The Thick of: NSFT Comms: New role for Head of Recovery and Participation

NSFT Comms writes:

Our Head of Recovery and Participation is to take up a new role to drive through urgent operational matters while making the case for reintroducing primary care link workers across Norfolk and Waveney.

There is no employee better placed than [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] to make the case for the restoration of link workers, given his role as Kathy Chapman’s spreadsheet junkie during the removal of link workers in the radical redesign cuts.

The restoration of link workers has been one of our campaign’s six demands since November 2013: for over five years. How fantastic that [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] is being given the chance to redeem himself and undo the enormous damage caused by the sacking of link workers.

We are sure that service users, carers, GPs and, most of all, the link workers who lost their jobs, will be delighted to see [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] in his new role promoting link workers.

[CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] will become the Locality Manager for west Suffolk from today (21 January).

Norfolk’s loss is Suffolk’s gain.

It seems eminently sensible that [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] should be an operational manager in Suffolk, whilst taking a strategic role in Norfolk. It doesn’t take too long to drive from Bury St Edmunds to Norwich. Just last week, [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] was playing wingman to Antek Lejk at the Norfolk County Council Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee; this week he’s going to be running mental health services in West Suffolk.

The move comes as part of our ongoing management review, which the Executive team is carrying out to make sure we have the right people in the right roles to lead improvement projects across the Trust.

[CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] demonstrated his dedication to the role of Head of Recovery and Participation on the day he accepted his appointment, when he took the job and the Band 8c salary knowing that the service user and carer panel thought he was unappointable. It shows how much he wanted the job.

[CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] again proved he was the man for the job shortly afterwards, even in adversity, when he gave a presentation to the NSFT Board on co-production on his own without a service user or carer in sight. Even when he was unable to find a single service user or carer, he pressed onwards.

If this wasn’t enough, [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] confirmed his dedication to representing the views of service users, carers and staff when, as a Staff Governor of NSFT, he voted to appoint Antek Lejk as Chief Executive knowing that Lejk was found to be unappointable and offensive by the service user and carer appointment panel.

[Redacted] has been our Head of Recovery and Participation for two-and-a-half years, during which time he oversaw the launch of our Recovery Strategy and the continued growth of the Recovery College, as well as setting up a register of people interested in participation opportunities.

[CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] was clearly too busy to prevent the collapse of service user and carer forums over the past two-and-a-half very long years.

More recently, he has helped deliver regular interview skills training to give more service users and carers the chance to help with staff recruitment.

What an excellent use of his £59,090-£71,243 salary.

Prior to this, [redacted] successfully provided locality management in all of our Norfolk and Waveney localities. He knows the region well…

It is clearly for the best that [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] demonstrates his front line management skills in Suffolk.

What a shame for Norfolk that it will lose his expertise shortly when Suffolk mental health services leave NSFT.

…and has an excellent track record of using informatics to inform improvements in service delivery.

What an unnecessary reference to [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT]’s role as Kathy Chapman’s lieutenant in the ‘radical redesign’ and unforgiveable sarcasm with the use of ‘improvements’ from NSFT Comms, given that the Trust Service Strategy (TSS) was condemned by the King’s Fund and has resulted in three Inadequate ratings by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which has subsequently rated Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) the worst in the country. Our campaign would never engage in such personal attacks and sarcasm. NSFT Comms even named [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] in its press release, whereas we have provided the dignity of anonymity.

It is likely that recovery and participation will become the responsibility of our new Associate Director for People Participation once we have recruited to that role.

Absolutely, first class. NSFT clearly does not have enough Associate Directors in its mere nine to thirteen layers of management and the new job title is so much snappier. It will be fascinating to see if the appointment is 8c on the standard Agenda for Change pay scales or if it pushes into the realms of the unregulated Very Senior Manager (VSM).

In the interim, cover will be provided by [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT], our Head of Quality Improvement, who can be contacted by emailing:
[CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT]@nsft.nhs.uk

What a shame that [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] will not be interviewed for the interim role. This deprives her of the opportunity to show that her loss to [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] in the original interviews for the Head of Recovery and Participation was a one-off and to prove that the loss of her previous NSFT services was despite her best endeavours.

What would NSFT need a full-time Head of Quality Improvement for, in any case?

We are so pleased that NSFT is not recycling failed managers and putting them into interim jobs without proper interviews.

Anyone who would like to find out more about the drive to reintroduce primary care link workers should email: [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT]@nsft.nhs.uk

Just to give those in Suffolk a taste of how truly lucky they are, this is their new Locality Manager’s LinkedIn profile introduction. First class!

[CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] qualified RMN in the UK in 1982, but rather than continue in the NHS and haunted by questions about the meaning of life, he travelled, studied metaphysics and the humanities, and explored technical interests in the audio-visual arts. While agency nursing in the 80s, he worked as a film school assistant, learning film making and involved in a 16mm drama-documentary series about the life of Paracelsus. After returning to the UK in July 87, following a 1-year nursing contract in Adelaide, Australia, he provided technical input into several documentaries and filmed in UK, Europe and India. In the ’90s he worked in technical and management roles for a cottage publisher and organised lecture tours in Australia, New Zealand and post-apartheid South Africa.

With intention to start a family after getting married in 2001, and sense of deep connection with humanity, [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] returned full time to the NHS, commencing with his current employer in March 2002. After completing the DipHE in 2006, he went on to graduate with a starred first BA (Hons) Policy, Planning and Leadership for Health Professionals. The powerful King’s Fund hosted Transformational Leadership Programme following in 2008, that helped integrate many of the experiences of his earlier searching life with his work today. He became Service Manager for old age mental health services in South Norfolk in 2006, and piloted primary care dementia working, leading his team to 2nd place in Moving Care Closer to Home category of the Health Enterprise East Innovations Competition, 2010. Before his current post, [CENSORED FOLLOWING PREVIOUS LEGAL THREATS FROM NSFT] had been in the senior position of Locality Manager in various posts since 2009 and undertook the regional Provider Excellence Programme in 2012. Key principles in his work are our shared values and common humanity, and the importance of positivity and appreciation when working with those who use services, colleagues and stakeholders within the health and social care system.

2 thoughts on “The Thick of: NSFT Comms: New role for Head of Recovery and Participation”

  1. Marcus Hayward is exactly the sort of useless technocrat responsible for the current malaise in the NHS. He is able to trot out the buzzwords, spout platitudes and comply unthinkingly with whatever plan or scheme is in vogue this month.
    What he is unable or in all likelihood unwilling to do is to challenge the paradox currently facing the NHS and that is spiralling demand coupled with unparalleled regulatory oversight. Throw in the worst planned and least capable electronic patient record system in human history and you have a recipe for disaster. 
    NSFT is akin to a Roman galley captained by third rate insouciant careerists, the slaves rowing several decks below are never considered, unless of course they are eating too much or rowing too slowly and then it’s fifty lashes for anyone brave enough to point out the problems.

  2. Anyone tried “participation”?  It was like being in kindergarten and i was the teacher.  Isn’t it the future cop-out?  For when things go even more wrong – WE were involved so it’s our fault not theirs!  Participation is more likely to push you over the edge not keep you from the murky waters of hell.
    And how do peer support workers help?  Shouldn’t they be concentrating on their own wellbeing? They have 8 sessions  covering the basics of learning to talk to people, and are then supposedly qualified support workers.  It’s like a toddler just learnt to walk instructing top athletes in the furtherance of their career. Is this the definition of recovery? Employing sick people means they can’t be on a waiting list for treatment of course.
     

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