This week I want to thank colleagues across the Trust for all you are doing to support our patients and the delivery of safe services as I know we are feeling the pressures of winter, particularly as we work to support our acute trust colleagues and their busy emergency departments. I would like to assure you that we are working hard with our partners to look at how we can improve processes to reduce these pressures where possible.

I can hardly believe this is my first blog post of November and how quickly October has flown by.

The weeks seem to be flying by at the moment and I can hardly believe we are in the last week of October already. That means that our Black History Month celebrations are drawing to a close and as well as encouraging colleagues to attend sessions if you haven’t already, I would also like to thank everyone who has been involved in the organisation and promotion of the events. It has been good to see so much activity and to see people coming together across NELFT to celebrate as well as educate.

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.

This week is National Work Life Week. At NELFT, we put initiatives in place, to ensure colleagues can balance work and home life. Our flexible working and agile working models enable staff to thrive. Coupled with our excellent training and development opportunities, our colleagues can progress their career, being supported every step of the way in their personal and work lives.