Race Equality Week starts today: The theme this year is 'Every Action Counts'. To mark this, we're supporting the #MyNameIs campaign. We're encouraging colleagues to include the phonetic spelling of their name in their email signature and online profile. If you don’t know the phonetic translation of your name, Race Equality Matters have created this tool to help. The goal of this is to help people feel respected and valued by ensuring their names are pronounced correctly. Mispronouncing someone's name can make them feel undervalued, disrespected, and like they don't belong and we believe it’s crucial to get the small details right.
You can also take part in the Race Equality Matters 5-day Challenge, which involves five challenges, each taking five minutes over five days. Over the next five days, we ask you all to take five minutes out of your day to self-reflect and commit to taking action that will drive change. We encourage you to take part to reflect and, more importantly, take action to drive Race Equality.
Looking for another way to show support? We have created an MS Teams background and email banner for colleagues to use throughout the week. Everyone has a role to play in the fight for racial equality in the workplace, and the sooner we act, the sooner change can become our reality.
February is LGBT+ History Month, which provides an annual opportunity to highlight the incredible things LGBTQIA+ people have achieved throughout history in all walks of life. The theme this year is activism and social change, and we'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the new executive sponsor of our LGBTQIA+ staff network, Dr Ben Pearson. We recently met with him to talk about why he stepped into the role and what being a member of our LGBTQIA+ network means to him. Listen to what he had to say here.
HIV Confident Charter: Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust has become a founding member of the HIV Confident Charter mark, demonstrating its commitment to creating a stigma-free environment for staff and patients living with HIV. As part of this initiative, the Trust will review attitudes, update policies, and provide anti-stigma training for all staff. The goal is to ensure that people living with HIV can access health services and employment without fear of discrimination. HIV Confident, developed in partnership with National AIDS Trust, aidsmap, and Positively UK, aims to reduce stigma and improve healthcare access for those living with HIV. This initiative will contribute to the broader mission of zero new HIV transmissions by 2030. Read more here.
Thank you to those who completed our DCHS Staff Survey about the Derbyshire Chaplaincy Service. The results will help shape the relaunch of the Chaplaincy Service. You can see the results on the poster attached. SystmOne is in the process of being updated to enable direct referrals to the Chaplaincy Service. Please look out for updates about this in our communication channels.
Pension courses available from Affinity Connect: Various courses are available to colleagues free of charge from Affinity Connect, including a new partial retirement (draw down) course:
- Retirement - 12 February, 9:30am - 12pm
- Partial retirement - 4 March, 1 - 3pm
- Pension - 20 March, 1 - 2.30pm.
If you'd like more information on any of the above courses or you'd like to book a place, please contact our People Development Team.
Admin Forum update: Please see the one page summary for the latest Admin Forum which took place in December. If you’re not already one of the 200 members of the Admin Forum MS Teams group, then please email hazellea@nhs.net to be added. We share lots of useful information in the chat and files. The Admin Forum meets every two months, with the next virtual meeting on Thursday 13 February at 10.30am - 11.30am, click here to join the meeting.
We’re excited to announce that DCHS will be celebrating National Admin Professionals Recognition Day with a special in-person Admin Forum celebration event on Wednesday 23 April, 9.15am to 12.30pm at the Post Mill Centre in South Normanton. DCHS admin colleagues, please book your place in this link. Choose the date from the calendar using the > icon to move to April, then click on the time and “book”. You’ll get a confirmation email and the date will appear in your Outlook calendar.
Employee records management additional guidance and FAQs: Further guidance is available for those managing employee records, and in particular completing the ‘Employee Records Summary Template’. You can find the guidance and FAQs here. Please also look out for future meetings if you have queries or need support. In the meantime, please contact the Information Governance Team with any queries: dchst.info.gov@nhs.net.
Have your say on workforce equality and staff wellbeing at DCHS: We want to hear your views on our performance in workforce equality, specifically in staff health and wellbeing as part of the NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS). This falls under domain two, which assesses how well we support staff wellbeing. The EDS is a national framework that helps NHS organisations evaluate their progress in delivering equality for patients, employees and communities while ensuring inclusive leadership. We invite you to review and grade our evidence (here and here), then use this grading and feedback form. This is your chance to share your thoughts on how we are performing and suggest areas for improvement. The deadline for feedback is Friday 14 February. For more information read the EDS overview or this EDS technical guidance. Contact the inclusion and belonging team at dchst.equality@nhs.net with any queries.
Webinar - How to improve adult social care for seldom heard groups: The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is offering a free webinar to share the findings of three recent studies looking at how to improve adult social care for seldom heard groups: adults with learning disabilities, people living with dementia or experiencing homelessness. The one-hour webinar, on Wednesday 19 February at 1pm, is designed to brings together findings that could help staff improve the care they provide and enhance our understanding of these areas of social care focused on:
- Safeguarding & homelessness
- End-of-life care for learning disabilities
- Dementia support in homecare.
Presentations will be followed by a Q&A session, giving you a unique chance to quiz the speakers on how this research could be implemented at your organisation. Please follow this link for more information and to secure your spot.
Having better mental health conversations - new March dates from your Quality Conversations (QC) Team: Mental health matters, and so do the conversations we have around it. Our QC for mental health training is designed to help you build confidence in discussing mental health, providing support, and creating a stigma-free environment. This interactive session will equip you with the tools to:
- Recognise signs of mental health challenges
- Engage in meaningful and supportive conversations
- Direct individuals to appropriate resources.
Book on to one of our March dates below:
