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Home > Get involved > Membership > Annual General and Members’ Meetings > Minutes of the 2020 Annual General and Members Meeting

Minutes of the 2020 Annual General and Members Meeting

The minutes from our 2020 Annual General and Members Meeting held on 24 November 2020.

Held virtually via microsoft live, on 24 November 2020 at 4pm 

Present:

Miriam Harte, Chairman

Dr. Sara Baxter, Public Governor (Redcar and Cleveland)

Gemma Birchwood, Public Governor (Selby)

Dr. Posmyk Boleslaw, Appointed Governor (NHS Tees Valley CCG)

Mary Booth, Public Governor (Middlesbrough)

Sue Brent, Appointed Governor (Sunderland University)

Mark Carter, Public Governor (Redcar and Cleveland)

Anne Carr, Public Governor (Durham)

Emmanuel Chan, Staff Governor (Teesside)

James Creer, Public Governor (Durham)

Gary Emerson, Public Governor (Stockton on Tees)

Chris Gibson, Public Governor (Harrogate & Wetherby)

Anthony Heslop, Public Governor (Durham)

Brent Kilmurray, Chief Executive

Cllr Ann McCoy, Lead Governor and Appointed Governor (Stockton Borough Council)

Jules Preston, Public Governor (Harrogate and Wetherby)

Jean Rayment, Public Governor (Hartlepool)

Dr. Mojgan Sani, Public Governor (Stockton on Tees)

Sarah Talbot-Landon, Public Governor (Durham)

Jill Wardle, Public Governor (Durham) 

Note: Some attendees joined the event anonymously and this may have included governors.

In attendance:

Phil Bellas (Trust Secretary) 

Dr. Hugh Griffiths, Non-Executive Director

Angela Grant (Administrator) 

Prof. Pali Hungin, Non-Executive Director

Dr Ahmad Khouja, Medical Director

David Levy, Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development

John Maddison, Non-Executive Director

Ann Marshall, Deputy Director of Nursing

Paul Murphy, Non-Executive Director

Donna Oliver (Deputy Trust Secretary)

Kathryn Ord (Deputy Trust Secretary)

Sharon Pickering, Director of Planning, Commissioning, Performance and Communications

Shirley Richardson, Non-Executive Director

Liz Romaniak, Director of Finance and Information

Caroline Stokle, Communications Officer

Cameron Waddell, Mazars LLP

Hannah Warburton, Communications Manager

Apologies 

Lee Alexander Appointed Governor (Durham County Council)

Louis Bell, Staff Governor (Corporate)

Mike Brierley, Appointed Governor (NHS County Durham CCG)

Marie Cunningham Public Governor, (Middlesbrough)

Dr Andrew Fairbairn, Appointed Governor (Newcastle University)

Janet Goddard, Public Governor (Scarborough and Ryedale)

Ray Godwin, Staff Governor (Forensic)

Hazel Griffiths, Public Governor (Harrogate and Wetherby)

Ian Hamilton, Appointed Governor (University of York)

Dominic Haney, Public Governor (Durham) 

Ruth Hill, Director of Operations

Christine Hodgson, Public Governor (York)

Carol Jones, Public Governor (Rest of England)

Kevin Kelly, Appointed Governor (Darlington Borough Council)

Joan Kirkbride, Public Governor (Darlington)

Kirsty Kitching, Appointed Governor (NHS North Yorkshire CCG)

Audrey Lax, Public Governor (Darlington)

Keith Marsden, Public Governor (Scarborough and Ryedale)

Prof Tom McGuffog MBE, Public Governor (York)

Jacci McNulty, Public Governor (Durham)

Elizabeth Moody, Director of Nursing and Governance 

Rachel Morris, Appointed Governor (Teesside University)

Bev Reilly, Non-Executive Director

Gillian Restall (Stockton on Tees)

Graham Robinson, Public Governor (Durham)

Erik Scollay, Appointed Governor (Middlesbrough Council)

Zoe Sherry, Public Governor (Hartlepool)

Stan Stevenson, Public Governor (Hambleton & Richmondshire)

Cllr Helen Swiers, Appointed Governor (North Yorkshire County Council)

Cllr Stephen Thomas, Appointed Governor (Hartlepool Borough Council)

John Venable, Public Governor (Selby)

Ruth Walker, Appointed Governor (NHS Vale of York CCG)

Cllr Derek Wann, Appointed Governor (City of York Council) 

Judith Webster, Public Governor (Scarborough & Ryedale)

Welcome

The Chairman welcomed all attendees to the Annual General and Members’ Meeting of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust and advised that the purpose of the meeting was to present the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ending 31st March 2020. She was delighted that so many members of the public, staff and representatives of partner organisations had been able to join the event. 

