Section 3: Model employer
Objective for 2008/11: To develop an efficient, skilled and adaptable workforce
Barts and The London employs nearly 7,000 staff, and an additional 1,000 are employed by our private-sector partner in the new hospitals programme to provide vital non-clinical support services across our hospitals. Our ability to recruit and retain staff of the highest calibre in all areas is crucial to our ongoing ability to offer patients the best possible care. To this end, we offer a range of training, development and educational opportunities for staff at all levels.
We work collaboratively with our academic partners, especially those at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and at St Bartholomew School of Nursing and Midwifery, to support the effective planning and commissioning of education to meet the changing workforce needs of healthcare organisations across north-east London in the future.
In June 2007, our human resources directorate won two awards and was runner-up for a third in the Excellence in Human Resource Management awards 2007. The awards are run by NHS Partners and the Healthcare People Management Association to recognise and promote excellence in human resource management in health and social care services.
A great place to work
Equal opportunities for all
Barts and The London is committed to eliminating discrimination and promoting diversity and equality of opportunity in all we do. It is our policy to ensure that no service user, employee or job applicant is treated less favourably on the grounds of their sex, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, social background, marital status, hours worked, responsibilities as a carer, trade union activities, unrelated criminal conviction, or blood borne virus status.
We recognise that promoting equality of opportunity and tackling inequality, discrimination and harassment are central to our vision for an open, inclusive listening organisation. This is especially important given the size and diversity of our workforce, as well as of the communities we serve.
We have several policies to help us achieve this vision, including disability and race equality schemes, with a special steering group reporting directly to the Trust board. Our policy in relation to employing people with disabilities recognises our social and moral obligation to play a significant role in providing for the employment of people with disabilities and we strive to meet and exceed our legal obligations in this regard.
In September 2007, senior staff participated in a community partnership event for organisations across Tower Hamlets to consider equality within health and social care locally. Nearly 90 people attended, including patients, charities, support groups, carers, service users and staff from NHS and social care organisations. Discussions focused on seven main topics – age, gender, faith, learning disability, disability, racial equality and sexual orientation – and looked at what is and isn’t working well and how improvements could be made.
Listening to our staff
For the first time in several years, the annual NHS staff survey was sent to all staff at Barts and The London instead of to a randomly selected group, as in previous years. Carried out in autumn 2007, the survey attracted the highest response rate ever at Barts and The London with 2,386 staff – 38 per cent – taking part.
Although much of the feedback was positive, there are key areas where we need to make improvements. In particular, we need to make a greater effort to ensure that staff feel that their work is recognised and valued, to empower staff to have greater control over their work environment and outputs, and to improve how we recruit, equip and support good managers and challenge performance where this is not as good as it could be. A series of open meetings was held in April and May 2008 to give staff a chance to find out more about the findings of the survey and to suggest how to take forward the findings and make the necessary changes.
As well as formal mechanisms such as the staff survey, Barts and The London has in place a range of initiatives to encourage staff feedback. These include team meetings, focus groups and open meetings for all staff, as well as measures such as intranet polls to test opinion on specific topics.
Celebrating success
Now in their third year, our annual Celebrating Success awards were presented at a special ceremony in April 2008. The awards recognise the achievements of staff working across our hospitals. This year, 16 teams were nominated for the Excellence in Teamwork award and 28 staff were nominated for the Outstanding Individual award. Eight teams received nominations for the new Team Excellence in Safety award. The ceremony also includes awards for educational achievement and long-service awards for staff who have worked at our hospitals for more than 25 years.
Award-winning line management support
Barts and The London’s HR Consult service took first prize in the innovation category of the 2007 Excellence in Human Resource Management awards. HR Consult comprises an intranet tool, e-HR, that gives managers quick and easy access to policies and frequently asked questions, as well as a one-to-one employee-relations communications centre, and a team of specialist HR consultants to give advice and support on line management issues. Both HR Consult and e-HR have attracted considerable interest from other NHS organisations as models of good practice.
Recruitment initiatives
Innovative new website for nursing staff
In October 2007, we launched an innovative new interactive website – www.lifeatbartsandthelondon.com – to communicate directly with nurses about career opportunities at our hospitals.
Through the views of existing Barts and The London nurses, written blog-style in their own words, the website describes what working at our hospitals is like and includes information about career development and training opportunities, flexible working hours and childcare options.
Nurses can also register on the website to receive email alerts of new posts when they are advertised.
