.png){kind=logo}
Delivering cultural change in an NHS Trust – moving towards “a Great Place to Work for everyone”
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) is a large mental health Trust in the South West of England. AWP has approximately 5,000 staff working in a very wide range of settings, serving a diverse population from inner city to extremely rural areas.
The Challenge
Having a culture that supports and enables staff to work at their best, where people know what good looks like both in what they do and how they behave and relate to one another is fundamental to the consistent delivery of high quality compassionate care. In addition, creating a culture where people are developed and supported to deliver their potential enhances the ability to attract and retain staff and builds a positive reputation for trust.
The Great Place to Work (GPTW) initiative was developed to directly address persistent issues raised from successive years of Staff Survey data and internal feedback that included – poor relationships between teams and individuals, gaps in leadership and management development, lack of inclusion across staff groups, communication trust wide and at team level, processes and decision making that could hinder rather than help… the staff survey had been on a gradual downward trajectory for a number of years.
The Programme
We created an AWP Discovery team that consisted of 25 staff from a diagonal slice across AWP - all levels, types of roles, location and services were trained in listening, engagement and workshop facilitation. This Team (working just 2 – 3 days per month in addition to their normal role) listened directly to over 1,500 members of staff in AWP, capturing through a structured process staff thoughts, views and experiences.
With over 10,000 pieces of feedback this team enabled us to get to the detailed truth and create the insights from which we could design the right improvement interventions.
Creating Cultural Insight Platforms to guide the interventions
A significant amount of work and extensive staff and leader engagement was done to take the output from the Discovery work and develop an agreed set of eleven Cultural Development Insight Platforms and four underlying themes. These platforms and themes created the guide to the design and delivery of the right interventions delivered at the right time to enable AWP to improve whilst still delivering services day to day, every day.
Great Place to Work adopted as one of the four strategic aims of AWP
Successfully managing and enabling key stakeholders to adopt GPTW as one of the four long term strategic aims of the Trust demonstrated the real senior level long term commitment to improving the staff experience and the value the organisation placed on everyone who works for AWP.
The shift into the Design and Delivery phase
Building on the urgent targeted interventions already underway with specific teams and roles, using the insight platforms we collaborated with colleagues across AWP to develop a clear design and delivery plan.
The design and delivery plan consists of three complementary elements as set out below:
1. Great Place to Work ACROSS AWP initiatives –
-
Development of updated, relevant, visible and embedded vision, values and behaviours
-
An effective management communication cascade process
-
A more comprehensive set of measures and indicators for GPTW
2. Great Place to Work THROUGH AWP Directorates – tailored initiatives chosen by and led by the directorates, localities and teams directly supported by the GPTW resources.
Some of these 'through' interventions include:
-
Executive development – team coaching role
-
Great Place to …. A long term recovery and improvement focused on one large service that had been in crisis
-
Senior Operational Leaders development – collaboration not competition
-
Medical Leadership – Consultants Leadership Charter
3. GPTW as an Umbrella – GPTW is to act as an umbrella for all initiatives connected to improving the staff experience being initiated and undertaken in so many parts of the trust as a result of this momentum and focus.
The Impact
-
The key measure for GPTW is the Staff Survey results have shifted positively for 3 years running
-
Improvements in other “people” indicators such as sickness, retention and grievances
-
Colleagues have given feedback that there is a positive sense of energy and hope for the future, showing an increase in staff morale
-
External positive reputation of the Trust has shifted significantly
-
GPTW as a “brand” recognised and used throughout the Trust for cultural and staff experience improvements and support services
-
GPTW (and transform) being embedded into the how of transformation and change
We continue working closely with leadership teams and colleagues across AWP to build a culture where people, leadership, and ways of working are fully connected.
For us, culture change is not a one-off initiative. It is about creating lasting momentum and high-performing cultures that continue to evolve long after a programme has begun.
Our greatest measure of success is not simply completing a project but earning the trust to continue the journey and create meaningful, sustainable change that builds confidence, capability, and lasting impact across the organisation.
Please get in touch to discuss your organisation’s cultural support needs.
