The Promise

We have listened to the experiences of those who face exclusion and marginalisation, and we know that there is much more to do. We need the NHS to be a place where all are welcome, with a culture of belonging and trust, celebrating diversity in all its forms. Delivering high quality care depends on creating positive, inclusive work environments where people want to come to work.

We want to support colleagues ongoing development of their knowledge, skills and behaviours that will create and sustain our culture of compassion and inclusion. Our teams and organisations, particularly the senior leadership of the NHS, should actively reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.

We have listened to the experiences of those who face exclusion and marginalisation, and we know that there is much more to do. We need the NHS to be a place where all are welcome, with a culture of belonging and trust, celebrating diversity in all its forms. Delivering high quality care depends on creating positive, inclusive work environments where people want to come to work.

We want to support colleagues ongoing development of their knowledge, skills and behaviours that will create and sustain our culture of compassion and inclusion. Our teams and organisations, particularly the senior leadership of the NHS, should actively reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.

At EEAST we want everyone to feel safe and confident when expressing their views. All staff and volunteers should feel confident to speak up, knowing they will be listened to and supported. Our teams need to have safe spaces where they can work and use their voice to shape roles, workplaces, the NHS, and our communities, to improve the health and care of the nation.

We want our people to support one another through challenges, during times of change, and to make the most of new opportunities. By creating the environment and culture where all of this is prioritised, our commitments in the People Promise will become a reality for all.

There are many channels for employee voice, all of which are fundamental to ensuring we are each listened and responded to. These include staff support networks, regular employee surveys, via our wellbeing app and through everyday conversations. These channels are important for understanding and improving employee experience, in line with our People Promise.

Improving the working experience of all our staff and volunteers is a priority here at EEAST. We are committed to improving everyone’s health and wellbeing, increasing civility and respect, and increasing everyone’s safety. EEAST’s Leadership and Development Managers deliver training to leaders, giving them tools to spot any early signs of reduced health and understand all the services available to improve the situation, whatever it may be.

We want to create an organisational culture of compassionate leadership, improved workforce resilience and support for our people. When done right, we have seen a reduction in staff leaving, a reduction in staff sickness absence and fewer incidents of bullying, harassment, violence and abuse.

At EEAST we want to support staff and volunteers with ongoing development of knowledge, skills and behaviours that will create an organisation where opportunities for learning and developing are plentiful, and where all are supported to reach their potential. We want to make sure that all our people have equal access to learning and developing opportunities. We believe that such a workplace attracts, develops and retains talented people from all backgrounds.

The Leadership and Development department are delivering a significant education framework to our leaders and the education team have a large number of courses available for clinical development.

We have a robust career progression plan for our clinicians to follow and have also put in place a similar programme of education to develop our staff who work within our Emergency Operations Centres.

At EEAST we invest in research and clinical leadership. We have opportunities to develop into advanced practice, therefore improving the care that can be provided to our patients.

As laid out in the NHS People Plan, the NHS are committed to offering more flexible, varied roles and opportunities for different types of flexible working. At EEAST, we believe all our staff should be offered the chance to work flexibly, regardless of role, grade, reason, or circumstance.

We know it’s not always immediately easy to accommodate individual work preferences, but becoming a more flexible, modern employer in line with other sectors, gives us the opportunity to retain our existing people and attract new talent with to work with us.

Flexible working is about more than just retention, it can unlock new opportunities and contribute to people’s mental health, wellbeing and engagement with their role, and we know that in the NHS more engaged staff leads to better patient care.

The NHS is first and foremost one huge team: 1.3 million strong, from all walks of life, all kinds of experiences…We are the NHS.

By working in teams, EEAST can deliver much more: everyone’s time makes a difference, roles are rewarding, but they can also be challenging and stressful. EEAST staff and volunteers need to give each other the space to innovate, to develop, and to learn – but also support each other when times are tough and celebrate success.

We encourage all of our staff to ask colleagues, “how are you?” and listen to the response. This demonstrates that they care about how others are, and that they care about the answer.