DGT People Strategy 2020 - 2025

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust

People Strategy Joy at Work Happy, Healthy and Heard, 2020-2025

Introduction

Our five year People Strategy, Happy, Healthy and Heard sets out an exciting programme of work that will help staff to: • feel happier at work • live healthier lives • have their views on how we run the Trust heard Our People Strategy will deliver the Trust’s strategic priority ‘Joy at Work’ emphasising engagement, equality, diversity and inclusion to ensure staff have a sense of belonging and fulfilment in their roles. DGT has a highly committed, skilled and diverse workforce providing care and services of a high quality maintained through our values based interview process. Like other Trusts, we have challenges in recruiting to all posts and retaining some staff. This strategy looks at how we: • listen to what staff want • promote agile working • support staff through times of both challenge and celebration The Trust strategy focuses on becoming a learning organisation with continuous improvement at the heart of its culture. We will seek to maximise opportunities for learning and developing staff at all levels and in all roles, working closely with our partners • Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust through the GSTT Healthcare Alliance • Kent and Medway Trusts through our Integrated Care System • Integrated Care Partnerships in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley and in Bexley • staff side representatives through joint consultative and local negotiating committees Staff have shown extraordinary commitment to patient care and supporting each other during Covid-19. They have adapted to new working environments, different roles and new ways of working. We are proud of the positivity, can-do attitude and enthusiasm that staff have shown throughout the pandemic. The health and wellbeing of our staff is of paramount importance. We have offered regualr testing for asymptomatic and symptomatic staff and their families as well as antibody tests and risk assessments for BAME and at risk staff. • attract the best talent • train and retain staff

Alexandra Bode-Tunji Chief People Officer

Dr. Gill Jenner Chair of Workforce Committee

We have implemented social distancing and continue to ensure staff have the right protective equipment for their role. We have rapidly expanded our health and wellbeing offer, supported by introducing two new senior roles to oversee the delivery of: • a Time to Talk Team providing confidential, supportive conversations • dedicated wellbeing spaces for staff to relax, recover and re-energise • greater communications including a regular podcast hosted by our Executive Team with many staff contributing and sharing their experiences and challenges during Covid-19 • advice and guidance through leaflets, an improved website and access to support services including counselling • staff sharing their talents whether through running, yoga and meditation classes for others to join or by recording a video of their talents including cocktail making, singing and cooking The commitment of our local communities, faith groups and businesses supporting our staff during Covid-19 has been overwhelming. We have been humbled by the kindness, generosity and donations received, including edible treats, home- made cards, masks and scrubs, posters, knitted hearts and comfortable shoes! Our People Strategy seeks to expand on this wellbeing offer to staff and maximise engagement with our community. It is important we focus on celebrating diversity and promoting equality to ensure all staff feel included and supported. We look forward to hearing staff views through our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Council and working together to stamp out discrimination of all kinds to improve our staff and patient experience.

2

People Strategy Summary

Contents

Introduction from the Chief People Officer and Chair of Workforce Committee

2

4

Our Vision, Values and Strategic Priorities

6

About the Trust

7-10

Achieving our Journey to Outstanding through Joy at Work

11

Happy

12

Healthy

13

Heard

14-15

Mapping of the Trust People Strategy

What will our workforce look like in 5 years and what will this mean for our patients and organisation?

17

18

Implementing, monitoring and reporting

20-21

Appendix

The NHS People Plan and People Promise

20-21

3

People Strategy Summary

Providing outstanding care which is skilled, trusted and kind every time.

Our vision

Our Trust strategy identifies six key strategic priorities for the next five years:

Joy at work

Journey to outstanding

Digital first

Working together

Working smartly within our means

Continuous quality improvement

Achieving our Journey to Outstanding and Joy at Work through happy, healthy and heard staff:

Happy We will support and develop our staff, creating talented people for our organisation. Our staff will consistently report improved fulfilment at work, leading to local, regional and national recognition that the Dartford and Gravesham Trust is the best place to work.

Healthy We will provide holistic health and wellbeing support to all staff to promote healthy living, and provide emotional support during challenging times.

Heard Our staff will work in an open and transparent culture in which they are treated with equality, dignity and respect. All staff are listened to through active involvement in decision making (shared governance).

Our values

4

People Strategy Summary

About the Trust

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (DGT) provides a comprehensive range of acute services to a population of 400,000 across Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley, and Bexley. Services are provided across two main hospital sites: 1. Darent Valley: providing elective and emergency care 2. Queen Mary’s: planned care centre Dartford and Gravesham Trust has a committed family of highly skilled, trusted and kind staff. There are over 3,400 staff, from a variety of professional and technical backgrounds, as well as over 170 volunteers that provide invaluable support to the overall patient experience. Our teams are continually striving to improve the quality of the care we provide, improving the safety and effectiveness of our services and the experience of our patients and their carers. We provide outreach services to a wide range of places in the community including GP practices, community hospitals, care homes and patient homes. Our population is rapidly growing with local developments such as Ebbsfleet Garden City, a Healthy New Town. The population is set to grow by 35,000 within five years and by 55,000 within 10 years.

This, as with all of our strategies for 2020-2025, has been developed in the context of this exceptional population growth as well as the demographics of the population we serve. The demographics across Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley, and Bexley are similar, with pockets of high levels of deprivation, a range of ethnicities and languages spoken, and a population with a high proportion of young and older people (under 19 and over 85s). We have developed this People Strategy taking into consideration: • our local and national context; • feedback from our staff, obtained through staff forums; • executive team discussions with their linked wards; • the chief executive podcast; • and from the Trust Leadership Team. The strategy will be shared with staff and feedback will be incorporated into the detailed work within the delivery programmes.

6

People Strategy Summary

Achieving our Journey to Outstanding through Joy at Work

Our People Strategy is central to the successful delivery of quality and safe patient care, set out in our Trust strategies as each relies on our talented and committed colleagues delivering outstanding care. This strategy seeks to support colleagues to be the best that they can be and to get the most out of their career here at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust. The strategy has been informed by: • the National Health Service People Plan; • our co-developed workforce plan for the DGS Integrated Care Partnership and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Strategy; • our colleague survey; • challenges and successes through the Covid-19 pandemic; • our partnership working with GSTT Healthcare Alliance; • and through engagement with our colleague The strategy focuses on the delivery of the strategic priority, ‘Joy at Work’, by supporting staff to be happy , healthy and heard , with a sense of belonging and fulfilment. The Joy at Work strategic objective comprises three outcomes that will be achieved through the delivery of the People Strategy as illustrated below.

Joy at Work outcomes:

Happy We will build, support and develop our colleagues, creating talented people for our organisation. Our colleagues will consistently report improved fulfilment at work, leading to; to local, regional and national recognition that DGT is the best place to work.

Healthy We will ensure our people are safe, healthy and will provide holistic health and wellbeing support to all colleagues to promote healthy living and provide emotional support at all times. Our employee benefits and recognition will support health, wellbeing and retention.

Heard Our colleagues will work in an open and transparent culture in which they are treated with dignity and respect and are listened to through active involvement in decision making through shared governance. Our leaders will embed our values and culture.

7

People Strategy Summary

Achieving our Journey to Outstanding through Joy at Work

Context: Local and National

Local: DGS and Kent and Medway Workforce Plan context including Covid-19

National: NHS People Plan 2020/21

• promote Kent and Medway as a great place to work • maximise supply of the health and social care workforce • create lifelong careers in health and social care • develop our system leaders and encourage culture change through the leadership compact • improve workforce wellbeing, inclusion and address workloads to increase retention • International recruitment campaign • reduce reliance on agency colleagues • digital solutions that support releasing time to care including e-rostering and e-job planning • link with the regional/local talent board to specifically review how we can support an increase in BAME staff at senior levels and agree indicators for success for increasing diversity and inclusion • increase in use of apprenticeship levy • increase in number of training doctors within Kent and Medway e.g. through the new medical school • supporting agile, remote and flexible working enabling social distancing but also supporting staff with more flexible working options (being an employer of choice) • new ways of working and connecting with staff • expanding workforce skill set through training and education to readily adapt to new roles in national crisis, this could include working across organisations to learn new skills • develop strategies and approaches to support our most vulnerable staff

• Looking after our people - Particularly the actions we must all take to keep our staff safe, healthy and well – both physically and psychologically. The People Plan sets out the ambition and action for the NHS to embrace flexible working. • Belonging in the NHS - The need to create an organisational culture where everyone feels they belong. This includes urgent action to address systemic inequality that is felt by staff, including overhauling recruitment processes to achieve representation at all levels, as well as making sure we all listen to and act upon the views and experiences of our staff. It also covers actions to support and promote compassionate and inclusive leadership. • New ways of working and delivering care - Making effective use of the full range of our people’s skills and experience to deliver the best possible patient care. Building strong multidisciplinary teams, as well as upskilling staff and making the most of the skills and energy of our wider workforce, including volunteers. The Plan focuses on urgently resuming educating and training our staff for the future. • Growing for the future - Building an unprecedented interest in NHS careers to expand and develop the workforce through local domestic and international recruitment. The Plan encourages action to support former staff to return to the NHS, as well as retaining people longer. It reinforces the need for continued and iterative workforce planning and transformation, and the activities for systems to undertake to enable people to be recruited and deployed across organisations, sectors and geographies.

