Chief Executive Fortnightly Blog to NHS Orkney Staff - 8 January 2024

Message for All NHS Orkney Staff 

Dear Team Orkney,

Happy Monday and Happy New Year all.

A big thanks to those who were working over the holiday period to care for our patients. To those who have had a well-earned break and time with your families, loved ones or those closest to you, I hope you enjoyed your down time and family time.

On 22 December 2023 it was the Winter Solstice, which means from now the days will begin to grow longer and the journey towards Spring and more daylight has begun. On this theme, as I look ahead into 2024, I see nothing but a very bright and exciting future for NHS Orkney.

Talking of our future, this week we start a conversation with you, our patients and our community about our new long-term Corporate Strategy. You can have your say in multiple ways, including by attending one of our dedicated sessions where we would like to hear your views. Please see the dates and times below for these sessions, or via our questionnaire, which takes just a few minutes to complete.

• Tuesday 16 January from 9.30am – 10am via Teams
• Friday 26 January from 2.30pm – 3pm via Teams
• Thursday 1 February at 5.30pm – 6pm in the Brodgar A room

Central to our journey of improvement and our next chapter is developing a 2024-2028 Corporate Strategy and with this a new vision, set of values and strategic objectives that reflect NHS Orkney now and where we want to get to in the future. Once developed, our Corporate Strategy will become our ‘compass’ and will, with our Clinical Strategy (which we will refresh to ensure alignment with our new Corporate Strategy), determine every decision we make moving forward. Involving our patients, carers, local community, partners, external stakeholders and staff in the development of our new Strategy is key so that it is meaningful to everyone. Following a period of engagement and listening in January and February 2024, we will launch our new Strategy in April 2024. Please have your say. This is important – it’s about shaping our future, together.

Before Christmas, I shared an update on the actions that we have taken since we were notified about being formally escalated by the Scottish Government for our deteriorating financial position. Since the end of November 2023, we have already taken a number of positive steps to respond quickly and proportionately to where we find ourselves as well as reflecting deeply as a Board on why we are where we are so we can learn from this. We have appointed a new Recovery Director, Paula Tinniswood, who will work alongside our in-house team to support our financial improvement. Debs Crohn has returned from her secondment with the Scottish Government as our Head of Improvement to support this work and strengthen our leadership in this space in the next period. A rapid review exercise was completed in December 2023 by Viridian Associates who are providing welcome external support and challenge to NHS Orkney, which involved lots of conversations with staff across the organisation in December 2023 to inform the final report. This report and recommendations will go to our Finance and Performance Committee today for approval and will be discussed tomorrow at our Senior Leadership Team meeting. It sets out how and why we must work differently across the whole organisation to ensure quality and safety, workforce and establishment, activity, performance and finance are discussed in the rounds and not in isolation moving forward, which is a significant shift from our current approach, recognising you cannot discuss or make decisions about one area in isolation to any other. You will hear more about the next steps we will be taking to make improvements across NHS Orkney in the coming weeks following approval of the recommendations, which we will present to Scottish Government colleagues later this week. More to follow on next steps in the coming weeks and at our next all staff briefing (Friday 19 January at 12.30pm) via Teams. My main message for Team Orkney for now is – we can do this, we will move to a better and more sustainable position as a result of being where we are, and we are embracing the additional support we are receiving to accelerate the positive changes we have already started to make across NHS Orkney that will benefit our patients, local community and you, Team Orkney.

In a recent blog, I expressed concern that just 1 in 5 staff have had an appraisal – which I find unacceptable. We have seen a slight improvement (from 19-23%) since my last update, but this still isn’t anywhere near good enough. Every one of you deserve an annual appraisal to discuss your successes, achievements and what you’re proud of, agree your objectives and priorities for the year ahead, to discuss where you need support and to agree your personal development plan for the year. I asked that all managers commit to stepping up to the plate and fulfil this really important part of your roles. I also agreed to share a summary league table on a regular basis of appraisal rates by main portfolio areas.

Firstly, some shout outs – well done to these teams who are among the best performing for appraisal rates:

• Talent and Culture team – 83%
• Health Visitors – 83%
• Travel Administration team – 80%
• Theatres – 66%
• Day Unit - 66%

By main portfolio, the current rates for each area are below:

• Director of Public Health – 52%
• Head of Children, Families and Criminal Justice – 50%
• Director of Human Resources – 50%
• Head of Estates and Facilities – 26%
• Director of Finance – 24%
• Head of Primary Care – 23%
• Director of Nursing, AHP and Acute Services – 20%
• Medical Director – 16%
• Head of Health and Community Care – 7%

Organisational compliance rate is below:

• Headcount – 912
• Completed appraisal – 215
• Organisational compliance – 23%

As we start 2024, I will remain unrelenting in my ask that we continue to focus on leading with kindness – and to remember that small things matter and kindness matters. If we all made a commitment to do one small act of kindness every day, imagine how powerful this would be in our journey of improvement and in turn the positive impact this would have on our patients and how we each feel about working here.

“A kind word can brighten a day, but kind actions possess the power to transform a life. Beyond inspiration, it’s our deeds that forge a lasting impact. Small acts of kindness create ripples, nurturing connection, empathy and positive change in the world.” (Dr Brad Johnston)

Thanks Team Orkney – onwards and upwards for us in 2024.

Have a great week and see you soon.

Laura Skaife-Knight

Chief Executive