Reset and recovery

Overview

As the Trust start to think about recovering services impacted by the pandemic a Trust wide survey to capture views across all service areas in Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees, and Wakefield has taken place.

The Trust is starting to use the best of the past and the learning from Covid 19 to continuously improve our services safely. This approach includes service user, carer, communities and staff involvement and a Trust wide approach to capture feedback.

The Trust want to continue to provide effective service and enable staff to work effectively using learning from previous ways of working and different ways of working during the covid19 pandemic.

Who did you consult with and what did you ask?

The Trust have rolled out an involvement approach to capture the voice and views of service users, carers, and families as well as staff. The approach includes an online and paper survey – including easy read version and translation/accessible formats on request. The approach is supported by a conversation or focus groups approach which includes key lines of enquiry on four key aspects of our Trust. These are:

• Working effectively – work force only
• Delivering services that are effective – people who use services only
• Estates and the built environment
• Digital

In addition to these lines of enquiry equality monitoring information is also gathered to help make sure those responding are representative of protected characteristics and the local population we serve. The Trust are working closely with Voluntary and community sector colleagues (VCS) and Healthwatch in each local area to capture feedback.

What did they tell you?

The survey and capturing feedback will close on 31^st March 2022 but the insight and data has already been used and reviewed to support the Trust move forward with a number of key areas of work. The feedback we have received to date represents 600 views with equally as many staff and service users sharing insight and intelligence. This is what we know so far:

Staff have told us:

• That services have managed to identify solutions to support people who use services
• We need to consider future use of our estates to ensure services improve and can continue if restrictions remain
• That digital was a good solution for some, but that face to face remained the key way to contact people who use services
• That home working or a blended approach to working, is working well for most staff
• That the pandemic has had a negative impact on some staff and how they work
• That staff are now used to the technology they are using but there are still some gaps in equipment i.e., having access to a printer

People who use services have told us:

• That over half of those responding have still found it easy, very easy or that there has been no change to getting an appointment.
• That well over half those responding stated we did not contact them as frequently as we had before
• That the care people received had been impacted by the pandemic in terms of making a difference and helping people reach their goals
• People highlighted what still worked well as:
  • Caring staff, listening and compassionate, professional
  • Service local to home
  • Being seen regularly
  • Helpful information during the pandemic and good sign posting
  • Still supported me despite challenges
  • Flexible appointments
  • Being treated as an individual

• People highlighted the improvements as:
  • Access to therapy
  • More group support
  • Improvements in communication
  • Not being listened to and more regular contact
  • Support for carers
  • Seeing the same person – consistency and staffing levels
  • Aftercare following discharge
  • More face-to-face contact

What did you do?

The feedback from the engagement has already been used to support improvements in the Trust. These improvements include:

• Informing the development of a future Trust estate strategy
• Informing the hybrid working approach for staff
• Informing individual services who are progressing to recover services
• Informing the Trust digital internal audit

The feedback will continue to be used by the Trust to inform service restoration and improvements throughout the forthcoming year at both a service and strategic level. Equality monitoring of responses will ensure that we consider the voice and views of our diverse population and any specific equality considerations will be pulled out.

Page last updated on: 4^th July 2022