Roast Lamb! EDP: Second Norfolk NHS trust [NSFT] withdraws from mutual-ownership ‘pathfinders’ scheme

Mark Shields of the EDP reports: The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust’s decision follows the decision of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&N) to opt out of becoming one of nine pathfinder trusts examining mutual ownership. Chief executive Michael Scott said the decision had been taken by the board in light of feedback from […]

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EDP: Health minister ‘immensely disappointed’ as Norwich hospital ditches staff-ownership plans

Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: Mr Lamb, MP for North Norfolk and care minister, suggested the [Norfolk & Norwich] hospital dropped its interest in becoming a mutual because it was under investigation by regulator Monitor for persistently missing waiting time targets. “It is immensely disappointing,” Mr Lamb said. “I obviously understand that they are

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Kept in the Dark: BBC exclusively reports that Norman Lamb’s own acute trust abandons his mutuality Pathfinder programme

In an email to Unison, leaked to the BBC, the hospital’s head of communications Fiona Devine said: “Our particular interest in the project was to learn from others about their experience of enhanced staff engagement and the potential result in benefits for patients. “Since then, we have received further information about the project… in light

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Kept in the Dark: Saturday 7th February at 10.30 a.m. – Campaign talking about NSFT ‘mutualisation’ at the Curve, the Forum, Norwich NR2 1TF

We will be speaking alongside Professor Sue Richards, National Co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public and retired surgeon Anna Atthow. Please join us. Norfolk Keep our NHS Public Public Meeting 7th Feb @10.30am in the Curve, The Forum, Norwich Who Owns our NHS? Our NHS is steadily being destroyed. Since 2010, £10 billion of contracts have been

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Kept in the Dark: NSFT’s Mutualisation Application Part III

3. WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE LEVELS OF STAFF ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR ORGANISATION(S) AND THE MAIN CHALLENGES YOU CURRENTLY FACE TO IMPROVING THIS? Our staff engagement data is currently poor; NSFT scored very poorly in the 2013 NHS Staff survey, being in the bottom 20% of participants on many measures. Our overall staff engagement

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Computer Weekly: Health trust proposed offshoring mental care through Skype

More coverage of the Skype proposal from NSFT. Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s innovative proposals have now even made it into the computer industry trade press. Click on the image below to read the full article:  

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Kept in the Dark: NSFT’s Mutualisation Application Part II

2. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE MAIN BENEFITS OF THE MUTUAL MODEL IN ADDRESSING THE STRATEGIC CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED AT (1) ABOVE AND ON IMPROVING SERVICES TO PATIENTS? 1. Benefit: Employee engagement and morale. NAViGO (a mental health services mutual) reduced staff absence from 6.8% to <3% in the two years after mutualising, and has

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EDP: A half-way house to privatisation?

Care minister Norman Lamb denied yesterday that mutuals were a step to privatisation, after campaigners claimed the NSFT could leave the NHS. But a spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, which put in the Freedom of Information request, said: “Staff are up in arms about this. It is

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EDP: Move to improve staff morale causes an upset

Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: But in a move which has done nothing for staff morale the trust suggested employing workers in low wage countries to talk to mental health patients over Skype, in its application to secure government funding to research the project. The NSFT’s full application for government money to explore becoming

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health Skype ‘outsourcing’ causes concern

 Emma Corlett, spokeswoman for Unison at the trust, said: “Our view of the report is that it shows whoever did the application did not have a very clear understanding of the work frontline staff do or the way face-to-face therapy works. “We want a skilled and well-paid workforce here and we should not be looking

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Kept in the Dark: NSFT’s Mutualisation Application Part I

1. WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MAIN STRATEGIC CHALLENGES FACING YOUR ORGANISATION(S) AND HOW HAVE YOU ADDRESSED THESE TO DATE? 1. Challenge: Rising referrals, and falling revenues on historic block contracts, causing financial pressures. NSFT has demonstrated strategic leadership though implementing a merger of two previous trusts in 2012, and a full redesign and

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Kept in the dark: Some of NSFT’s ideas to improve staff engagement

Here are some of the ideas that the Board of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has told the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health it has planned to improve staff morale and engagement in its mutualisation proposals: “[NSFT] is now developing radical new plans to again reduce costs. These include a root-and-branch

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Kept in the dark: NSFT’s Board fails to share its intention to leave the NHS with its own Board of Governors, service users, carers and staff

Our initial consideration is converting the entire trust into a typical CIC. This would involve governance changes such as; refining our existing membership model (possibly reducing numbers to include only genuinely active members), a members board (replacing Governors) which will feed input into the main board, elected representatives of both members and of staff on the

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Keep our NHS Public: Health Warning – A mutual may be heading our way

Jan Ainsley from Keep our NHS Public writes: Michael Scott, Chief Executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), was “delighted” to be able to write to staff with good news. NSFT has been successful in its application to investigate becoming a mutual in the government’s “Mutuals in Healthcare Pathfinder” initiative. Sounds cuddly doesn’t

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