Note: In addition to those named above, 122 people joined the event including public and staff members, stakeholders and the public. 

Prior to introducing presenters, the Chairman delivered the following statement: 

“The year ending 31st March 2020 is one that will live in my memory for a very long time. I must first remember the tragic deaths of two teenagers Christie and Nadia at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough in the summer of 2019. Furthermore, Emily, a former West Lane patient died at our Lanchester Road Hospital in February 2020. 

I can only imagine the devastation, grief and sadness that this has caused to their parents, families, friends and all who knew them. My Board, colleagues and I are profoundly sorry for these losses and regret that the care we provided did not keep these young people safe. Our promise is to be open and honest in understanding what went wrong, doing our best to provide any support that we can to the families and supporting fully the review and investigation processes.

The closure of West Lane Hospital in August 2019 was a severe blow to the Trust, not that we disagreed with the decision of the CQC. This again has made the provision of services to our community in Middlesbrough extremely difficult and has meant that additional patients needed to be sent out of area. This causes more distress and practical difficulties for patients and their carers and families. We are keen that this will be addressed by the reopening of some services in the New Year, run by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW).

The year 2019/2020 closed with the biggest health emergency in living memory. We are all aware of the many challenges and privations COVID 19 has brought. I must take this opportunity to sincerely thank all our staff, all our volunteers and students and trainees that joined the workforce. Their efforts and resilience have been tremendous with many going way above and beyond what was asked of them. There were countless acts of kindness and support in caring for our patients, families and our staff.  I would also like to take the opportunity to thank colleagues across neighbouring Acute Trusts, in the Local Authorities and charitable organisations that have equally risen to the challenge to support us in continuing to deliver key services in our communities.

We are two thirds of the way through a year dominated by COVID 19 but we look ahead to making TEWV a better place to work, and be treated, in the future. 

Thank you.”

Declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

Lead governor report

Prior to presenting her report Cllr Ann McCoy, Lead Governor, expressed her disappointment that she and her fellow Governors had only been able to say goodbye ‘virtually’ to the previous Chief Executive, Colin Martin. This had been due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place; however, they had wished him well for the future. She went on to welcome Mr. Kilmurray back to the Trust as the new Chief Executive and advised that Governors:  

  1. Had found their scrutiny role very important in relation to the concerns raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2019/20. An increased number of meetings of the Council had been held ‘virtually’, ensuring that Governors were kept informed of important issues and were able to raise concerns.  
  1. Were in agreement that the Trust should work towards providing excellent services for service users and carers and understood that it was doing all it could during the pandemic to deliver those services. However, Governors would continue to monitor the process as they were the “eyes and ears of service users, carers and the public as a whole”. 
  1. Had missed face to face meetings of the Council, particularly in relation to meeting and getting to know new Governors and being able to talk to others in person. They had agreed changes made to the Trust’s Constitution so that Council of Governors’ meetings could be held virtually and formal business could be conducted. 
  1. Wished to recognise the work and commitment shown by all staff and the difference they had made, and continued to make, during the pandemic.
  1. Thanked the Trust Secretary’s Department for their help and support in ensuring Governors were able to achieve what they needed to do. They were hopeful that face to face meetings could re-commence in 2021. 

The Chairman thanked Cllr. McCoy and the Council of Governors as a whole for their diligence in challenging the Board and providing support and insight. 

Annual report 2019/20

The Council of Governors received and noted:

  1. The Annual Report 2019/20 incorporating the Financial Statements for Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. 
  2. The External Auditor’s management letter for 2019/20 as prepared by Mazars LLP.

Copies of the above documents had been made available to attendees prior to the meeting on the Trust website together with a summary document which provided a review of the year. 

Review of the year

Mr. Kilmurray thanked everyone for joining the event and encouraged people to ask questions. He advised that this AGM, his first as Chief Executive, was being held later in the year than usual and delivered virtually for the first time. 

He too reflected on the devastating effect of the deaths of Christie, Nadia and Emily. These had been very sad and sombre events and he wished to offer his deepest condolences to their families, friends and loved ones. He was deeply sorry that the Trust had not kept them safe and advised that staff were working hard on making improvements with colleagues from CNTW, who had expertise in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), to establish an inpatient service at West Lane Hospital. This would allow vulnerable young people to once again be treated in their own community, close to their families and carers and not, as in many cases, sent many miles from home. It was hoped that this would reduce the anxiety and distress experienced by service users and their carers from travelling out of area. There were also plans for changing the name of West Lane Hospital and this was being progressed with the planned involvement of service users and carers. 

In giving an overview of the Trust’s performance for 2019/20, and its plans for the future, he advised of the following:

  1. The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had brought about significant changes to how services had been conducted and he wished to acknowledge how challenging it had been, and continued to be. He also thanked every member of staff for all they continued to do to protect patients and each other.  
  1. In March 2020 the Trust received a ‘requires improvement’ rating from the CQC. This had been disappointing but not surprising and the Trust was fully committed to improving this rating and learning from events to make services as safe as possible.
  1. There had been significant work undertaken which included: 
  1. Transforming services in North Yorkshire and York including: 
    • The opening of the new purpose built mental health hospital in York, Foss Park, where a huge effort had been made by the project team and also in engaging with staff, service users and carers. The work had been completed in 2019 and it was hoped that the opening of the hospital could be celebrated soon. 
    • Engagement with regards to the enhancement of community services in Harrogate and Rural District and Wetherby and the surrounding areas.
    • Work beginning on a new community mental health hub for Hambleton and Richmondshire in Northallerton.
  2. Improving Crisis Services for people living in County Durham, Darlington, Teesside, North Yorkshire and York after securing funding. 
  3. Improving Children and Young People’s Services with earlier intervention in educational settings by being involved in a new service providing specialist mental health support to vulnerable young people within their place of education.
  4. Prison Healthcare, delivering mental health services to prisons across the North East, Cumbria and northern Lancashire, in conjunction with voluntary sector partners. An NHS England tendering process during 2019/2020 had resulted in confirmation that the Trust would provide support into seven North East prisons for the next seven years, as part of a partnership with Spectrum Community Health CIC and Humankind. 
  1. In an effort to continually improve services the Trust continued to:
  1. Rollout the autism pathway to Adult Mental Health services, with the inclusion of staff training. 
  2. Work in partnership with the British Institute for Human Rights. 
  3. Develop perinatal services following the receipt of funding.
  4. Provide additional recovery and trauma informed training.
  5. Develop a new persistent physical symptoms service across County Durham.
  1. With regard to involving people and working in partnerships, work had included: 
  1. Integrated care systems where the Trust was increasing its role in planning, research and the involvement of service users and carers. 
  2. The ‘right care, right place’ programme. 
  3. Provider-led management of NHS commissioning budgets, working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and other providers. 
  4. A research partnership with York University and working with research councils, clinical networks and other bodies to increase the number of TEWV service users and services supporting research into mental health.
  1. Regarding the involvement of service users the Trust had: 
  1. Co-produced a celebration event held in December 2019 as a thank you to service users and carers to celebrate and thank people for their commitment and support in involvement activities. 
  2. Been awarded a second star in the national Triangle of Care membership scheme, recognising long-term commitment from mental health providers who are working to become more carer inclusive. 
  3. Organised an event for carers to celebrate the contribution of carers in 2019 (the 2020 conference unfortunately had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
  4. Set up ‘shadow’ Quality Assurance Groups (QuAGs) for service users and carers to enable more formal involvement. 
  5. Received significant feedback from ‘The Big Conversation’ on the importance of involvement of service users and carers.
  1. With regards to quality, each year the Trust sets itself a number of quality priorities of which full details are provided in the Quality Report (published under separate cover), however, the key priorities were: 
  1. Priority 1 – Improve the clinical effectiveness and patient experience in times of transition from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to adult mental health services.

The Trust was now part of an NHS England Transitions Collaborative. It was hoped that good practice could be shared and potential barriers to successful transitions could be overcome. Ways of doing this included the agreement of models for transition panels, the sharing of people’s experiences of transitioning and partner involvement.

  1. Priority 2 – Reduce the number of preventable deaths.

An action plan, from a family conference held in March 2019, had been produced and actions had been implemented in 2019-2020. The Trust’s policy on preventable deaths had been reviewed and amended, in line with new national guidance and the Trust had participated in all of the regional Mental Health Learning from Deaths Forum meetings during 2019-2020. 

  1. Priority 3 – Making care plans more personal.

A seven day trial of holding ‘personalising care planning’ workshops had been completed and evaluated. Around 90 people attended each workshop, including experts by experience and the feedback had been positive. However, the timing of the events had been considered too early given the need to attach the new Care Programme Approach (CPA) to the Trust IT systems. 

  1. Priority 4 – Develop a Trustwide approach to dual diagnosis which ensures that people with substance misuse issues can access appropriate and effective mental health services.

A review of Trust-wide dual diagnosis networks had been undertaken looking at how effective, sustainable and fit for purpose they were. Actions from the review had been implemented to encourage attendance from underrepresented groups and to make sure the networks were truly multi-agency. New reporting procedures were now in place so that incidents involving drugs and/or alcohol could be appropriately flagged. The involvement of peer support workers was being considered regarding how to better involve them with dual diagnosis work across the Trust area. This would include consideration of how a peer leadership network could be established.

  1. Priority 5 – Review our urgent care services and identify a future model for delivery. 

A Trust-wide urgent care conference was held in May and the second Trust crisis operational policy had been reviewed and released in 2019. As a result of the review, ambulance services now had the ability to check whether any person they were called to see had a mental health condition and/or had a crisis plan in place.

  1. With regards to staff:
  1. He wanted TEWV to be a place where all staff felt valued and were valued. 
  2. The Trust had launched its ‘Making a Difference Together’ programme which focused on supporting staff in maintaining their health and wellbeing, promoting a positive culture, developing leaders, celebrating good practice and making sure that people felt safe to speak up.
  3. There had been a welcome increase in the annual staff survey response rate from 30.5% in 2018 to 44.9% in 2019 and the Trust had performed better in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion; health and wellbeing and a safe environment.
  4. A recent evaluation of the use of coaching across the Trust showed that it had worked to improve staff wellbeing, confidence, ability to set goals and the ability to lead or manage teams. 
  5. He acknowledged that teams, services and individual staff from both corporate and clinical services had won awards during the year, including ones from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. 
  1. With regards to Performance: 
  1. He advised that performance had been monitored in many different ways, the detail of which was contained within the Annual Report. 
  2. It was important to listen to, and act on, what service users were telling the Trust. 91% of people who had used Trust services reported that their overall experience of TEWV had been good or excellent. 85% of service users reported that staff treated them with dignity and respect and 62% of inpatients had said that they always felt safe on the ward. However, it was clear that the Trust had not always ‘got it right’.
  3. There had been a significant increase in the demand in referrals, although waiting times continued to reduce.
  4. Over 83.5% of people had had their first appointment within four weeks, which had been a slight deterioration since last year. 61% of those people had started their treatment within six weeks which had been an improvement since last year. 
  5. 92.6% of staff completed mandatory and statutory training.
  1. With regards to future plans for 2020/21, Mr Kilmurray advised that although the Trust Business Plan had been approved, the Board recognised that progress and the delivery of some aspects of the plan might be limited due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Board would continue to review the scope and timescales of priorities within the Business Plan but the key themes for 2020/21 would be: 
  1. An overarching commitment to promoting recovery, including developing personalised care planning and trauma-informed care, provided by staff with the right skills and values and supported by digital technology. 
  2. A continuing focus on improving the quality of the Trust’s services and making sure they are purposeful and productive. 
  3. A focus on supporting the whole health and social care system to work in a more integrated, effective and efficient way.
  1. Looking forward, it was clear that the impact of COVID-19 would continue into 2020/21 and it was likely that it would have an impact on mental health services and the demand for those services for quite some time. However, significant work would be undertaken with regards to: 
  1. Digital transformation and how the Trust could work differently and innovatively.
  2. The Trust’s revised equality, diversity and human rights strategy for 2020–23. 
  3. The national development of ‘provider collaboratives’. 
  4. The launch of Our Big Conversation. 
  1. With regards to Our Big Conversation advised that:
  1. It had been launched in June 2020 and service users, carers, families, colleagues, partners and local communities had been asked to share their ideas, insight and experiences to help shape the future strategic direction of the Trust.
  2. 2,100 people had collectively shared more than 36,000 contributions which had been the largest listening exercise the Trust had undertaken.
  3. Every comment and idea shared had been read by the Trust’s Leadership Team and the data had been analysed by independent analysts. This had helped to gain an understanding of what needed to be focused on to make positive and meaningful changes.
  4. A two-day business planning event, attended by the Board, some senior leaders, service users and carers and partners, was held to discuss the results and gain an understanding of key areas. Those key areas were: 
  • What our Trust would look like if we got everything right (our purpose) 
  • The sort of organisation we want to become (our vision)
  • The behaviours that we all should expect from everyone who works here (our values)
  • The main things we should be working towards (goals)
  • Some key things we must get in place to make a new future possible (our priorities).
  1. A draft strategic framework had been reviewed and over the two days everyone had the opportunity to share their views on what they thought should be prioritised to really make change happen. 
  2. The revised strategic framework had then been presented to, and signed off by, the Board. These papers were available on the Trust’s website for anyone wishing to have more detail on ‘Our Big Conversation’.
  3. Key dates included:
    • Early January 2021, another event would be held with the Board of Directors, senior leaders, service users and carers and partners to scope out the priorities identified.
    • January 2021, a final version of the new purpose, vision, values and goals for our Trust would be shared with the Board for approval.
    • March 2021, the new Trust Business Plan for 2021/22 – 2023/24 would be shared with the Trust Board for approval.
    • April 2021, the embedding of the new purpose, vision and values would begin, whilst working towards newly defined goals and priorities.

Mr. Kilmurray thanked participants for joining the AGM. The full presentation of the Chief Executive can be found at Appendix 1 to these minutes.

Financial review

The newly appointed Director of Finance and Information, welcomed attendees and presented a review of the financial accounts for Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust for the year ended 31st March 2020.   

Mrs. Romaniak highlighted that the Trust had:

  1. In 2019/20, built on its strong financial performance from previous years.
  1. Achieved planned financial outcomes, including its “Control Total” which provided access to a centrally held Provider Sustainability Fund (PSF). 
  1. Delivered a planned overall finance ‘Use of Resources Rating’ of 1 which had been the best possible rating achievable.
  1. Paid a Public Dividend Capital, or required return on assets of 3.5% of average net assets, of £2.8 million (excluding daily cash balances). 

She confirmed that all of the above had indicated good financial management and meant the Trust had sustainable services which were good value for money. 

She also advised that: 

