Thank you to those of you who joined us for February’s Team Brief.
This month we were given an update about long-term plans to increase car parking capacity at each of our hospital sites.
You can listen back to the recording, or read the written answers to all of the questions below:
As you are aware, on-site parking is really challenged across all of our sites. We have started looking at the possibility of building multi-storey car parks on each site. A company called Prime has scoped possible locations for each of these. Talks with Prime are still in the early stages, but we intend to sign a letter of intent with them. The next steps are for Prime to source planning permission, which will determine how high each car park could be, and therefore how many spaces they could have, and begin all the background work. They have anticipated this will take about 15 months to happen. At that point the construction work could begin, which would be at least another 18 months. This a long-term solution to on-site, and will impact car parking in the short-term. We will provide updates on this as it progresses.
The Executive Team answered a total of 46 questions. Out of the 49 submitted, three were not approved via the moderation. Those questions were about a specific department and were raised with the appropriate colleagues to pick up outside of Team Brief.
Some of the questions submitted via Slido were answered at CEO Connected on Tuesday 5 March. Written answers to those questions have been included below.
We are looking at a range of reward and benefit offers for colleagues, that we can financially and sustainably introduce. An update on this will be provided at March’s Team Brief. There is also a lot of work being done to ensure that morale is boosted for all in as consistent a way as possible.
This is something we are exploring as part of our health and wellbeing offer. There will be some enhancements to Occupational Health, and the Women’s Staff Network is looking specifically at the menopause support, which will include an end-to-end pathway with specialist inputs. We are hoping this will have a range of support with HRT-related issues, menstrual problems, pelvic pain, cervical cancer and other benign gynaecological problems.
The parking payments were recently changed to ensure colleagues paid the same amount across job roles, regardless of what site they worked at. It was agreed that the fairest way to implement this was via a salary sacrifice at a percentage of salary.
With the new multi-storey car parks discussed in the update above, we are doing our best to ensure there will be a pay-as-you-go option for staff. With our current infrastructure and technology, that is not something we are in a position to introduce just yet.
We are currently looking at the eligibility criteria for onsite parking at each site.
Due to ongoing concerns related to security and health and safety, it has been necessary to increase the security controls to the car park. Colleagues should use their ID badge to enter the park, which should not cause any delay or major inconvenience, however, if you do not have your badge, you can enter your vehicle registration on the appropriate terminal to enter the car park. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.
Looking at data from exit interviews when colleagues leave the organisation, between July 2022 and January 2024, 17 colleagues cited car parking as a contributing factor for leaving, and 43 colleagues commented on it. While none of them cited it as the main reason for wishing to leave the organisation, it was a contributing factor and themes included the cost, difficulty getting parking permits and the unavailability of parking spaces at times.
As much as is possible, it is important you spread your annual leave entitlement across the annual leave year, to ensure you get enough rest, for your own health and wellbeing. When carrying over up to five days of annual leave, we do encourage colleagues to take this within the first month of the annual leave year, to ensure you are not going too long without that rest. However, we do know this may not always be possible, so the procedure does allow for flexibility for this to be extended with agreement from your line manager. We would not expect managers to unreasonably deny this, but would like them to work with you to ensure there is a plan to factor that important rest time in.
We do not want to be in a position where colleagues need to buy annual leave and then later sell it, in order to take their annual leave at a time that suits them. Hopefully the flexibility within the carry over procedure will help with this.
Updated guidance on this is now live on the COVID-19 microsite.
This is really concerning, particularly given how clear we have tried to be about the types of behaviours that are acceptable, and those that will not be tolerated as an organisation. We have recently launched the behavioural framework, and we will be working with individuals to make sure there is even more clarity about the behaviours that are in line with our values and those that are unacceptable.
While there were no other events hosted by the Trust for Race Equality Week, there is a lot of working being undertaken to promote race equality, fairness and anti-discrimination across the organisation. This includes ensuring all our colleagues are treated fairly at work and working to improve health inequalities for our patients, colleagues and local communities. This is a priority for us as an organisation year-round.
We all agree with this statement.
This is something we have been discussing as an Executive Team with the co-chairs of the BAME Staff Network. While the BAME Staff Network is in the process of changing its name, we are also looking at the language we use as an organisation more generally. There are some guiding principles from the NHS Race and Health Observatory, which will form a good guide for us. We want to ensure that we equip colleagues with the confidence to use the new language and terminology, that allows everybody to feel safe to have conversations. We will provide a further update on this soon.
This training opportunity is a national initiative that has been introduced as a development opportunity to encourage colleagues from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background to progress in the field of statistics.
Homophobic behaviour is unacceptable and is taken very seriously. If you feel comfortable to share experiences of when you have experienced or witness this behaviour, please do raise them via one of our confidential routes.
We see caring and compassionate care in our hospitals every day, however we know that is not always the case. Some of you may see it first hand, and we do get poor feedback from patients and visitors in some areas. We are changing our approach to patient feedback and working towards become more proactive in its collection. While we do have some good proactive measures of patient experience, there is more we can do, and we are looking at other trusts to learn from them and improve that at UHB. This will also mean applying some interventions in those areas where the experience for patients and visitors is not as good as we would like it to be.