8

People Strategy Summary

The Trust, local and national context have shaped the direction of this strategy for the next five years. We have focused our strategy around the three ‘Joy at Work’ outcomes: happy, healthy and heard. Each of these outcomes is comprised of a series of programmes of work which are set out in the following pages. The key changes in our strategic direction are: Achieving our Journey to Outstanding through Joy at Work Changes in our approach

Happy • More flexible and innovative working options such as: contract types, redeployment options, allocate work in an agile way including passports with our partners • Use of technology such as wide adoption of e-rostering and e-job planning • Achieve Investors in People ‘Gold’ in 2024 Healthy • Invest in health and wellbeing infrastructure, learning from our experiences working during the Covid-19 pandemic and the staff feedback that this should be retained - including mental health and wellbeing models, wellbeing spaces and the Time2Talk team • Allowing a more frequent opportunity to respond to issues raised by staff Heard • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - councils and senior leads to ensure there is a focus on diversity at a senior enabling us to regularly hear from staff, allowing a more frequent opportunity to respond to staff’s issues • Listening posts for staff at Darent Valley and Queen Mary’s Hospital • Responding to issues raised by staff, such as childcare support and car parking provision level and throughout the Trust • Investment in a feedback tool,

10

People Strategy Summary

Happy

Joy at work: Happy Outcome: We will support and develop our staff, creating talented people for our organisation. Our staff will consistently report improved fulfilment at work, leading to local, regional and national recognition that Dartford and Gravesham Trust is the best place to work. There are four key delivery programmes that support the achievement of the Happy outcome. Each delivery programme comprises of a number of initiatives that will be progressed over the course of the next five years. Progress against each of these will be monitored by the Trust Workforce Committee.

Workforce design

Future workforce

• Enable agile workforce development through digitalisation and system sharing agreements • Engagement with schools and colleges to inspire career choices encourage apprenticeships • Develop partnering within our ICS, i.e. joint training and rotations • Engagement with Kent and Medway medical school and Healthcare Academy • Utilising the training and development programmes on offer through GSTT Healthcare Alliance • Define workforce for the future and the skills profile to support the integrated care agenda • Building system leadership skills to support the integrated care agenda • Develop and implement Trust recruitment and retention strategy • Implement values based interview training to enhance diversity • Transform recruitment and selection processes to improve the time to hire • Develop volunteering strategy to expand and reach workforce demographics • Develop and implement stay discussions and exit interviews • Enable flexible internal development opportunities • Review approach to colleague reward and recognition • Identify and manage talent using the Kent and Medway system programme Recruitment and retention

• Develop and implement education, learning and organisation development strategy • Transform induction, on-boarding and preceptor/ buddy programmes • Ensure high quality appraisals, training needs and career aspirations • Career pathways with clear development interventions • Implement coaching and mentoring development programme to enable career development • Succession planning and talent management for core roles • Leadership framework and development strategy • Improving digital literacy capability for the future • Competency management system to support learners and managers • Workforce and job design reflecting the skill mix, for the future workforce, new roles, career pathways and new ways of working • Agile and flexible contracts that enables innovation, remote working and social distancing • Resourcing solutions and interventions that delivers zero agency spend • Workforce systems (e.g. e-rostering, e-job planning; ESR capability and learning management) • Expand workforce entry routes including apprenticeships Workforce development • Clear divisional structures that show accountability and enable shared governance • Clear workforce plans that reflect service and operational changes

11

People Strategy Summary

Healthy

Joy at work: Healthy Outcome: We will provide holistic health and wellbeing support to all staff to promote healthy living and provide emotional support during challenging times. There are five key delivery programmes that support the achievement of the Healthy outcome. Each delivery programme comprises of a number of initiatives that will be progressed over the course of the strategy.

Occupational Health

• Enhance security provision on sites to ensure security and safety of colleagues • Review and implement action plans to reduce violence against colleagues • Training for reporting concerns, managing challenging behavious and conflict resolution • Colleagues feedback to be used to improve safety and security offered • Increase the use of data insights to measure perception of psychological and physical safety • Develop and implement mediation service to reduce conflict at individual level to ensure is delivers value for colleagues • Ensure policy is in place for Covid-19 risk assessment, testing and psychological support • Establish commercial relationships that support the health and wellbeing aspects of colleagues working across all sites • Review and update health and safety policy and procedure • Ensure data insights to improve health and wellbeing Safety and Security of Staff • Physical and mental health support for all staff and managers, including partner organisations • Review employee assistance provider support

Wellbeing

• Develop and articulate the health and wellbeing strategy and recovery plan • Holistic offering of wellbeing covering physical, mental, spiritual, financial, belonging, practical psychological and physical health support • Provide active listening and incident support through the Time2Talk Team • Provide opportunities for reflective practice so that staff may grow using innovative solutions • Expand the range of wellbeing spaces • Resilience support through managing your mind • Effective management of sickness absence • Engagement with community and faith groups, local businesses, charities as well as schools and colleges in designing services and how best to ensure social distancing • Explore opportunities for pre-employment support • Re-invigorate No Excuse For Abuse Campaign • Develop and implement volunteering strategy, to foster links with the community • Community engagement sessions to support the Trust’s aspiration of being an Anchor Organisation Community Engagement

12

People Strategy Summary

Heard

Joy at work: Heard Outcome: Our staff will work in an open and transparent culture, in which they are treated with equality, dignity and respect, and are listened to through active involvement in decision making (shared governance). There are three key delivery programmes that support the achievement of the Heard outcome. Each delivery programme comprises of a number of initiatives which will be progressed over the course of the next five years. Progress against each of these will be monitored by the Trust Workforce Committee .

Effective Shared Governance

• Develop Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and plan • Implement equality, diversity and inclusion training - Just Culture/Managing Incivility • Implement Inclusive standard charter and develop action plan to achieve • Externally led training to improve the quality of people management practices • Increase diversity interventions for BAME, LGBTQI+ and those with disabilities • Implement reverse mentoring to increase understanding and acceptance Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

• Listening to colleagues through Quality Councils chaired by a member of colleagues at band 6 or below for each division • Establish Council supported by diversity forums to support and drive diversity • Strengthening partnership working with staff side colleagues and unions through the Joint Consultative and Local Negotiating Committees • Enhance the freedom to Speak up initiative to enable zero tolerance for harassment and bullying • Implement quarterly pulse engagement survey and daily mood checks • Develop action points to respond to the annual engagement survey and track progress • Delivery of the Freedom to Speak Up strategy • Establish a process for organisational learning with guardian for safe working • Embed diversity and inclusion in education, learning and development • Develop a culture of compassionate leadership using strength based leadership • Colleagues recognition and awards Listening to Colleagues • Establish equality, diversity and inclusion calendar • Celebrate a range of cultural and religious events, led by members of the diversity forum • Embed lived experiences to help promote awareness and understanding of inclusivity • Implement ally training for colleagues to improve advocacy and support for inclusion and diversity • Increase the use of data insights to improve diversity and inclusion Celebration of Diversity

13

People Strategy Summary

Mapping of the Trust People Strategy

Mapping of Trust People Strategy against National People Plan The following maps the Trust’s People Strategy, Joy at Work, against the key themes within the National People Plan.

Looking after our people Happy • Retention Strategy – focus on flexibility • Investors In People – silver to gold • Agile workforce supported with digital strategy • Development of new roles and ways of working

Healthy • Wellbeing recovery plan • Mental health support

• Time To Talk Team • Wellbeing spaces • Wellbeing initiatives e.g. yoga, mediation, walking • Covid-19 testing and vaccines

Belonging in the NHS

Happy • Recruitment strategy • Benefits • Talent management and retention and stay sessions • Reward and recognition • Value based selection to reduce unconscious bias • Induction support and preceptor programmes • High quality PDR / appraisals

• Security on site • Reducing stress • No Excuse for Abuse campaign

Heard • Childcare provision • Car parking • Daily mood checker • Monthly pulse survey

• Coaching and mentoring • Zero agency colleagues

Healthy • Celebration of diversity • Reverse mentoring • Community engagement • Pre-employment support

Heard • EDI Council and diversity forums • Compassionate leadership using strengths based approach • Inclusive Employer Charter

14

People Strategy Summary

Mapping of the Trust People Strategy

Mapping of Trust People Strategy against National People Plan The following maps the Trust’s People Strategy, Joy at Work, against the key themes within the National People Plan.

