About Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Nottinghamshire Healthcare provides a unique range of mental health services as well as community based services, it also inherited the running of two secure units from the Home Office in 2001. Its local services directorate and forensic services directorate employ about 3,000 staff each.
Services provided by the trust include forensic mental health, adult mental health, alcohol and drug misuse, mental health for older people, mental health for children and learning disability services.
These services are provided in a variety of settings, from community psychiatric services through to acute wards as well as low, medium and high security hospitals- over 100 sites in total.
The Trust Staff Partnership Forum
The Trust Staff Partnership Forum (TSPF) is a standing body and the focal point of the formal partnership framework. The TSPF is where consultation and negotiation between management and staff takes place on trust wide issues. The forum is a reference group for the development of good practice, and also deals with a full range of strategic issues.
Membership of the TSPF includes:
- chief executive
- two HR representatives (one from each directorates)
executive directors
- one accredited representative per 350 members from each recognised staff organisation.
At trust level, there are also two other standing sub-groups:
- the Trust Local Negotiating Committee (Trust LNC), which deals with contractual and wider employment matters
- the Policy Development Group (PDG – Core Group), which is concerned with developing organisational development and human resources policy.
The TSPF usually meets quarterly, but additional meetings may be called at the request of either side. Temporary working parties and sub-groups may also be commissioned by the TSPF on an ad-hoc basis to consider specific matters and may meet more frequently.
The Local Staff Partnership Forums
The Local Staff Partnership Forums (LSPFs) extend partnership working into the directorates, with:
- a forum to represent staff in the services directorate, including support functions and headquarters
- a forum for the forensic services directorate.
They deal with matters of a local or operational nature. LSPFs meet quarterly but frequency is dictated by the local business agenda. Each forum is associated with a joint Health and Safety Committee, a standing sub-committee that monitors performance, ensures improvement in standards of health and safety and the dissemination of good practice.
Union posts
There are three full time union posts within the partnership - the head of employment partnerships and two joint staff side chairs. They are elected by their respective membership, but are on full-time secondment to their trade union, paid for by the trust. The staff side chairs must ensure:
- that there is a representative spread of staff side attending the TSPF
- that they communicate with the operational directorate staff side coordinators (forensic and no forensic) to make sure that the wider staff consultation arrangements in place in each directorate are maintained.
Framework for partnership agreement
The partnership arrangements are covered in the ‘framework for partnership agreement’. The agreement sets out:
- a clear set of values to promote a culture of involvement
- a process of the formal business
- trade unions and staff organisations recognised for formal consultation/bargaining
- arrangements the time off and facilities for accredited officials
- a commitment to joint training.
The trust was one of the early recipients of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTIs) ‘Partnership at Work Fund’, which was used to deliver 45 partnership workshops, which over 4500 staff attended. Since then the trust, in partnership, has constantly explored ways of ensuring that partnership working evolves and embraces new areas. Recent work is focused on learning for lower banded staff and leadership development.
Results of working in partnership
Nottinghamshire Healthcare has found that partnership working has had a positive impact on staff motivation. There have also been a considerable number of direct benefits, for example, reduced number of grievances, reduced absenteeism and reduced staff turnover.
Results from the 2008 staff survey indicate that staff have a very positive view about working for Nottingham Healthcare. Some highlights from the survey include:
- higher than national average response rate - 67 per cent
- respondents felt supported, worked in a friendly atmosphere and felt that the organisation had been like a ‘second family’
- 63 per cent would recommend the trust as a place to work
- over 70 per cent felt able to contribute towards improvements at work
- very few felt motivated to leave.
This positive attitude has fed through to the Healthcare Commission reports on the trust. In its 2OO7/08 annual health check, the commission scored the trust as excellent for its quality of services, because it scored ‘fully met’ for both core standards and existing national targets, and ‘excellent’ for new national targets. This represents continued improvement for the trust.
Top tips from Nottingham
For successful partnership working:
- structure does not drive partnership -- relationships do and it's the depth of relationship that counts
- look for opportunities that will promote partnership working
- partnership has to become instinctive it cannot be just outcome generated
- partnership has to be a two-way dialogue.
and what to avoid:
- partnership will not work if you always want to achieve 100% of your agenda
- you have to recognise past mistakes
- don't start consultation halfway through a decision.
Further information and contact details
For more details regarding partnership working at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, contact: