Darent Valley hospital - DGT - People Strategy

Context

Local and national

National: NHS People Plan 2020/21 • Looking after our people - particularly the actions we must all take to keep our staff safe, healthy and well, both physically and psychologically. The plan sets out the ambition and action for the National Health Service 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 education and training for our staff for the future. • Growing for the future – building on unprecedented interest in National Health Service 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 National Health Service, as well as retaining people for 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.

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (the Trust) Local: DGS and Kent and Medway Workforce Plan Context, including COVID-19 • Promote Kent and Medway as a great place to work • Maximise supply of 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 and inclusion, and address workload to increase retention • International recruitment campaigns/approaches • Reduce reliance on agency staff • 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 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff at senior levels, and agree indicators for success • 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, including working across organisations to learn new skills • Develop strategies and approaches to support our most vulnerable staff for increasing diversity and inclusion • Increase in use of apprenticeship levy

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Trust Strategy Summary