Chief Executive Officer’s Report - September 2024

Meeting: Trust Board – Public Meeting

Date: 11 September 2024

Report Title: CEO Report

Agenda Item: PUB24/9/1.6

Author: Marika Stephenson, Deputy Chief Executive

Lead Director: Marika Stephenson, Deputy Chief Executive

Purpose: Information noting

Link to CQC domain:

• Responsive
• Well Led

Link to Strategic Objective:

• Be an exceptional place to work, volunteer and learn
• Provide outstanding quality of care and performance
• Be excellent collaborators and innovators as system partners
• Be an environmentally and financially sustainable organisation

Link to Strategic Risk:

• SR1a: If we do not ensure our people are safe and their wellbeing prioritised, there is a risk that we will be unable to attract, retain and keep all our people safe and well
• SR1b: If we do not ensure our leaders are developed and equipped, there is a risk that we will not be able to change our culture, and value, support, develop and grow our people
• SR2: Failure to achieve continuous quality improvements and high-quality care delivery
• SR4: Failure to deliver an efficient, effective and economic service
• SR5: If we do not clearly define our strategic plans, we will not have the agility to deliver the suite of improvements needed
• SR6: Ability to ensure sufficient capacity and capability to ensure sustainable change

Equality Impact Assessment: No negative impact identified

Recommendation: The Board is asked to note the report.

Purpose: To provide an update from the Deputy Chief Executive to the Board of Directors on the activities of the Trust since its last meeting.

Operational Improvement Plan (OPIP):

Response times for C1 and C2 patients have improved in August, linked to a reduction in demand for our services. Recognising that these still require improvement, our teams are working on a number of key impacts to improve delivery through our Organisational Improvement Plan (OPIP). These are being supported and scrutinised by colleagues in NHS England and our improvement plans will be discussed in more detail elsewhere on the agenda.

During August we commissioned a review of our OPIP by The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) to ensure the OPIP is robust and will deliver the expected improvements for patients. The outcome report will be utilised to make amendments and re-visit trajectories and actions.

Key assumptions: July 2024

The focus areas to improve our performance and meet the targets are as follows:

• Reducing Job Cycle Times - Job cycle time (JCT) represents the total time taken to assist a single patient. The shorter the time taken, the more patients can potentially be assisted. It is in the patient's interest to reduce these on-scene times (only by around 4 minutes) to provide similar care to other UK ambulance services.
• Increase Hear & Treat – the number of patients which are managed by clinicians over the phone and signposted to the most appropriate care pathway. We are recruiting additional clinicians to achieve this.
• Increase the number of Patient Facing Staff Hours (PFSH) by 1000 per week. Utilising centralised scheduling to optimise planning of shifts.
• Vehicle availability – ensuring that we have sufficient vehicles within the system to support additional PFSH. Replacing our aging fleet with new vehicles and changing the maintenance schedule for the older vehicles aiming to prevent breakdowns and issues arising.

More detail on our performance will be shared later in the agenda.

Sustainability:

An update on sustainability is provided in Appendix A.

Regulatory Update:

In early August, the Trust was notified by NHS England that there were planned changes to the oversight and scrutiny process following our removal from NOF4. This structure will support the enhanced scrutiny of our performance and service delivery for patients. Monthly meetings will focus on delivery of plan commitments, including quality, finance, Category 2 segmentation, EEASTs role in UCCH development and Category 2 performance. We expect the first of these meetings to occur towards the end of September. We will continue to work with our regulators and accept their support to ensure we improve our service to patients.

Executive Team:

Following the co-produced recruitment process, Neill Moloney was appointed as Chief ExecutiveOfficer, joining EEAST on 02 September 2024. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Neill to the organisation and very much look forward to working with him. I would also like to thank everyone who took part in the co-production process. The contribution of our people has been invaluable in selecting a high-quality candidate who can support our organisation on our journey of continued improvement. Jo Cripps, Interim Director of Corporate Affairs and Performance, leaves the organisation at the end of September 2024. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jo for her hard work and contribution over the last few months and wish her every success with her future plans.

Freedom to Speak Up:

The Guardian Service launched the new EEAST Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU) service on 05 August 2024. The Trust has two nominated Guardians and access to a 24/7 independent service for our people. Danielle and Kimberley, our two Guardians, have already started a busy engagement plan in the Emergency Operation Centres, ambulance stations and offices. They have provided a report on their case work and approach later on the agenda. I would like to take this opportunity to offer them a warm welcome to EEAST and am pleased to report that the transition has been smooth and efficient.

Raising Concerns Forum:

At the time of writing, the Raising Concerns Forum had not met; the next meeting is planned for 02 September 2024. An update will be provided in the next CEO report.

Introduction from Neill Moloney, Chief Executive Officer:

I joined EEAST on 02 September and have spent my first week meeting many of my new colleaguesat Emergency Operations Centres, ambulance stations and Leadership events and meetings. I am grateful for the very warm welcome and delighted to be the Chief Executive for EEAST with the opportunity to make the organisation a leader in urgent and emergency care and continue the great work and improvements already started.

My personal approach to delivering the Board priorities to drive cultural improvement, improve Category 2 performance and manage 999 calls to improve patient outcomes are set out below:

• Collaboration – Working with our local partners to ensure our patients receive the best and most appropriate care, first time and every time. Utilising our regional footprint to share good practice so that our patients receive a consistently good service.
• Performance – Achieving the performance standards our patients expect and deserve, in particular our Category 2 targets. Delivery of our OPIP and working with partners to reduce hospital handover delays.
• Culture – provide visible, authentic and approachable leadership. Ensure our people feel they will be listened to and will be treated with respect, dignity and fairness.

I will be visiting stations, EOCs, offices and acutes every Friday and holding live Question and Answer sessions. I look forward to dog walks, welfare wagon visits and staff surgery sessions so I can hear and act on the views of our people.

Southern Ambulance Services Collaboration:

The Southern Ambulance Services Collaboration Year 1 Manifesto has now been agreed by all fiveTrust Chairs and CEOs. The following provides a summary of the Year 1 programme areas:

Engagement:

Very sadly we have lost three colleagues in the last two months, our thoughts are with their families, colleagues and friends.

Tracy Winder from the Herts and West Essex team passed in July 2024 following a courageous battle with cancer. Throughout her illness, Tracy's dedication to her work never wavered, reflecting her deep passion and enjoyment. Tracy's career began at Welwyn Garden City as an administrator, where her commitment to the ambulance service shone brightly within the East and North Herts team.

Our colleague Tafseer Ahmad passed away after a short battle with cancer in July 2024. Tafseer was a kind, compassionate, and highly intelligent individual who loved working as Business Intelligence Lead within the Informatics team for EEAST. He was a great support for the team whenever they needed him and worked tirelessly.

We lost our colleague Bonita Richards in August 2024. Bonita worked as a dispatcher in Norwich EOC for over 16-years and was a very well respected and valued member of the team. Bonita was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer earlier this year and has demonstrated tremendous strength, determination and courage throughout her illness. Bonita spent many years volunteering as a CFR and for St. Johns Ambulance, causes that she strongly supported.

Our thoughts are with the family and colleagues of Tracy, Tafseer and Bonita. They will be greatly missed.

Celebrations:

International Nurses

I wanted to offer a warm welcome to our second cohort of international nurses from the Philippines. They landed in the UK in early August and are working hard towards becoming operational. We are delighted that both cohorts have chosen EEAST and I look forward to meeting them on shift. Our first cohort of nurses met with managers, directors and buddies in Chelmsford during August. The event was planned to assist our new colleagues in their integration to EEAST and their local communities. A huge thank you to everyone involved in this very successful day.

Silver Dyslexia Award

Following the hard work of our Training and Education team, I am delighted that the Trust has been awarded a Silver Dyslexia award. This has been earned by the hard work the team have completed to ensure that EEAST is a dyslexia-friendly workplace. I would like to offer my congratulations and thanks to the whole team for this fantastic achievement.

Health Service Journal (HSJ) Award

As many of you will know, the HSJ Awards are the healthcare sector's premier awards event of the year. The finalists were announced on Monday 12 August. EEAST has been shortlisted in the Provider Collaboration of the Year category for our partnership with regional fire and rescue services in assisting people who have fallen at home. The Community Wellbeing Officer (CWO) initiative was launched in November 2023 and is designed to bring health response and fire prevention together. Across Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Essex fire and rescue services, there are 11 CWOs split into six teams. Since the project’s launch in November 2023, CWOs in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Essex have responded to almost 950 calls, and in 91% of those incidents they were first on-scene. In more than 300 lower severity incidents, CWOs have helped patients on-scene without the need for an ambulance, freeing up those ambulances to attend more serious emergencies in the area.

CWOs can also be called upon to assist ambulance crews with the most urgent emergency calls, such as cardiac arrests, as they have been trained by EEAST clinicians in providing basic life support. CWOs have attended over 150 Category 1 emergencies since November 2023. The winners will be announced at the HSJ Awards ceremony in central London on 21 November. I am delighted this fantastic partnership has been recognised and look forward to further celebrations in November 2024; a huge thank you to everyone involved.