Tracy Talks November 2017 As I introduce the November edition of Tracy Talks, I’m reeling from how quickly time is passing, how much is happening and the scale of what we’re involved with.

In my last edition, I highlighted the risk that flu poses to us as a critical part of the NHS system and now as we enter the winter, I would very much urge you to ensure that you and those around you – family, friends and colleagues – are protected from what can be a fatal infection for some of our patients. There have been helpful flu myth-busters messages shared on our social media channels and it’s also been great to see some colleagues sharing photos and videos with us to encourage colleagues to get their flu jab too so my thanks for that. There are flu vaccination clinics taking place regularly – you can see the timetable here – so please make the time to go along and get yourself vaccinated.

There has been a huge amount of work for some months but which was peaking in October in readiness for the go live of the new Computer-Aided Dispatch system in all three of our CCCs. My thanks to every single one of you for your efforts in such a significant development for our organisation. I’ve given you some space to deal with and settle into the change but I’m looking forward to spending some time with you soon where I can see the new system in action.

It was good to hear about five of our NEPTS Ambulance Care Assistants from Central and West who have successfully completed their Mentorship Course. Mentoring is about one person helping another to achieve something in a way that empowers them in moving forward with confidence towards achieving their goal, whatever that may be and is a great example of how we can help each other to be our best. Congratulations to Danielle Erasmus (Llandovery), Anne Bevan and Dean Thomas (Swansea), Darren Hopkins (Neath) and Byron Williams (Tenby) who will all now receive a Level 3 qualification in Mentoring.

As you’re aware, we’re taking our Executive Management Team meetings around the country so we had another of these drop-in sessions in Vantage Point House on 4 October. There was a really good turnout of colleagues which left us with standing room only I’m pleased to say. We had some lively debate and topical questions – from office accommodation to staff structures and Christmas arrangements – with lots of helpful feedback so I was really encouraged with the response from those who attended. Thank you! Our next drop-in session is taking place on 6 December at Dyfed-Powys Police headquarters in Llangunnor so I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible as we continue to engage more closely on issues that affect us.

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National Re-Start a Heart Day on 16 October was another successful campaign for us this year where 12,000 schoolchildren across Wales had a lesson in life-saving CPR. You may have seen from the media coverage that both First Minister of Wales and Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport, Vaughan Gething, both visited participating schools. My thanks go to all colleagues and volunteers who put in months of work to make this important initiative possible.

October was Black History Month and we held our first ever Listening and Learning Event at Chapter Arts in . For us as a public service looking to strengthen race equality in our workforce, we wanted to use Black History Month as an opportunity to learn how to create more equal and inclusive conditions for our Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) colleagues, and better engage with our BME communities. Our event was attended by ministers, namely and Vaughan Gething, as well as colleagues from the police and fire service and Local Health Boards. Whilst we know we still have lots more work to do on this agenda, the event will have sent a powerful message to people both within and outside the organisation that we are genuinely committed to improving diversity and inclusion and it can only have enhanced our reputation as Trust.

Following on from this event, we were delighted that Yvonne Coghill from the National Workforce Race Equality Standard team joined us for two days later in the month to see the work we are doing within Wales. Yvonne is very insightful and is helping us on our journey to having a workforce that is more representative of our communities we serve across Wales. We have committed to setting up a BME staff network so that we can learn from the ‘lived experience’ of our own staff, and colleagues interested in joining that network should keep an eye out on Siren or speak to our Equalities Lead, Jane Poulter.

When I say that our annual national Staff Awards ceremony is one of the highlights of the year, I mean this wholeheartedly. This was about to take place just before my blog in October and even though I was looking forward to it, I don’t think I fully appreciated how proud it would make me feel on the night. Even though I had already reviewed the nominations, I was absolutely blown away listening to them being read out on the night by this year’s host, the BBC news anchor Sian Lloyd. Held in Llandudno’s Venue Cymru, the ceremony is the culmination of all awards and recognition from throughout the year and gives us the chance to reflect and pay tribute to those contributions and achievements – from long service awards presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Clwyd, to the sponsored internal categories. Many of our stakeholders were there to bear witness to the difference you are making – directly or indirectly – to our patients. The support from our sponsors made this scale of event possible for us, and from speaking to many of you on the night I know how much it was appreciated that we finally have a calibre of event that celebrates the value and worth of our workforce. It was quite an emotional night at points and it was heartening when two of our

Page | 2 colleagues received standing ovations – that was fab. Our Trust Choir even made their official debut. If you haven’t seen the photos from the event you can take a look here as well as being able to download them from the official photographer’s website (free of charge – prints can be ordered at cost).

