On Tuesday we held our Trust Board meeting in public and as always, we started with a patient journey. Thank you to Sara Boorman and Dr Annie Cardinal from our Kent and Medway All Age Eating Disorders Service for attending and sharing the story of a 13 year old young person and her family. Hearing about the start of this young person's journey a year ago, and where she is now in terms of her treatment and recovery was very humbling. The family support and input from our services is clearly so important when supporting someone who is presenting with an eating disorder and I was happy to hear about how much support is available. I would also like to thank this young person for allowing the team to share her journey on her behalf. It is so important that we hear the voice of patients and carers in the work that we all do across NELFT as it reminds us why we are all here.

Coproduction was a big feature at Trust Board with an update from our Board Advisor and Patient and Carer Advocacy & Co-production Lead Julie Jaye Charles. With the support of Lee Chester and colleagues in the patient experience team, Julie has been progressing our work to improve coproduction and to ensure that we are actively listen to the people who use our services and their carers. I’m looking forward to  the Coproduction Ambassadors Conference on Wednesday where we will be developing our Charter for Coproduction and look forward to sharing more with you in the future.

On Friday we are holding our (belated) NELFT International Nurses’ Day event from 12-5pm at CEME. This is a great opportunity to celebrate and recognise the impact of our nursing colleagues across NELFT and I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.

It is that time of year when we start to share the national NHS Staff Survey and kindly ask colleagues to take a few minutes to complete it and share their views. This year’s staff survey launches next Monday 3 October and it’s a chance for colleagues to have their say about what it’s like to work at NELFT. The staff survey is also a platform to make real change in the Trust. We will be really engaging with all managers across the Trust this year to help ensure their teams take their protected time of 20 minutes to complete the survey.

Finally, I will end with my reminder to look after yourself. Your health and wellbeing is as important to us as it is to you and we have lots of services, support and offers available. I know this is a difficult time, particularly with the cost of living crisis so please do also take some time to remind yourself about the support available.