The role of the Freedom to Speak Up service is not to investigate, attribute blame, or advocate for colleagues. It is there to provide colleagues with a route to have their voices heard, when they feel they cannot do this via other routes, and to protect them from detriment from raising concerns. To enable this service to do that, the aspect of confidentiality is important. The Freedom to Speak Up Guardian works with the organisation to promote reflective learning and a restorative approach to resolving concerns. To date the service has assisted over 600 colleagues. It is important to remember that those individuals are usually in distress and anxious about detriment, it is not a decision they take lightly. They may be correct, partially correct, or in fact incorrect in their accusations, but it is rarely vindictive. We must ensure that regardless, their concerns are investigated fairly. If those concerns are about you, it is important that we consider how we respond to them, role modelling the attitudes and behaviours we would expect from others. We must ensure we handle these concerns in as empathic manner as possible.
This is disappointing to hear and should not be the case. If you are aware of specific examples, please get in touch with Cathi Shovlin, Chief People Officer, so this can be looked into.
Recent rounds of very senior recruitment, including recruitment to the Executive Team, has involved very open and transparent, rigorous, and competitive recruitment processes. The majority of which included external panel members. This process will be adopted for all leadership positions within the organisation.
We do also benefit from having fair recruitment experts who can be utilised on any recruitment panel as an independent member to ensure the process is fair from shortlisting to hiring.
There is a course entitled ‘Clinical foundation programme’ which is available for all nurses who are starting in the role after their initial preceptorship or induction. It is a two-and-a-half day course, which will help you with the theory. However, anyone who is struggling is encouraged to speak to their line manager to identify the areas they wish to develop so they can ensure they get individualised support.
This role was advertised internally on this occasion. There were four candidates who were shortlisted for interview.
We are committed to ensuring there is flexibility for all. However, we do unfortunately hear that this is not necessarily being experienced by everyone. We are addressing these issues through a range of routes, including the work of the Culture and Inclusion Oversight Group.
If you are experiencing difficulty with this, either as a member of a team or a manager, please contact the Organisational Development Team, who are able to help you find solutions.
Email: Organisationaldeveopment@uhb.nhs.uk
We will rethink how these updates are given once we get into April. Many of the targets and milestones we need to reach take us to the end of March 2024, so while they remain a priority for us, these updates will continue at CEO Connected.
This will be looked into and considered by the Uniform Group.
While the Long Service Award ceremonies have been an excellent opportunity to celebrate our colleagues’ years of service, there has been a lot of learnings for us since we launched the next process last year. Changes will be made for this next year, with a more localised approach via the new operating model and site-based leadership teams to ensure colleagues feel much more appreciated during the process. However, we will still need colleagues to apply for their long service award, because we do not yet have sufficient and reliable data, particularly for those colleagues who have reached their 25 or 40 years of service.
This has been clarified, and updated information is now available on the intranet:
The work is to deliver a two-year carbon reduction infrastructure project to install a new air source heat pump with new pipework, to supply heat to the Heritage Building. It is common in complex projects such as this for there to be delays, which causes work to be paused – this has been the case with this project. The main bit of work, which is creating the noise, is due to be completed by the end of next week – after this, all heavy plant and machinery will leave the site, which should significantly reduce the noise disruption. The main air source heat pump equipment will arrive in April, and there may be some more disturbance, but it has been agreed with the contractor that they will do their best to keep this to a minimum as affect the departments and teams in the surrounding areas as little as possible.
Fiona Alexander, Director of Communications, asked the individual who wrote this question to get in touch with her directly, so we can ensure that photograph is not used in any other area or reprints of the jigsaw artwork.
Email: Fiona.Alexander@uhb.nhs.uk
This was initially a pilot initiative, but we are pleased to say we were recently successful in our grant to UHB Charity to enable us to continue resourcing this from a centralised budget. It will continue to be managed by the Inclusion Team and further resource will be with the team shortly to enable them to pick up new requests. Managers do remain responsible for processing all access to work claims, with the Inclusion Team available to offer support and advice.
We have asked the IT Team to pick this up at a monthly IT Team Brief meeting.
This list was lost following a recent upgrade of iProc and the teams are working to bring it back. In the meantime, if you need to look at the catalogue, please contact the procurement team who can provide you with a link.
This is something we are looking to introduce as part of our wellbeing offer to improve the experience of women in the workplace.
The ‘In the Loop’ web page contains the past four weeks’ worth of content that you receive via email, allowing colleagues to catch up on anything they may have missed or need to find again. For many, this is really useful. However, to avoid any confusion, the team has now started to label on the page, where content from each week begins and ends.
Any member of staff, regardless of job role, is eligible for a career break as per our work life balance policy. You can find more here:
Space is an issue across all of our sites. The QEHB Leadership Team will review the office space, and if a solution cannot be found for those current offices, we will discuss with the Education team about the possibility of finding a better location for those conversations to take place.
The Edmunds Birmingham Transplant Centre will be based in the east block of the Heritage Building. Some of the enabling works have already started and we anticipate the centre opening in the autumn of this year.
The old directory used an old database and was on an old server that had to be decommissioned. rDirectory, which is same as the one used by Switchboard and allows colleagues to keep their own information up-to-date, has now replaced this and is available from the intranet.
The Dining Room, formally Café One, in the main entrance of Heartlands Hospital is not a Trust-owned or managed retail facility. Therefore we are unable to share details of the menu on our intranet site. You can access the menus for all our restaurants on the intranet.