There has also been more recognition and success for colleagues in external awards. Julian Rudge won the South Wales Argus Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Falls Response Service – having celebrated its first birthday in October – was successful in winning the Best Innovation Award having provided assistance in the Aneurin Bevan area to more than 1,000 patients following a fall. Another excellent example of where our staff are making a real difference to our patients.

I meant to say in my last blog that our Clinical Contact Centre (CCC) colleagues have also had their hard work paid off having been successfully awarded Centre of Excellence status for all three of our CCCs. The accolade, from the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch, recognises the high standards of care delivered by our call handlers and all staff who receive, process and dispatch help to patients. With more than 3,000 emergency medical dispatch centres who use the same call handling system worldwide, managing around 65 million incidents per year and currently only 250 centres which have achieved accreditation as a Centre of Excellence – the scale of this achievement shouldn’t be underestimated. This is fantastic recognition of the high quality of our 999 call taking and dispatch teams and well done to everyone in our contact centres. You should be very proud.

We are going ahead with the implementation of the Band 6 paramedic business case. This is a unique deal for Wales and we are keen to build on the goodwill and strengthened partnership working relationships to maximise the opportunities this development will bring. The 28 October 2017 was a significant milestone for the project and marked the end of the 28-day period our Paramedics had to notify us of whether they wish to step across to the Emergency Medical Technician Three (EMT3) role or complete the competencies as a Band 6 paramedic. We will continue to keep you updated of the project’s development and skill mix implications as the picture becomes clearer and will continue to support you through your journey to achieve the required competencies.

I’d like to welcome on board seventeen of our newly qualified Emergency Medical Technicians who were formally presented with their epaulettes by our Director of Operations Richard Lee at the EMT attainment ceremony at Cefn Coed on 27 October. From what I’ve seen and heard it was a lovely afternoon and I know our Director of Workforce and Organisational Development Claire Vaughan was thrilled that younger family members were there to join in the celebration – even trying their hands at some CPR – never too early to learn this! I hope you are all enjoying your roles now that you have started at your base stations.

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The Dementia Plan Launch event at Vantage Point House on 27 October profiled our work that has gained us recognition as a dementia friendly organisation. Supported by the Alzheimer’s Society, some personal stories were generously shared with colleagues by those patients who attended the launch, all of which helps us in our understanding of how to deliver the best possible standards of care for specific patients’ needs. Many of you have already signed up to being a Dementia Friend but if you haven’t and would like to find our more, you can contact the Patient Experience and Community Involvement Team.

Towards the end of October we shared a patient story about one of our patients who desperately needed our help. Rhys Parker, 31 and from Newbridge, suffered four cardiac arrests from an undiagnosed heart condition. Rhys wanted to meet and thank those who helped save his life and share his story as a way of recognising the excellent care he received. Here is Rhys pictured with Mark Sutherland (Paramedic, Aneurin Bevan) who was first of the scene and who was delighted to see Rhys back on his feet just six weeks after the incident happened. You can read all about this emotional story here.

We welcomed the announcement by Vaughan Gething on 5 October that Welsh Government was investing £8.2m for new operational vehicles. This investment will bring 18 new Emergency Ambulances, 67 Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) and five specialist Hazardous Area Response Team vehicles to replace the existing fleet – all vital to help us deliver the best possible care to our patients.

We also took part in the Winter Planning Forum national event, held in Cardiff on 11 October which discussed how local planning arrangements can be enhanced. All organisations were asked to take their Winter Plan for 2017/18 and highlight the top three high-impact actions and initiatives. It was a productive and helpful session which really focussed minds on resilience within our NHS Wales organisations and how we break the cycle together.

As usual, my diary this month has been jam-packed with various events and activities which are helping us to shape, influence and inform NHS Wales and the wider public sector – whether that’s through sharing our transformation journey or helping to recruit the right talent...

At the Joint Executive Team meeting at the start of the month, I along with my Executive Team and presented our organisational highlights from the previous six months and discussed our mid-year position across a number of areas to senior NHS Wales officials from Welsh Government. We highlighted a number of achievements, such as the appointment of senior staff into the Operations Directorate, launch of our new stakeholder newsletter Ambulance Matters, successful completion of the Band 6 paramedic negotiations and the successful roll out of 111 in Carmarthen to name a few. In a letter from Simon Dean (Deputy Chief Executive, NHS Wales) following our presentation, it was acknowledged that “…this has been another good six months” for our Trust and that we are in “a strong position to maintain the improvement seen over recent months for the remainder of the

Page | 4 year.” We welcomed this assessment on where we even though we retain a strong focus on further improvement, recognising that there are significant challenges and opportunities ahead, I’d like to thank every single one of you for what you have done to achieve this position.

