Bringing the NHS People Promise to life at Sherwood Forest Hospitals

We’re working hard to improve the working experience of all our colleagues to ensure we attract and retain the very best people.

In January 2024, we were successful in becoming a People Promises Exemplar Organisation and sponsored by NHS England, we appointed a People Promise Manager to bring the NHS People Promise to life at SFH.

The NHS people promise comes directly from those who work in the NHS and is a promise colleagues make to each other to work together to improve the experience of working in the NHS for everyone. You can read more about this here: NHS England » The Promise.

Leanne Featherstone has been in post as People Promises Manager at Sherwood for four months and has made headway on a wide range of initiatives linked to the Trust’s strategy, the overall focus of which is to: ‘improve the lives of our patients, our people and our local population.’

Since her appointment in April 2024, Leanne has been successful in introducing and developing an Armed Forces Network which is open to all serving, reservists, veterans, and their families.

The network was officially launched on the D-Day anniversary (6 June) and has 20 members so far. Professor Sir Jonathan Van Tam came to present the Trust with the plaque for gold armed forces covenant accreditation to mark the work that is being done to support the Armed Forces community, and there are more guest speakers lined up for future meetings. The network is going from strength to strength, which shows the Trust’s commitment to employing and supporting those in the armed forces community, ensuring that those colleagues feel safe and welcomed into our community.

Leanne has also been successful in beginning to implement a Thinking of Moving process, which involves training and supporting managers to have conversations with colleagues who are considering leaving the Trust. The scheme aims to reduce staff turnover within the first 12 months of employment. She has also begun to review the exit interview process, piloting questions across three areas in the Trust so far.

Flexible working options for colleagues is an area the Trust is keen to support, as we know how important it is to have a positive work/life balance. Leanne has been working closely with various teams across the Trust to identify how best to establish this in clinical areas and has identified a way of recording flexible working request for both managers and colleagues.

Work has started to enable colleagues to understand their pension options better. This includes a review of the current training available and the creation of a pension information leaflet which sets out information in a clear and easy to access format for colleagues. Roadshows have also been planned throughout the year, in collaboration with the Trust wellbeing team, to offer financial wellbeing support to colleagues.

Finally, Leanne has been working closely with the Safeguarding team to develop a Sexual Safety policy for colleagues and draft an e-learning package to raise awareness. She is also supporting on the work to reduce violence and aggression within the Trust, specifically looking at putting a policy in place for this.

The work that Leanne has already undertaken is extremely positive and builds on the recent success we have had in our Staff Survey results, where colleagues voted us the best NHS Acute Trust to work for in the Midlands for the sixth year running.

On the back of Leanne's work, we recently welcomed a team from NHS England who came to see some of the innovative initiatives around retention that we're leading on. They spent time meeting teams and hearing about the great work happening across our hospitals. It was fantastic to have the chance to showcase the work we have achieved so far and talk about our next steps. They particularly liked the work we're doing around violence and aggression.

Leanne said: “While the Trust consistently receive excellence results for the annual staff survey, there are always areas that we need to give more focus to, and we continue to work with colleagues to ensure that they are happy and content in their work.”

We are recruiting! If you’d like to work for us, you can view our current vacancies here à https://www.sfh-tr.nhs.uk/work-for-us/our-vacancies/