New ways of working and delivering care Happy • Digital passports system wide • Partnership with ICP/ICS for joint training and rotations • Kent and Medway Medical School engagement and Healthcare Academy • Community relationships to encourage school leavers in the NHS • Strength based leadership programme • Potential/training at all levels Healthy • Colleagues feedback to improve safety and security • Wellbeing recovery plan Heard • Externally led training for quality people management • Embrace best practice • Zero tolerance for harassment and bullying

Growing for the future

Happy • International recruitment • Retaining colleagues longer • Iterative divisional workforce plans to include longer term service changes • System wide working for rotational roles Healthy • Relationships with education sector to attract leavers to the NHS • Healthy colleagues enabling colleagues to return to the NHS • Volunteering and early careers strategy

Heard • Strengthening partnership working with trade unions • Implement EDI strategy

• Zero bullying and harassment • Freedom To Speak Up strategy

15

People Strategy Summary

What will our workforce look like in 5 years and what will this mean for our patients and organisation?

Colleagues We will ask our colleagues annually, the extent to which they agree with these ‘I’ statements through our internal survey with the ambition that we can monitor progress against these. We aim to have the majority of staff strongly agreeing with these by 2025. Our staff will feel Joy at Work and say: • I feel like I can be myself at work, I do not have to hide who I am. • I am supported to do my best at work. • I am supported to fulfil my full potential. • I have the option to work more flexibly. • I know that diversity is celebrated at work. • I see diversity in our leadership and management teams. • I am proud to work for the Trust. • I have no barriers in accessing opportunities in education or career development. • I feel able to raise concerns and challenge behaviours that do not align with our values. • My overall health and wellbeing is supported. at work.

Patients and organisation The delivery of this strategy will result in patients receiving: • More consistent care from a team that has a low turnover of colleagues. • Care with fewer incidents due to colleagues feeling happier at work and therefore paying greater attention. • Increased provision of care across seven days. Successful implementation of the strategy will also mean that the organisation will see: • Reduction in temporary staffing spend due to a reduction in turnover and lower sick leave levels. • Improved productivity as staff have greater flexibility including working from home and working differently. • Improved recruitment in hard-to-recruit-to services / posts. • Reduction in perceptions of harassment and bullying. • Improvement in the quality of people management practices.

17

People Strategy Summary

Implementing, monitoring and reporting

Implementing the strategy The strategy will be delivered through a series of programmes of work, that will report to the appointed lead for the outcome, as set out below:

Happy Lead: Chief People Officer Delivery programme: • Recruitment and retention • Education and training • Opportunities through partnerships

• Workforce design Timescale: 2020-2022

Healthy Lead: Director of Wellbeing Delivery programme: • Wellbeing • Occupational health (including mental health) • Celebration of diversity • Community engagement Timescale: 2020 onwards

Monitoring delivery and reporting of the strategy The programmes will each have a governance structure that includes regular reporting of progress and issues to the Outcome Lead(s) and the Chief People Officer. Those aspects of the outcomes that do not have programmes of work will have action plans with milestone dates and leads with appropriate project management governance in place to ensure smooth and effective delivery of the plans. The Workforce Committee meets bi-monthly. A report detailing the progress on the delivery of the strategy will be provided twice a year. • Programme Leads • Outcome Lead

Heard Lead: Director of Improvement and Chief People Officer Delivery programme: • Shared governance • Equality, diversity and inclusion • Listening to staff Timescale: 2020-2021

• Chief People Officer • Workforce Committee • Trust Board

18

People Strategy Summary

Appendix – The NHS People Plan and People Promise

The NHS People Plan is organised around four pillars and sets out the Our People Promise. The future of NHS human resources and organisational development report outlines a vision and actions that support the delivery of the four pillars and embeds the seven elements of our People Promise.

The vision begins with themes that focus on how the profession itself will evolve over time. It then sets out wider, strategic themes where the people profession needs to focus to support the rest of the system. The vision is aimed at people professionals, wider leaders and champions of people issues at all levels across the NHS, but especially the senior leaders of organisations, systems and regional and national bodies.

20

People Strategy Summary

Appendix – The NHS People Plan and People Promise

21

People Strategy Summary

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust

If you have any questions or comments about this or any other guides please contact a member of

the communications team by emailing dgn-tr.communications@nhs.net