Local recruitment initiatives
Barts and The London continues to support the Health and Science Pathway East London (HASPEL) project. In collaboration with Tower Hamlets College and Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust, the project aims to attract and train 16 to 18-year-olds for careers in healthcare from the local community.
HASPEL complements our award-winning Action for Community Employment (ACE) project. Developed with Employment Solutions, a not-for-profit consortium that helps Tower Hamlets residents find jobs, ACE has so far helped several hundred local people gain entry-level posts in our hospitals.
In May 2007, we developed the ACE initiative further by introducing ACE Placements in association with Skillsmatch, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ flagship job brokerage service, part of the Employment Solutions partnership. The new scheme allows hospital departments that need new administrative staff or medical laboratory assistants to ‘try before they buy’ by offering work experience to local people. All potential candidates are interviewed prior to placement to ensure that only the most suitable applicants participate.
As well as supporting the wider regeneration of the local area by boosting employment opportunities, programmes such as ACE and HASPEL ensure that the make-up of staff at Barts and The London more closely represents our hospitals’ diverse localities.
More flexible nursing staff levels
A new skill mix tool piloted at Barts and The London and launched nationally in November 2007 is helping us to deploy nursing staff more effectively. The patient care portfolio acuity/dependency tool uses a quick and simple four-stage process to calculate how many staff are required, according to patient numbers and how much care they need (their acuity).
The tool is especially useful on wards where the patient mix changes quickly, as it enables nurse leaders to decide easily on their correct establishments. It also provides a real picture of what is happening on our wards in terms of acuity.
Education, training and development
Building strong medical leadership
Barts and The London is committed to becoming a clinically-led organisation and needs excellent medical leaders to lead and work alongside multi-professional colleagues in high-performing teams. These leaders need to work in partnership with our academic colleagues, local primary care trusts and other organisations to shape the future of health care in north-east London.
Clinicians lead our new structure of divisions and clinical academic units, and in 2007/08 we prioritised the development of future medical leaders through a dedicated leadership team working with our most recent consultant intakes from all specialities.
The leadership programme, which includes bespoke modules and access to coaching, has the potential to be offered more widely to consultants in other NHS trusts across London. It also provides us with a mechanism for tracking talent and involving doctors at an early stage in new initiatives.
Involvement in City University Assessment
Assessors from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) visited our hospitals in February 2008 as part of its annual review of St Bartholomew School of Nursing and Midwifery – part of City University – and its associated hospitals. The assessment aims to ensure that the standards set for nursing and midwifery pre-registration programmes are being met.
The university received and overall rating of satisfactory with a good rating in three of the categories: quality assurance, resources and admissions.
“Students highly value the quality of teaching and support they receive in both academic and clinical environments.” Nursing and Midwifery Council assessment team.
Students leading the way
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry has put into practice a learning experience suggested by one of its third-year medical students. The student, who spent much of her spare time working with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) and a London Ambulance Service (LAS) paramedic reasoned that other students could also be involved. In response, the medical school, HEMS and the LAS have developed a series of linking elective modules for students, and a pilot for the programme got underway in late 2007.
European accreditation for urology training programme
Barts and The London’s urology unit was accredited by the European Board of Urology (EBU) for its residency training programme in October 2007. The unit is only the second in the UK to achieve Europe-wide accreditation, putting Barts and The London in a strong position to attract trainees and fellows from across the continent. Accreditation was awarded following a detailed assessment of the unit against a range of standards, including number of beds, number of operations performed, number of staff and number of research programmes and publications.
Learning and development for team leaders
Barts and The London has developed a bespoke programme for team leaders at Agenda for Change bands five and six to enhance the career development pathway for current and future leaders and managers. The multi-professional programme, launched in May 2008, includes classroom, one-to-one sessions, e-learning and mentoring. It has been developed in partnership with Westminster Kingsway College and is accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Developing e-learning opportunities
Our e-learning centre is a six-computer facility that offers access to online courses to provide a more flexible way of learning during office working hours. Courses include diversity awareness, appraisal techniques and stress management.
Skills pledge
We recently signed up to the Government’s skills pledge, which commits us to developing all staff, particularly those in more junior bands. A learning needs analysis got underway in April 2008 to establish the career, service and personal development needs and wishes of staff in Agenda for Change bands one to four, with a view to working both in-house and with local providers to offer the necessary learning for this group of staff.