  1. The NHS had been facing financial challenges, even prior to COVID-19.
  1. There had been a deficit of income compared to expenditure of £16.1m including the following one-off items: 
  1. Building impairments (estate valuation) amounting to £27.6m.
  2. Prior year income adjustment of £0.1m.
  3. Excluding those, the adjusted Trust performance was a surplus of £11.4m, or £5.9m better than planned and 3.0% of Turnover.
  4. The EBITDA of 5.6% was 1.6% ahead of the planned 4.0%.
  5. Final debt repayments were made of a loan taken out in 2014/15.
  6. Total Assets were £178.8m by the end of the year, or £13.5m less than in March 2019.
  1. The operating income for 2019/20 had been £385.67 million. Income had reduced net but £34 million had been received as a one-off payment linked to the PFI contract termination. A reduction in income had also been offset by pension contributions and £4.1 million had been received from Non NHS and Local Authorities for specialist support packages for service users. 
  1. The operating expenditure for 2019/20 had been £398.47 million. There had been significant investment in staff through pay costs (£289.1 million) and costs relating to staff wellbeing.
  1. With regard to future challenges, it was important to focus on:
  1. How the Trust continued to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account its impact on service delivery, additional demand, acuity and back log in services and focusing on health inequalities. 
  2. Recurrent financial impacts and management of those.
  3. Workforce in terms of the recruitment and retention of staff, staff bank and any challenges caused by the pandemic.
  4. ‘System’ allocations from mid 2020/21 (Trust £2m deficit plan).
  5. Possible national implications in 2021/22 regarding financial arrangements as these were unclear at present due to the Pandemic. A spending review covering only 1 year was anticipated. 
  6. With regard to the IFRS 16 implementation, accounts for leases had been deferred for a further year from April 2020 due to the pandemic.
  7. The longer term economic impacts of COVID on public funds.
  8. The resourcing of Capital Plans, including Roseberry Park Hospital developments. 
  9. Focusing on key collaborations with partners regarding the learning disability transforming care commitments. 
  10. New priorities arising from ‘Our Big Conversation’ and how to prioritise resources.  

A copy of Mrs. Romaniak’s presentation can be found at Appendix 1 to these minutes.

External audit report

Mr Waddell, from Mazars LLP presented the findings of the Trust audit for the year 2019/20, together with a summary of external audit work undertaken.

He advised that the role of external audit was to:

  1. Provide assurance to the Governors and members about the performance of the Trust.
  1. Provide an opinion on the accounts of the Trust through a programme of testing each year.  
  1. Review the Trust’s Annual Governance Statement and Annual Report.  
  1. Report to the National Audit Office on the Trust’s consolidation schedules.

In terms of the outcome of the external audit, it was reported that:

  1. An unqualified opinion had been issued in the Trust’s Audit Report.
  1. The Accounts and External Audit had been successfully delivered by the revised deadline, despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  1. Effective joint working with the Trust had helped to ensure that the year-end audit had gone ‘smoothly’. 
  1. The Value for Money (VfM) Conclusion had been that there was no evidence to suggest that proper arrangements were not in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness. It was noted that the VfM conclusion would be provided in a different format going forward. 
  1. The Annual Report and Accounts had been of a good standard and provided a balanced overview of the year, including challenges faced, and work undertaken by Mazars LLP had identified few issues. 

A copy of Mr. Waddell’s presentation can be found at Appendix 1 to these minutes.

Agreed – The Council of Governors received and accepted the Annual Report and Accounts 2019/2020. 

Questions

Mr. Kilmurray lead a questions and answers session which included four questions submitted prior to the meeting and other questions taken during the event. 

The following questions/issues were raised:

Q1. How was the Trust handling Appeals in relation to detention under the Mental Health Act at the moment?

A1.    Mental Health Tribunals and Hospital Managers hearings were going ahead as they usually would, however, the format had been amended to reflect the situation. All Tribunals were held via video conferencing set up by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and in accordance with the Practice Direction they issued. Initial teething problems with technology were now resolved. Hospital Managers hearings were being heard via teleconferencing but we are about to update this and move to video conferencing via MS Teams to provide a better experience for patients, panel members and clinicians. 

In Q2 2020/21, 135 Hospital Managers hearings and 101 Mental Health Tribunals held.  

In Q3 2019/20, 155 Hospital Managers hearings, 108 Tribunals – last ‘normal’ activity quarter.

Q2. As a patient I’ve noticed a decrease in consistency with care coordinators, it is really important for a patient to build a relationship based on trust and stability. Is this going to change in near future?

A2.    From the work undertaken in the Right Care, Right Place programme and to date in the big conversation, issues regarding relationships and basic human connectivity between our staff, service users, carers and our partners has been a key factor along with the need to ensure seamless and joined up care.  In response to concerns raised by staff and service users alike, a significant amount of work was taking place to transform the care coordination process, to ensure service users were fully involved in care planning and all elements of their care to ensure it meets their individual needs, this includes training staff in Shared Decision Making. Through work being undertaken to implement the community mental health framework, which takes a system wide approach, and our refocus on the organisations purpose, values and behaviours, we believe that things will change.  As a result of this it was hoped that service users / carers / staff and partners would see and experience a change which would improve the health and well-being of the individual and local community making the individual feel valued and a valued member of society.

Q3.    Are there any training opportunities for volunteers within an NHS Trust?

A3.    All our volunteers receive mandatory training including Information Governance, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Infection Prevention Control. Volunteers have an induction which covers any role specific training that is required. We also support volunteers to access other relevant training that is available within TEWV. We want to ensure that our volunteers feel equipped to undertake their roles and as valued members of the team we encourage them to access the wide range of training that is available in the Trust.

Q4.    Is it possible that the time on waiting lists for therapy will be reduced as some people are waiting for quite a long time.  Are there any possibilities to get some help whilst waiting for the therapy?

A4.    We are aware that across the Trust there are several services where patients are waiting longer than we would have liked, some of which have been compounded by the pandemic. To help address the gaps and reduce waiting times, teams have been asked to develop plans to help address long waits which will be discussed and reviewed by a panel in December to identify if more can be done or further help is required. 

In relation to therapy services, everyone waiting for therapy should be being seen by someone else within the team in the interim by virtue of them having secondary care needs that are inherently more than one profession, however more long term; surge monies and community mental health framework transformational monies will help us to address the gaps in psychological therapy provision, for which transformational bids have been submitted. We hope to hear by January 2021 whether these bids have been successful.

Q5.    When will CITO come into operation?

A5.    This was discussed at a recent Board meeting. Cito had been in development since 2018 but it would be piloted in April 2021 and the roll out undertaken thereafter. A precise date for that would be issued in the new year. We will also be providing training and clinical support. 

Q6.    Given that everything has gone online, will this continue, and how will you support people to use IT?

A6.    Before COVID-19 we were a trailblazer site in North Yorkshire and York to use Attend Anywhere and MS Teams as an alternative to face to face or telephone appointments. It’s important that patients have a choice and that service users and carers decide what situation suits them best. We need to be clear on when face to face is needed and be careful not to have a 2 tier system where some people get a better service than others. There is digital poverty and it is difficult for some people to get the whole IT package they require. Unfortunately, not everyone feels safe talking to us in their own homes. 

Q7.    Government recently announced £3bn to tackle backlogs. Do we know if any of that will come to mental health?

A7.    Yes, half a million pounds is allocated for mental health. We are still waiting for a formal announcement and, as with all investment, there will be key priorities that we will need to achieve but it’s great news. 

Our Planning and Performance Department were working on trying to forecast what additional demand there might be for the Trust and NHS due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have had positive feedback on our work so far and we’ve shared our findings with commissioners. We have attracted some additional investment with 150 new members of staff recruited or in the process of being recruited now. 

Q8.     I welcome Brent to TEWV and thank him for his engagement with me since his arrival. Constituency MPs engage with many constituents with mental health issues. I would be grateful to learn about the Trust’s plans to better engage with MPs on the issues of mental health faced by their teams in dealing with constituents.

A8.     I am on the Board of NHS Providers. The Centre for Mental Health is also seeking to influence of Parliament and advocate for people who need investment.    

Q9.     Patient Experience, Carer Experience and Staff Experience are all being talked about as separate entities. Would you support a shift in culture to have a single ‘Experience of Care’? They both are very interlinked whether the care is provided to or provided by there are definite close relationships between them all.

A9.     In terms of goals, we need to improve the experience of people overall but it’s important to differentiate between service users, carers and staff. It’s critical that people have a good experience.

Q10.     What learning and improvement processes is the Trust putting in place to enhance inpatients’ feeling of safety while on a ward?

A10.     It is absolutely critical and fundamental that people feel safe and it’s a huge nursing priority. Learning from talking to service users and staff by looking at complaints, incidents and national feedback was important. Teams develop plans and co-produce those with service users. We take every opportunity to learn and ask what helps people to feel safe. It’s all about relationships and making sure staff have time to care. 

Procedural

The Chairman concluded the meeting and thanked the speakers, the Council of Governors and everyone who had joined the event. Personal thanks from the Chairman had been offered to the Board of Directors for their support over the last 18 months.  

The meeting closed at 5.20pm.

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