Summer has sprung here in Lincolnshire and I, like many of you I’m sure, am looking forward to the warmer weather and opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. It is a period of new beginnings and here at LPFT we are certainly entering a period of renewal, most significantly in our senior leadership team.

We welcomed this month two new executive members to the Board with the arrival of our new Chief Executive, Brendan Hayes and Dr Ananta Dave, as Medical Director. We are pleased to welcome them to LPFT and the county, and I very much look forward to working with them and the rest of our Board in continuing the fantastic progress and improvements we’ve seen across all services over recent years.

With new faces however we also sadly say goodbye to others and I would like to wish Anne-Maria Newham MBE, who was our Director of Nursing, AHPs & Quality and Interim Chief Executive, all the very best in her new role as Director of Nursing in Leicester. Our loss is very much their gain and I know her infectious optimism will go far in Leicester.

Even with these changes we have not stood still and will be launching some new and improved initiatives and services over the coming months, as well as celebrating our staff’s on-going dedication and outstanding contributions.

As I write, I’m very much looking forward to our annual staff excellence award evening, which will see us announce the winners of this year’s categories. The judging panel have managed to whittle down a record amount of nearly 300 nominations and we will be celebrating the contributions of all 29 finalists, as well as those individuals and teams that received an LPFT hero award over the last year. It’s always great to hear about the fantastic work taking place and how this has made a difference to our service users and carers, whilst knowing these people represent many, many other superb staff contributions.

It is great to see that staff have continued to receive external recognition for their hard work in the county, with a number of staff attending this year’s Royal Garden Parties, Liz Bainbridge receiving a BEM in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list and LPFT nurse leaders attending Westminster Abbey for this year’s International Nurses Day celebrations. In addition, even more services have achieved the standards required for national accreditation.

We were delighted to welcome Simon Stevens, NHS England Chief Executive to join us at own celebration of nursing and care at this year’s Nursing and Care Conference. He provided an insightful look at the NHS Long Term Plan and spoke about the importance of ensuring mental health has the same priority of physical health – something I know is very close to all of our hearts. You can be sure Brendan and I are actively working with colleagues, including Simon’s team, to ensure we achieve this.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this issue of our member’s magazine and I look forward to being able to tell you more at our Annual Public Meeting in September, more details of which will be available in our next print edition in the summer.

For now I wish you all the best and hope you manage to have an enjoyable summer break, wherever that might be.

Best wishes

Paul Devlin, Chair

Thanks to funding from Lincolnshire Police and local clinical commissioning groups we are expanding the number of crisis response cars available. We will have teams based in Boston and Lincoln to offer a response to patients across the whole county.

The team of registered mental health professionals and support workers work closely with mental health practitioners in the police control room and the crisis resolution and home treatment teams, to quickly respond to calls involving someone in severe mental distress in the community.

Following a referral the response team is able to urgently respond to a community location to offer an initial assessment. They can support the patient in distress and work with other agencies in attendance to make the best decision for the patient’s on-going care.

By having this specialist team able to respond quickly in the community we are helping to reduce the time spent by other agencies responding to complex mental health crisis concerns, offering urgent specialist advice and supporting people in mental distress, as well as reducing the number of people who need to attend A&E or be taken to a health based place of safety.

We are also continuing our mental health support in the police control room. Following a successful pilot it has been agreed that we will continue to provide mental health practitioners in the police control room, supporting police officers with calls and incidents involving mental health concerns.

Staff from the Trust’s child and adolescent mental health crisis team raised £500 by taking part in this year’s Lincoln 10k. The team, Scrambled Legs, all beat their target times and completed the challenge to raise money for therapeutic resources for their service users. Well done to the team of Lyndsay Carter, Zara McAteer, Paschal Campbell, Cheryl Goodwin, Emily Brewer and Lisa De La Perrelle. 

Children and young people’s crisis services also benefited from a large donation from the Grantham Freemasons, who presented a cheque for £750. Members of the Grantham society all donated the money and felt that children’s mental health care was an important area to highlight and support.

Both donations will help facilitate the emotional first aid group and fund self-soothing boxes, which act as a starter kit to support young people struggling with a mental health crisis.

Staff from adult community services and veterans support are lacing up their boots to march and walk their way to fundraising for their local services.

The veteran’s mental health team, alongside their family and friends, took part in a sponsored 10k walk in March and raised over £1000 towards improving patient experience and support for veterans in our communities.

Staff from the adult community mental health team will also be taking on a mammoth walking challenge this September, when the team take part in the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge.

Kerry Vickers, a practitioner in the team said:

We would like to help fund the hearing voices group and the bi-polar support group, as well as a craft club. These are extremely beneficial for our service users.

Finally, we’d like to thank ex-service user Kelvin Hallam and his family for raising £575.42 from their ‘Race night’ at Boston Rugby Club in March. The event was supported by members of the Positive Pilgrims (a support network ran by the local football team for individuals who have mental health difficulties) family, friends and staff from both LPFT and Pilgrim Hospital.

The money raised will be used by service users accessing the mental health liaison service in A&E and will purchase iPods (with relaxing music, mindfulness and guided self-help), as well as clothing and toiletries for patients who attend A&E in a mental health emergency.

Staff who have made a significant contribution to local services attended the annual Royal Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace in May.

Sophie Ford, Linda O’Hara and Liz Bainbridge received invitations to the prestigious events in recognition of their hard work and contribution to inclusion in local health services.

Linda said:

It was a lovely sunny day and perfect for exploring the gardens which are a calm oasis in busy London. It was a real privilege to be invited and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to experience such a traditional, historical, well-loved event.

Sophie added:

I was hugely privileged to be nominated but I want to thank the NHS. Not only for the hard work we all achieve every day to provide high quality care for patients and carers but for giving me a career with true purpose and being able to work for an organisation that is so aligned to my personal values. The garden party was a magical experience; a true once in a lifetime experience.

Liz Bainbridge, Safeguarding Lead attended this year’s events in recognition of her British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year Honours list. She said:

I’m honoured and privileged to be recognised for my work in mental health nursing and supporting vulnerable people. I’m passionate about mental health nursing and this recognition makes my job even more special and satisfying.

Nurse leaders celebrate contributions at Westminster Abbey

Two lead trust nurses visited Westminster Abbey this May as part of an annual service for International Nurses Day.

Anne-Maria Newham MBE, Deputy Chief Executive and Deputy Director of Nursing, Zoë Rowe were invited to the event to celebrate the life of Florence Nightingale, the founder of nursing, as well as the centenary of Edith Cavell’s funeral and thank nurses across the globe for their contributions.

Anne-Maria Newham, MBE said:

It was a privilege to be invited to such a prestigious event and Zoë and I were proud to represent LPFT and Lincolnshire nurses.

This May marked 100 years of learning disability (LD) nursing and we took the opportunity to celebrate the fantastic job our learning disability nurses do every day.

Our own team of nurses make such a difference to the lives of people with a learning disability and their carers and they wanted to share how rewarding and enjoyable a role it could be, to help encourage others to join the specialty.

Many shared their stories on social media as part of the national celebration and here are just a few of our staff saying what it means to be an LD nurse.

I got into nursing as I was unemployed and looking for a job that could lead to a qualification. I was terrified when I began my journey but have never looked back since. Working with people with a learning disability is just a joy; I have worked with so many unique characters and learnt a lot from them. I’ve enjoyed so many great experiences that it has become a passion.
George Badiali

The reason I became a learning disability nurse is to be able to help and support people to improve an individual quality of life however small that maybe.
Judith Turner

The week was a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate some of the wider successes and influences of this indispensable branch of nursing over the past 100 years and was a special way to celebrate the fantastic community of learning disability nurses here at LPFT.

NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens attended this year’s LPFT Nursing and Care Conference, to celebrate the contribution and future of nursing and care staff in mental health and learning disability services in the county.

Attended by over 200 staff there was a great range of external speakers, as well as exhibitions and workshops from the Trust’s own services.

Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, provided an insight on the NHS Long Term Plan and spoke of the importance of ensuring mental health has the same priority as physical health.  He spoke about how the NHS is working collectively to ensure acute and mental health services are fully integrated in the future.

Malcolm Rae from the State of Mind Sport charity spoke about the power of sport to promote positive mental health and prevent suicide. As well as MiXit drama group sharing a short performance to highlight STOMP, a national campaign to stop the over-medication of people with a learning disability and/or autism.

The day was also about celebration and took the opportunity to award three staff with a 2019 superhero award. This year’s winners were Health Care Support Worker, Gavin Gregory, Learning Disability Nurse, Rebecca O’Nians, and Deputy Director of Nursing, AHPs and Quality, Zoë Rowe.

Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England said:

It was a pleasure to see first-hand the work of NHS staff in Lincolnshire, and to meet some of the exceptional carers and nurses rightly recognised for their work.

The Trust hosted its ninth annual Staff Excellence Awards this month, celebrating the contributions and achievements of LPFT staff and volunteers from across the county.

A record number of nominations were received this year and the judging panel had to choose from over 300 nominations from colleagues, managers, patients and carers who wanted to recognise staff.

Trust Chair, Paul Devlin said:

These awards are a great way of recognising the hard work of our staff and volunteers. All the finalists and everyone who received a nomination should feel immensely proud of their achievements.

The awards ceremony took the opportunity to celebrate all 29 finalists, as well as teams and individuals who had received LPFT Hero awards throughout the year.

As part of the evening the Trust also thanked staff for their outstanding dedication to NHS services by presenting 16 people with long service awards for 30 and 40 years’ of service.

You can find the full list of winners and information about their achievements here.

As a Trust we are committed to recognising our extraordinary staff. Our LPFT Heroes initiative provides an opportunity to champion individuals and teams nominated by their colleagues and patients following a job well done.

Natasha Cutts 
Young Minds Matter

Natasha spreads her positivity throughout the team and the Trust working tirelessly to increase engagement with hard to reach young people through a variety of creative ways.

She has started a young person’s choir and a staff wellbeing choir as part of engaging young people and supporting her wider team and a colleague said:  

It is incredible that someone has come into the team and made such an impact on staff and patient wellbeing.

Estates Maintenance Team

The Estates Maintenance Team of Mark Keely, Phil Green, Mark Beck and Morgan Ambler have been integral during recent essential improvement works at Carholme Court.

They have all been working above and beyond to make sure that the unit will be ready to once again welcome patients as quickly as possible - working out of hours to ensure the water quality issues have been resolved thoroughly and safely.