Please support our goal of becoming a HIV Confident NHS Trust! We aim to create a stigma-free environment for people living with HIV across the Trust, and we need your help to achieve this. By completing this short survey, you can assist us in understanding knowledge and attitudes towards HIV throughout the organisation.
We encourage all staff to participate, as your input is crucial in shaping a more inclusive culture. To complete the survey, please follow this link.
This survey is a key part of our Trust-wide commitment to becoming HIV Confident, ensuring that we welcome and respect people living with HIV. To learn more about the HIV Confident charter mark programme, please visit www.hivconfident.org.uk
Find more information about the Trust's efforts towards achieving the HIV Confident charter mark here.
Our LGBTQIA+ staff network is celebrating LGBT+ History month in February 2025 by providing an opportunity for staff to join us to learn more about being LGBTQIA+ in 2025.
- Do you want to know more about the LGBTQIA+ community?
- What does inclusive language mean and how do I get it right?
- What do the LGBTQIA+ stand for?
- What matters to your LGBTQIA+ colleagues and patients?
Our LGBTQIA+ staff network has the answers – with friendly, informal training in a safe space where your questions can be answered, to help you support your LGBTQIA+ family, friends, colleagues and patients. This training is available:
If you have any questions, please contact dchst.lgbt@nhs.net.
The bells beckon Barbara to have a go! We’re taking inspiration from our very own longest-serving DCHS nurse Barbara Craven who is proving it’s never too late to try something new.
Barbara, aged 73, has loved the sound of church bells since she was a little girl, being taken to church by her mum on Sundays. She’d always harboured an ambition to try bellringing and thought she may be too old to join. But the Tower Captain (bellringing leader) at Chesterfield’s Crocked Spire told Barbara: “Bell ringing is for all ages from 10 years onwards”.
Despite working 30 hours a week in the clinical navigation team, grandmother Barbara decided it was now-or-never to try her hand at learning the ropes for real. In July 2024, she joined the bellringers at Chesterfield’s Crocked Spire and has loved every minute of it, attending practice nights each Monday in the bellringing chamber. Read more about Barbara's bellringing journey here.
We'd like to introduce our new Disability and Long Term Conditions staff network chair, Declan Moore. On accepting the role, Declan said: "I would like to thank you all for providing me with the opportunity to take the chair of the D<C network. I am very excited about this opportunity and the possibilities of what we can do with it in the coming years."
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Declan, you can read more about his experience and why he's taken on this new role here.
Experiences of people caring or supporting others with a life limiting illness survey: As part of Joined Up Care Derbyshire’s work on End of Life care, the Communities Driving Change workstream are wanting to hear about the experiences of those caring for and supporting adults with a life limiting illness who live in Derby city and Derbyshire. This will inform services and improvement for end of life care and bereavement support. The survey can be completed online via this link and should take approximately 15 minutes.
Attached is a print version of the survey, guidance for those assisting people to complete the survey and an A5 flyer for events, notice boards or tables, we would appreciate it if you could share these as widely as possible.
Giving HOPE project - supporting mothers and babies facing separation: The Giving HOPE project is launching tomorrow (Tuesday 11 February) with the aim of reducing the trauma experienced by mothers and babies facing separation at birth due to safeguarding concerns. Developed by Lancaster University alongside women with lived experience, the project offers therapeutic support through HOPE boxes (Hold On Pain Eases), carefully designed to provide comfort and foster connections between separated mothers and their babies.
Each mother and baby receive a personalised HOPE Box containing meaningful items that help capture memories and maintain a connection. This short animation introduces the HOPE Boxes and the meaning behind some of the items in the box. These boxes support mothers during child protection proceedings and aid both loss and grief work for mothers and life-story work for children.
In partnership with local NHS Trusts, Derbyshire and Staffordshire regions are adopting the project, offering HOPE Boxes and ongoing support. If you'd like to learn more, you can read the attached project briefing, visit the Child & Family Justice Research website or contact Juanita Murray at juanitamurray@nhs.net.
Are you new to writing committee papers, or need to refresh your knowledge? Training sessions on the new assurance model and how to use the current supporting template will run quarterly throughout 2025. The next one is 10-11am on Wednesday 19 February and you can join here. Monthly governance drop-ins are the first Tuesday of each month, 10-10.30am. For further information and meeting invites, please contact Sara Parkin, corporate governance manager.
Have your say on DCHS’ equality performance in relation to inclusive leadership: We are inviting colleagues to have their say at the grading workshop scheduled for 10.30am - 12pm on Thursday 6 March, when we will present DCHS’ evidence on domain 3 of the NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS). Domain 3 focuses on leadership, specifically in relation to inclusion.
The EDS is an evidence-based framework mandated for NHS organisations to annually assess how they are delivering equalities for their patients, employees and communities as well as how inclusive each organisation’ leadership is. Further information about the EDS is available here.
This grading workshop is an opportunity to engage with other colleagues and hear views on how we are performing as an NHS organisation against the EDS grading criteria, including where and how we should make improvements. You can join the workshop by clicking this link, however please note that you will need to diarise the workshop in your e-calendar. You can also email the Inclusion & Belonging Team’s inbox for the invite and joining link to be sent directly to you and added to your e-diary/calendar, or if you have any further queries.
Further information will be shared nearer the workshop’s date, as well as afterwards. We look forward to welcoming you at the workshop.
Nominations are now open for this year’s Our Health Heroes Awards, celebrating the wider healthcare workforce that supports NHS doctors and nurses on the frontline. It's a national celebration of their achievements and provides an opportunity to give thanks for the important role that they play in keeping the NHS going. The categories cover a wide range of roles, this year's categories are:
- Apprentice of the year
- Best healthcare workforce collaboration
- Clinical support worker of the year
- Digital innovation
- Dedication to a lifelong learning culture
- Equity, diversity and inclusion
- Healthcare volunteer of the year
- Operational support worker of the year
- Outstanding lifetime contribution to healthcare.
If you have a colleague in mind for a nomination, you need to do so by Friday 4 March. So what are you waiting for? Nominate your Health Hero today.
Update from your Quality Conversations (QC) Team: We are pleased to announce our upcoming QC training sessions for March 2025. These sessions are designed to enhance your communication skills, promote person-centred approaches, and support effective health coaching techniques. Click the links below to book your place!
Core skills - this interactive session covers the impact of health inequalities, understanding bias, and developing listening and communication skills:
Having better mental health conversations:
Having behaviour change conversations:
Supporting People to Support Themselves:
Clear conversations - verbal health literacy:
