Come along to the Speech and Language Therapy careers events in October to find out more

Speech and Language Therapists have a wide variety of career choices and options to specialise.  They provide life-changing treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking and swallowing.

Register for the online evening event on 8 October, or the careers day being held at UEA on 31 October. Once you’ve registered, you’ll be sent a short form and event details.

Anyone from the age of 14 upwards can attend. There’ll be information on career paths in Speech and Language Therapy, presentations from clinical specialists and application guidance from UEA Speech and Language Therapy colleagues.

The events are being hosted by the Allied Health Professionals Faculty, part of Norfolk and Waveney’s Integrated Care System.

Do you know someone who has what it takes to join us?

Our new recruitment campaign will be launching soon aimed at attracting nursing and clinical professionals to NCH&C that might not normally consider community roles.

The campaign aims to show that working in the community is diverse and can be fast-paced, and to celebrate the future-focussed nature of the work in our Urgent Community Response and Community Virtual Ward teams across Norfolk.

Associate Director of Communications, Marketing and Engagement at NCH&C, Vicky Brooke said: “The new campaign focuses on the attributes candidates need for these types of roles, as a way to show the innovative nature of these positions.

“Featuring our colleagues in the campaign is so powerful. People love seeing people and we’re really grateful for all the staff who have taken part so far in these adverts. Over the coming weeks we’ll be finding out more about the people featured in the campaign, and the important jobs they do here at NCH&C.

“We really want people to know that, far from being sedate, a career in the community is very often dynamic and responsive, and you’re always learning. We need problem solvers, quick thinkers, people who are driven and passionate. You need to be ready for anything, an excellent communicator and team player, and up for a challenge.”

Help us spread the word about working at NCH&C by:

• Sharing our recruitment social media posts
• Adding this to your email signature

• Telling your friends and family that may be interested in applying about these roles. Remember that we offer Recommend a Friend bonuses for successful recruitment of people that staff recommend
• Keep checking in with other ways you can help us with this campaign

A-level students in East of England asked to consider an NHS career

School leavers getting their A-level, T-level or BTEC results today are being urged to consider joining the NHS through one of the final healthcare degree places remaining.

Already this year, 33,560 people in England have applied for a nursing degree, and 7,290 have applied to become a midwife. But with plenty of spaces still available through the university clearing system, there is still room for those who are undecided to join more than 420,000 people across the country already in these professions.

With student nurses and midwives able to earn while they learn, NHS England today is reminding school leavers in the East of England who may be considering their choices that a future in healthcare could be the life-changing and highly rewarding career they’re looking for.

Student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals could be eligible for the NHS Learning Support Fund and receive at least £5,000 towards their costs a year.

Louise Ashley, interim regional chief nurse for the NHS in the East of England, said: “Nursing and midwifery are such rewarding and diverse careers. With more than 50 different specialties to choose from, a career in nursing and midwifery offers both variety and great personal satisfaction.

“There are also healthcare career options for anyone who doesn’t want to go to university. You can start as a healthcare support worker and move through the apprenticeship route to becoming a registered healthcare professional.

“Whatever your next steps are, I urge you to consider applying for a nursing or midwifery course through UCAS Clearing now – search for ‘NHS nursing careers’ to find out more.”

Sally Nuttall started her career in nursing after going through Clearing in 2004. 20 years on, after a wide variety of different placements and roles – including community nursing, district nursing, primary care and even lecturing at her local university – she is now a senior clinical manager for midwifery at NHS England in the East of England.

Sally said: “I didn’t get the grades I had hoped for on results day, but I wanted a career where I could make a difference, with good development opportunities.

“I chose adult nursing because of the vast number of specialisms and the exposure I would get to different training placements.

“If you’re unsure about what to do next, take a look at a rewarding career in the NHS.

Sally added: “I never went into nursing with a career plan. Starting with that first decision 20 years ago to go through Clearing, my only ‘rule’ has been to be open to new opportunities and make decisions based on what makes me happy, whilst working with awesome and passionate people. Looking back, my A-level results were a silver-lining as I otherwise may not have considered what’s been a fantastic career in nursing – with still so many new experiences ahead of me.”

Emily Patrick, aged 22, a final-year adult nursing student at Anglia Ruskin University, applied for her degree through the clearing system after switching from a politics degree. She starts her NHS career in intensive care this September.

Emily said: “I am so proud to be a student nurse – one of the best things is feeling you are part of a team. Knowing that I have made a difference to patients makes the hardest days easier. Simple gestures such as a hug from a patient or a family member makes it all worthwhile.”

Despite record numbers of doctors and nurses now working in the NHS – up over 30,000 in a year – applications to nursing degrees have so far fallen slightly this year compared to last.

UCAS Clearing is now open and prospective students will be able to apply for courses until 21 October. Entry requirements for nursing and midwifery degree courses vary, but students will likely need at least two A-levels or equivalent. Students are advised to contact a university directly to find out what specific qualifications are needed.

To find out more about jobs in the health service and how to apply, search NHS Health Careers online or visit www.healthcareers.nhs.uk.

What is a Red to Green meeting?

Earlier this year the former Priscilla Bacon Lodge building at Colman Hospital in Norwich was  reopened as Birch Unit to provide care for category P2 patients. It has been operating as a temporary preparation ward ahead of the Willow Therapy Unit opening at Norwich Community Hospital later this year.

Birch Unit is operating the same therapy-led model of care that will be provided at the Willow Therapy Unit and is staffed by colleagues recruited to work at Willow when it opens.

We recently went to talk to staff about their work at Birch Unit to see how they have worked together to launch this new model of care, and roll it out successfully for the benefit of patients in Norfolk and Waveney.

The team holds a daily Red to Green meeting. The Red to Green approach aims to reduce a patient’s length of stay, identifying avoidable delays in progressing a patient’s care.

Mark, Advanced Nursing Practitioner at Birch Ward, talked us through the daily Red To Green meetings the team has on our podcast The Handover. He said: “This is a daily event with a multi-disciplinary team approach. Colleagues from nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy are all involved. We go through each patient on the ward, with each team member talking about the patient, and we come up with a plan. Our focus is very much on working towards safe discharge.”

Hear more about the new model of care being provided at Birch Unit and Mark talk about Red to Green meetings here:

Relaunch of our behaviour framework and introducing leadership way

Our behaviour framework is a set of core behaviours and attitudes expected by all our colleagues with each other, patients, relatives, and others we work with across health and social care, and supports delivery of our strategic priorities, values, and culture. It defines how all colleagues contribute to the success of our organisation, and to our own successes as individuals and as teams.

The guidance in our behaviour framework is not about asking any of us to be someone different, it describes expectations around what we do and how we behave with each
other and our patients.

All staff demonstrating the behaviour framework benefits everyone:

• Benefit to our colleagues: you know what is expected of you, your opinions and contributions mater and you know how you contribute to the overall success of the organisation, for patient satisfaction and for you to have an enjoyable place to work which has meaning.

• Benefit to patients: staff are clear of their roles and responsibilities which leads to a
sense of trust for patients, and consistency of experience for patients no matter who cares for
them.

• Benefit to NCH&C: if we do well, are services continue to be commissioned which
means greater job stability. It also supports NCH&C as an attractive place to work, staff
retention, we achieve our vision

Recently relaunched, we have produced a behaviour framework toolkit has been developed to help embed this within our teams. It has lots of resources and activities all in one place.

NHS Our Leadership Way

The value and impact of leadership in our organisation is recognised by NCH&C and we commit to supporting colleagues to demonstrate healthy leadership behaviours that inspire those around them.

To do this, we’ve adopted the NHS Our Leadership Way which formalises the approach our leaders should take. It was co-created with thousands of NHS people and compliments the NHS People Promise as a tool to help create joint leadership commitments.

Complementing our NHS People Promise, it formalises the approach our leaders should take to develop this even further.  It requires every leader, at whatever level, to recognise, reflect and bring to life every day, six core principles.  It is a tool to help create joint leadership commitments across wider caring organisations, such as social care and charitable organisations within our integrated system.  One way to conceive this is to think about the Heart, Head and Hands of leadership;

• the things we must consciously think about,
• the things we and others feel, and
• the things we should do. 

