Directors of communications from 15 Swedish county councils visited London to learn more about the health and care system in England.This presentation is from this visit. NHS Improving Quality planned and hosted the study tour as a result of close links with Jönköping, one of the councils represented in the delegation. Our guests learned about the important role of communications specialists in transforming healthcare in England, and the leading role NHS Improving Quality has taken in engaging and mobilising staff at scale and pace. During the study tour it became obvious that many of the challenges and opportunities we face in our health and care system mirror those in Sweden, in particular issues such as emergency care, obesity and smoking, patient safety and working with the media. This was a fantastic opportunity for NHS Improving Quality to strengthen alliances at an international level and share ideas and approaches, and we hope to build on this in the future

1. Francis Report ‘listening exercise’

2. Overview
• The Francis Report into shocking failures in care at Mid Staffordshire
Hospital was published on 6 February 2013
• It highlighted the fact that many staff and patients had raised concerns but
the hospital management had not listened or acted on those concerns
• All NHS trusts were asked to consider the report and its 290
recommendations and to undertake an engagement exercise with their staff
• More than 2,000 Guy’s and St Thomas’ took part in our ‘listening exercise’ in
March 2013 by attending open forums led by our Chief Nurse and
participating in local sessions at ward and department level
• The results were considered by the Trust Board in April 2013
• What staff told us led to the development of our Showing we care strategy
which translates our Trust values into ‘pledges’ to patients and staff

3. What our ‘listening exercise’ covered
• 700 staff attended open forums led by the Chief Nurse
• 1,300 staff attended 100 local focus groups at ward and department level
which were led by line managers(eg ward sisters, department heads etc)
• A toolkit was provided to line managers to help them run local events
• Publicised via our usual internal communications channels
• 3 questions considered during the open forums and local focus groups:
• How do we always ensure we put our patients’ interests first?
• How do we support our staff to have a voice and speak out safely?
• How do we ensure we listen to our staff and patients?

4. Put Patients First – good now

5. Put Patients First – even better if . . .

6. Speaking Up Safely – good now

7. Speaking Up Safely – even better if . . .

8. Listening to Patients – good now

9. Listening to Patients – even better if . . .

10. Listening to Staff – good now

11. Listening to Staff – even better if . . .

12. Key findings – what staff told us
• Celebrate good practice
• Spread good practice
• Close the feedback loop
• Get the basics of patient care right
• Support managers to support their staff

13. What we did next
• The results were considered by the Trust Board in April 2013
• What staff told us led to the development of our Showing we care strategy
which translates our Trust values into ‘pledges’ to patients and staff
• We made a Showing we care film featuring patients and staff talking about
what the values mean to them
• We launched a 6Cs campaign for nurses to reinforce the importance of
getting the basics right
• We launched a monthly face-to-face Team Briefing with Directors

14. AHCM Awards
• The listening exercise won the ‘Best internal communications’ category and
Jonathan Street Award for excellence in the AHCM Awards 2013
• The AHCM judges said: “In a year when the NHS and its staff took a close
look at who they were, the team at Guy’s and St Thomas’ showed us just
how powerful internal communications can be. This campaign did two
things – it gave staff a chance to talk and it gave the Board of Directors a
chance to listen. To really listen – and to act on what they heard.”

15. What we are doing now
• Trust Board reviewed actions from last year’s initiative and decided to build
on it by running a Francis Report One Year On ‘listening exercise’
• Aim is to listen to staff and to enable staff to share their experience of
working here at Guy’s and St Thomas’ with each other
• Themes of this year’s ‘listening exercise’ are:
• Change and improvement
• Speaking up safely
• Support to do your job
• Local sessions are being held in wards and departments until mid-July and
a report will go to the Trust Board in September