People Strategy – one year reflection

We set out to achieve this through a number of key priorities with defined success measures including leadership and team development, inclusion, wellbeing, recognition, and supporting our individuals to feel confident in speaking up, amongst other activities.

As we move into the second year of this five-year People Strategy, it is timely to reflect on our achievements and the actions taken so far.

This summary outlines the progress made under the four pillars of our strategy: ‘Looking after our people’, ‘Belonging in #TeamDBTH’, ‘Growing for the future’, and ‘New ways of working and delivering care’.

Looking after our people

In our commitment to enhancing the wellbeing and experiences of our colleagues, we have made significant strides:

1. Menopause Friendly accreditation: Achieved in August 2023, enhancing our support for colleagues experiencing menopause through a clear policy and education programmes.
2. Health and Wellbeing: Our diagnostic framework has been reviewed, identifying priority areas. A comprehensive health and wellbeing survey, supported by the Evidence Centre, was completed and the results reviewed to align with existing priorities.
3. Occupational Health: A business case was supported by the Corporate Investment Group (CIG) to enhance investment in support for our colleagues’ health needs, including mental health nursing support within the Occupational Health team.
4. Flexible working: We held Quality Improvement (Qii) sessions to engage with colleagues and gather ideas for actions. We launched a new Flexible Working Policy and toolkit, with a dedicated steering group to further develop project plans around the identified themes.
5. Staff survey: We achieved a record-breaking 67% response rate for the annual Staff Survey, with significant improvements in feedback, indicating increased satisfaction at DBTH. We are embedding our year-round cycle of engagement to work with teams to learn from, and action, feedback. We also continue to review and act on feedback from learner surveys.
6. New exit interview process: Designed and launched to gather insights and improve retention, the new process includes an e-form to streamline feedback collection.
7. Just Culture: We have communicated our Just Culture pledges and held workshops to foster a person-centred approach to employee relations, working in collaboration with our Patient Safety team. These sessions aim to integrate the Just Culture ethos into daily practices, enhancing trust and transparency.
8. Appraisal Season: we have refreshed our Appraisal Season paperwork to ensure the focus is on the quality of the conversation
9. Research: We participated in two large research studies focused on supporting people at work. The Individual, Group, Leaders and Organisation (IGLOo) study on the management of long-term sickness, with the Chief People Officer as the Principal Investigator, and the Magnet study on wellbeing and retention of healthcare professionals, where we were the biggest recruiters to the study in Europe.

Belonging in #TeamDBTH

Creating an inclusive and supportive culture is at the heart of our strategy:

1. The DBTH Way: Launched in mid-2023 and designed with input from a range of DBTH colleagues, this framework promotes our organisational culture by setting out the expectations we all have of how we interact with each other. It is being embedded across the Trust through communication campaigns, workshops, display boards and being built into people processes such as appraisals and recruitment.
2. Leadership development: A new 12-month Leadership Prospectus has been published, detailing our leadership framework and development opportunities. A coaching network has been established to support leaders at all levels and action learning sets have been introduced. We have continued to use the Team Engagement and Development (TED) tool to support team working.
3. Equality Diversity and Inclusion: We developed the new and innovative Board Development Delegate Programme to support a more diverse talent pipeline for senior leadership roles in the NHS and other sectors and we commenced further cohorts of the refreshed Reciprocal Mentoring Programme
4. Recognition programmes: We successfully relaunched the Long Service Awards, hosting three celebration events in December. The annual Star Awards saw increased nominations and attendance, highlighting our commitment to recognising and celebrating achievements. Emphasis on maintaining this approach in 2024/25.
5. Speaking Up: A new strategy has been developed with extensive engagement sessions held to ensure broad input. Processes for consistent implementation across the Trust have been established, fostering an environment where colleagues feel confident to speak up.

Growing for the future

To ensure sustainable growth and development, we have focused on workforce planning, development and talent management:

1. Strategic workforce planning: We implemented a new tool, building scenarios and schemes to support our planning processes. This tool has been used in our business planning for 2024/25 together with the learning needs analysis, enhancing our capacity to anticipate future workforce needs.
2. Inclusive recruitment: We developed an action plan and engaged in collaborative efforts working with other NHS organisations to share ideas and improve our recruitment practices, ensuring they are inclusive and effective.
3. Preceptorship programmes: Accredited with the Gold Standard within the national framework for our preceptorship programme reflecting our commitment to developing new talent. This programme supports large numbers of newly qualified team members, helping them transition into their roles with confidence.
4. Widening participation: We expanded work experience placements including T-levels and maximised our use of the apprenticeship levy in line with workforce plans. We  also launched the Health Career Champions programme to engage local communities and promote careers in healthcare and hosted our largest We Care into the Future events to date in Doncaster and Bassetlaw. These activities support our goal of being an anchor institution in our communities.
5. Future workforce: We’ve continued to expand our pre-registration placement offer across all professional groups, with an increase of 30% from the previous year.
6. Succession planning: We have recently introduced the Scope for Growth framework to support career conversations and talent management, together with a new succession planning approach. This helps to ensure we are prepared for future leadership transitions and have a robust pipeline of talent.

New ways of working and delivering care

Innovation and efficiency are key to our future success:

1. Robotic process automation (RPA): New processes, such as the New Starter Bot, have been launched to reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency.
2. Education quality framework: A new framework was formally launched in November, aligned with our local Quality Strategy and national education framework. This framework aims to enhance the quality and consistency of educational experiences for our colleagues and learners.
3. Statutory & Essential Training (SET): We have refreshed our SET resources and methods of access to streamline the process for colleagues. We have also enhanced our portfolio of Role-Specific Training (ReST) to support skills and knowledge development for all our people. Our new Training Framework sets out the breadth and depth of training available for our colleagues.
4. Safe care implementation: Completed on e-rostering, this project aligns staffing levels with patient acuity, improving our ability to deliver safe and effective care.
5. Temporary workforce management: Projects to monitor and improve agency and sickness management are ongoing, with completed audit actions ensuring effective oversight and resource utilisation.

Moving forward

As we advance into the second year of our People Strategy, some of our priorities in the coming months are:

1. Implementing year two priorities in the People Strategy, ensuring continued progress and embedding of new approaches, with alignment to our strategic goals and new Trust vision.
2. Embedding the DBTH Way further into our everyday practices, including appraisals, recruitment, recognition and development. This will help reinforce our values and cultural commitments.
3. Continuing the rollout of Flexible Working and Just Culture workstreams, enhancing flexibility and fairness across the organisation.
4. Enhancing engagement cycles using survey data to inform our actions and improve our organisational culture. Regular feedback will help us stay responsive to colleagues’ and learners’ needs.

• Further implementation and embedding of actions within our equality, diversity and inclusion plan, building on current activities and also working with system partners.

6. Refreshing our DBTH Welcome (currently known as corporate induction) for new starters to Team DBTH. As part of this we will also be developing templates to support local inductions.
7. Talent management frameworks: Rolling-out and embedding the Scope for Growth framework and succession planning templates.
8. Implementation of the Speaking Up Strategy with continued training and engagement.
9. Expansion of work experience placements: Returning to pre-pandemic levels and beyond.
10. Embedding the national Safe Learning Environment Charter across the Trust, as a trail-blazer nationally

Through these actions, we are committed to making DBTH an even better place to work, where every colleague and learner feels valued, supported, and empowered to thrive.

We want to share our thanks with every member of Team DBTH for their contributions to this work, recognising the vital role everyone plays in achieving the ambitions set out in our People Strategy.

We have only been able to make these significant changes with the unwavering support and dedication of Team DBTH. The commitment and collaboration of our teams has been instrumental in driving our progress and ensuring that we continue to evolve as an organisation.

Together, we are creating a better, more inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered to thrive.