In short, we should lead with compassion, curiosity and collaboration. 

Why is all this important?

To achieve our vision to deliver outstanding health and care at the heart of the community we want NCH&C to be a compassionate and inclusive workplace where our people know they are valued and feel empowered in their roles to achieve excellence for our communities.

Our Values of Community, Compassion, and Creativity describe who we are and what we stand for as an organisation. And our behaviour framework and leadership way are how we translate them into day-to-day actions.  Essentially, how we live our value through our behaviours.

Click here to see our NCH&C Behaviour Framework and Leadership Way

Episode 2 of The Handover

Dedicated to keeping conversations flowing at NCH&C, Episode 2 of our podcast, The Handover, is now live. Click here to listen to it.

The Handover is all about having conversations with frontline staff: an opportunity for them to hand over information to us, and for us to do the same, via an easily accessible platform. The aim is for them to be useful and interesting. Something colleagues will like to listen to, and take something from.

In this month’s 30-minute podcast episode of The Handover, we feature:

• A tour of Birch Unit by Unit Lead, Luciano Pitasi. Carolyn Fowler, Director of Nursing and Quality, and Rob Mack, Director of Community Health and Social Care Operations, meet and chat to a number of staff about how the brand new team have come together to build a new model of working at the unit.
• A special trip to North Walsham War Memorial Hospital with Melissa Taylor, Communications and Marketing Manager, who talked to colleagues as they celebrated the hospital’s 100^th anniversary.
• Staff feedback on the new NHS uniforms at the first drop-in samples session.

Once again, a huge thank you to all colleagues who took part in this episode. We really appreciate your time and honesty in speaking to us about issues that matter to you. We hope everyone finds what we’ve talked about interesting.

We can only make these conversations happen with you, so do get involved if you have an idea for what we can cover in future episodes. If you’d like us to come out and interview your team about your work, get in touch:

Email communications@nchc.nhs.uk

The Handover is available on the following platforms – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music and Buzzsprout

Community health services strengthened as trusts come together

Today (24 July) the Boards of Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) and Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (CCS) met jointly to confirm their plans to come together as an NHS Trust Group, heralding it as an exciting opportunity to make local community services stronger and more resilient.

The Group will see the coming together of two specialist community health and care providers that work across the East of England for the benefit of patients, communities, staff and partners. Under the Group model, NCH&C and CCS will remain independent organisations and have a single Board and executives who will lead the organisations into alignment from  April 2025 onwards.

Matthew Winn, joint Chief Executive Officer for CCS and NCH&C said: “ This is an exciting opportunity to make things better for our patients and our staff, whilst also making our services stronger and more resilient.

“We already have so much in common including our values and services that provide great care and support to people so they can lead their best and healthiest lives. But we can do even more together.

“Our Boards recognise the huge financial and demographic challenges on the horizon for smaller NHS Trusts. Demand and complexity of patient needs continue to increase, so having resilient specialist community health and care providers is essential. By operating together, we will benefit from the combined skills, talents, and infrastructure of both organisations. We will be able to deliver the radical approach required to improve health outcomes for local people.”

Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, Chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB, said: “Bringing these two excellent organisations together to share expertise and resources will make services better for local residents. It will mean that we can maximise the funding available to provide frontline care and ensure that we are getting the best value for the public money we spend. We want to provide more care in the community and in people’s homes, and this change will help to ensure that both organisations are well-placed to enable us to do this in the years ahead.”

Find out more about NCH&C and CCS plans to create a group here www.nhsbuildingtrust.info

Happy centenary to North Walsham Hospital

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital celebrated its centenary with a special garden party in June. The event was supported by the site’s local charity, The Friends of North Walsham War Memorial Hospital.

The original North Walsham Hospital was built on the site for £4,000 in 1924 to honour the local men who lost their lives in the first world war, and to give something back to the community in their memory. Like many of our sites, North Walsham Hospital has gone through many changes and been part of several different NHS trusts. At one point there was a large children’s and maternity unit at the hospital, so several colleagues who work at North Walsham today were actually born at the original hospital. The site became part of NCH&C when the trust was created in 2010, before being demolished and rebuilt to the current facility in 2012.

To celebrate the centenary, NCH&C staff past and present gathered with patients and members of the local community to reflect on 100 years of North Walsham Hospital. Guests enjoyed tea and cake in the hospital’s garden, as well as witnessing the burial of a time capsule. NCH&C colleagues were also gifted a commemorative badge to mark the event.

The time capsule contains items suggested by staff based at North Walsham, including photos of the team, medical supplies like dressings and COVID tests, thank you cards from patients, and trust communications like Weekly Messages, the Ward Newsletter, and menus for patient meals on offer this week.  The time capsule was gifted by the trust’s charity, NCH&C Charitable Fund, who provide items and services to support colleagues and patients that go above and beyond what can be provided through core NHS funding.

Helen Gwilliam, Housekeeper. Born at North Walsham Hospital 

Kerry Howarth, Ward Sister. Born at North Walsham Hospital 

Sonia Draper, Healthcare Assistant. Born at North Walsham Hospital

NCH&C’s Director of Nursing & Quality, Carolyn Fowler, shared her thoughts on what the centenary means to the trust and the local community:

“Not only is North Walsham one of our oldest sites, but it is also closely tied to its local community. We have several colleagues who have worked at North Walsham War Memorial Hospital for over 25 years, and four colleagues who were born here when the site operated as a maternity unit.”

“The garden party has been a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our trust’s rich history, and to connect with staff and patients based at North Walsham and to hear their stories. On behalf of NCH&C, I would like to thank the Friends of North Walsham War Memorial Hospital, and our own Charitable Fund, for their support with this very special event.”

Karen Mitchell, Ward Manager at North Walsham War Memorial Hospital, said:

“Speaking to colleagues who work at North Walsham, many of them will tell you that it is a special place to work due to the close-knit team. Not only do many of the team have a personal connection to North Walsham and the hospital, but they are also all united by their desire to provide the best possible care for our patients.

“Spending time in hospital is never easy, so the garden party provided a vital morale boost to our patients, as well as recognising the hard work of our staff over the years. Burying the time capsule was a poignant moment reflecting both the origins of the hospital, and its future. We rely so much on our fabulous staff, so it is only fitting that they got to choose the contents of the time capsule and decide how best they want the hospital to be remembered to future generations.”

Keith Jarvis, Chair of the Friends of North Walsham War Memorial Hospital, said:

“The Friends of North Walsham was founded in 1949, with a long-term aim of linking together the local community and the much-loved hospital that provides care to its residents. Now 75 years on, the Friends continue to support the hospital through public donations, legacies, and money in lieu of flowers at funerals.

“Over the years, the Friends of North Walsham have gladly supported the hospital with many initiatives, including redecorating the day room, purchasing TVs for patients, and even laying a wildflower meadow at the front of the hospital, as well as supporting with Christmas trees and gifts each year. Most recently, the Friends have provided a coffee machine, which has proved very popular with staff, and daily newspapers for the patients. The Friends hope to continue this support for many years to come, as it is our way of saying thank you for all the hard work and care the NHS staff deliver at the hospital.”

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital is one of many sites operated by NCH&C. The trust provides community-based health and care in GP surgeries, patient homes, outpatient clinics, and its eleven community inpatient units, comprising 235 beds. Every day, NCH&C sees 1,516 patients at home, including 44 in ‘virtual wards’ where patients can receive extra support and monitoring in their own home.

The time capsule is buried by Carolyn Fowler and Keith Jarvis

Patient Brian Roddick (seated second from left) with staff and hospital chaplain the Rev David Warner

Staff who received centenary commemorative badges

According to recent data published by NHS England, “each year at least 12,000 military personnel leave their roles in the Armed Forces for a variety of reasons, with many of them looking to switch career after completing their service.

“Their transferable skills, including leadership, resilience and compassion, leave them with much to offer the NHS, and many already meet the entry requirements to undertake a suitable training programme.”

In 2023, NCH&C signed the Armed Forces Covenant and was awarded the Bronze Veteran Aware Employer Recognition Scheme Award. We recognise that understanding the unique circumstances of veterans allows us to provide the best possible support for our veteran colleagues and patients, including those who are part of armed forces families.

As well as setting up support groups and providing easy access to helpful resources, we are recruiting our first Veteran Aware Volunteer in the next few months. Spending in time in hospital may be particularly challenging to some veterans due to their past experiences, so our Veteran Aware Volunteer can visit those patients who may need extra reassurance and companionship, with the additional perspective of understanding some of the challenges specific to veterans.

To mark Armed Forces Day (29 June 2024), we sat down with NCH&C colleague and Army veteran, Dominic Galea. As well as working as in our Service Improvement Partnership Team as a Business Intelligence Manager, Dominic also holds a voluntary role at NCH&C as the trust’s incoming Veteran Awareness Lead.

Here’s Dom’s take on how his military experience helped created valuable transferrable skills for the next step in his career…

Can you briefly explain your role?

As Business Intelligence Manager, I help NCH&C’s management and clinical teams understand and use information and data to make improvements for our colleagues and patients.

How long did you serve in the Armed Forces?

I spent 23 years in uniform and left as a Warrant Officer class 2 in the Royal Army Medical Corps, doing everything from being a Combat Medical Technician (From Company Medic to part of the 3 Division’s Med team), via Civil-Military cooperation, and finishing as the military system operations lead for the Ministry of Defence’s electronic patient record system.

What made you choose a career in the NHS?

I wanted to continue to use my skills and knowledge healthcare but explore new things.

Are there any transferable skills or knowledge from the Armed Forces that have benefitted your NHS career?

Moving from one large institution to another makes things easier to understand; managing the dynamics and pressures of the interactions between often very different teams and services is something everyone in the military is used to! The amount of formal management and leadership training, as well as opportunities to put it in to practice (often in positions that you have ‘stepped up’ into) has been key to navigating the complexities of the NHS as well as being comfortable with working with both senior figures (don’t underestimate how unusual this is!) across the system but also frontline staff. The planning, presentation and staff writing skills the military gave me have made my current job much easier has enabled me to deliver high quality products from the start.

How did you find the transition from the Armed Forces to the NHS?

I was lucky and was offered a role while still servicing and took an accelerated leave process with the support of my commanding officer and NCH&C – it meant that I did a month of dual working for both.

Do you have any words of advice for veterans considering a career in the NHS?

Reach out to those who have left and are working in areas that you are interested in to hear about their experiences and routes into the NHS. The Step into Health scheme is also good for making contact for placements and understanding what each NHS trust does!

Be ready for a different focus and approach to both management and hierarchy, and the very different pace of work but also the much less competitive atmosphere!

How does NCH&C compare to any other employer you may have worked at?

NCH&C is very supportive and flexible both in terms of how I approach my day-to-day work, but also providing the flexibility to work from home and other trust sites when I need to.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Although my route into the NHS was quite straightforward because of my medical experience in the Army, the Armed Forces can offer far more than just clinical staff to the NHS. Everyone from Clerks to Infantry has something to offer, and I am passionate about bringing the skills that the professional healthcare managers such as Medical Support Officers and Combat Medical Technicians can bring to the NHS.

To find out more about choosing an NHS career after leaving the Armed Forces, visit the Step Into Health website.

What's it like to work in admin in the NHS?

We have more than 200 people working in our admin teams across the trust – they are essential in the running of the NHS and it’s a fulfilling and interesting career. Our administrative teams at NCH&C are crucial in helping us deliver outstanding health and care to our patients, and support to their families and carers.

Administrative roles at NCH&C are hugely varied, and include jobs such as ward clerks, inpatient admin assistants, medical secretaries, receptionists, and personal assistants – to name a few.

Recently, we went out to interview some of our admin colleagues about their role, what they find rewarding and challenging in their jobs for our new trust podcast, The Handover. We spoke to Sam – Peripatetic Administrator in the North; Caitlin – Administrator for the Community Access Team; Lucy from the Single Point of Contact Team; Kim from Central Booking; and Rebecca – Ward Clerk at Kelling Hospital (all pictured above).

Listen here to what they had to say:

You can find out more about our careers in admin here.