Potential Programme (LEAP). I am so pleased to see this programme recognised in the shortlist, especially after attending the graduation event recently.

We have also been shortlisted in the HSJ Awards in the ‘Using Data to Connect Services’ category for our work in partnership with Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) and commissioners across north east London. This recognises the implementation of a digital referral tool within the North East London (NEL) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Alliance team. It has reduced patient referral time down from 24 hours to a mere 3 minutes. This saved the team approximately 3000 hours a year, the equivalent of adding more than one GP back into the system. Read more about the nomination here.

Finally, I would like to end by reminding you as I always do, to look after yourselves and each other. I know it is a challenging time not only from the perspective of working in such busy and demanding services, but also the impacts of the cost of living increase. I would ask NELFT colleagues to take the time to review our Cost of Living Action Plan which we shared a few days ago and reach out for support if you need it. You can also get involved in our #Tell2People campaign.  

Take care and stay safe

Jacqui