We enjoyed a very interesting Trust Board Development Day in Cardiff on 10 October which covered a number of topics, including safeguarding, the new NEPTS Commissioning Framework, the implementation of the Computer Aided Dispatch system and also the Emergency Services Mobile Communication programme. Thanks to all colleagues who came along to update us and give us a greater insight to these pieces of work.

The Health Education Wales Programme Board met in early October on which I represent NHS Chief Executives to help advise and drive on the delivery of Health Education Wales (HEW), a new organisation which will form part of the NHS and sit alongside Health Boards and Trusts. The purpose of HEW is to deliver strategic workforce planning across NHS Wales; education commissioning to ensure that education and training resources at a national level are focussed on strategic priorities; identifying roles needed within the NHS to address changes in workforce and delivery of care; workforce intelligence systems; the promotion of NHS Careers.

I agreed to be part of the interview panel for the NHS Wales Future Generation Finance Director Talent Pipeline Pool last month, a senior panel looking at finance directors for the future. We have much talent in NHS Wales and it’s good to see programmes like this preparing our people for future roles.

In the morning I was delighted to be invited to attend a leadership management event on October 25 hosted by Chwarae Teg. I was asked to share our journey and success of our organisation so far. I talked about my leadership journey the tips and principles that have helped me along the way as well as the work we have done on embedding our Trust Behaviours to create the environment for us all to flourish. In the afternoon, I – along with our Chair Mick Giannasi – made a presentation to the Qualifications Wales Board about the learning we have taken from cultural and transformation journey so far. Both of these events made me realise that it’s remarkable how other organisations can learn from the progress we’re making. We might think organisations are different but actually the challenge of leadership and culture change is relevant to all types of organisations. Here at the Trust we wanted to be a leading organisation and this is evidence of how we are perceived to have made way in achieving that.

I am a support of continuous development for us all – including myself - which is why I made sure I attended the Women of Wales event, which took place in Chepstow on 26 October. It would be quite easy to put off important thinking and ‘headspace’ time for ourselves with all of life’s competing priorities but these sessions really do give me a chance to reflect, re-charge and recalibrate on my role. As well as maintaining my own resilience it also allows me to stay abreast with public sector colleagues which is helping us to be the best leaders we can be. I always come away from these sessions with a clearer head and vision for what I need to focus on next, not to mention a better sense of wellbeing.

Looking ahead…

Our next Trust Board meeting is on Thursday 14 December, and this time we will be in at the Selwyn Samuel Centre in Llanelli. As usual, our Trust Board will take place in the morning but our afternoon session will be dedicated to engaging with our workforce and stakeholders. If you haven’t been to one of these sessions I would really encourage you to do so. This next engagement session will be focussing on safeguarding issues. Full details about Trust Board are here.

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Details about the Emergency Services Carol Concerts both in north and south Wales have now been published. I’m always really keen that we have a presence at these events where we stand alongside our blue light partners from fire and police to commend the vital services of our respective workforces and volunteers. I’ve been pleased that we have steadily increased our attendance at these – here I am pictured at last year’s Cardiff service with Ian ‘Sarge’ Price and Chris Sims – so I’d really encourage you to go along and represent us if you are able. The service is on Monday 11 December at St Asaph Cathedral the south Wales service is on Thursday 14 December at Cathedral in Cardiff.

This blog (and vlog) is one of the ways in which we are steadily improving the way in which we communicate but we want to know what you would find helpful. There is a Communications Survey live at the moment where we are asking for your views. We are looking forward to finding out more about what you think of my blog/vlog in amongst other things so we can continue to build on our communications activities. You can let us have your views here, and the survey only takes a few minutes to complete.

Finally on a personal note, I will share with you my ‘first towing’ exploits when Dee and I took our new caravan away during October half term. We had a wonderful few days in Hereford and, even though it was quite cold, it felt great to have some rest and relaxation and get out in the fresh air. On a day trip to Hay-on-Wye I met a friendly bunch of colleagues and enjoyed spending some time chatting to them whilst they supported fire and police colleagues following a fire. The whole ‘van’ trip was a success although somehow – and I don’t honestly know how I managed to do this – I manoeuvred the caravan into the side of my car… as I was towing it! Jack-knife I think this what it’s called! I was going very slowly and in the caravan park so no harm was done thankfully. Needless to say, any towing advice and handy tips would be warmly welcomed.

On that note, I’ll leave you until my last blog of 2017, and hope to see you out and about on my travels.

Take care, Tracy

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