The Big Conversation: What Matters Most Update - November 2025
Meeting: Public Board
Date: 05 November 2025
Report Title: The Big Conversation – What Matters Most Update
Agenda Item: PUB25/11/4.2
Author: Lauren Singleton, Deputy Director of Culture and Leadership
Lead Director: Marika Stephenson, Chief People Officer and Deputy CEO
Purpose: Information / Noting
Assurance: Reasonable
Link to CQC domain:
- Well-led
Link to EEAST Strategic Mission:
- People Mission
Link to Strategic Risk:
- SR1 Demand and Capacity
Equality Impact Assessment: No negative impact identified
Previously considered by: This paper has been reviewed by ELT prior to its submission to the Public Board. While the paper itself is new, the topic, updates on the Big Conversation, has been previously discussed at both Public and Private Board.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide the Trust Board with an update on progress made in relation to the outcomes of the Big Conversation: What Matters Most Local Priorities.
Recommendation: The Board is asked to note this paper for information only, as it provides an update on the selected outputs from the Big Conversation.
Executive Summary:
In April 2025, we launched a series of ‘Big Conversations’ on what matters most to staff, with our external partner, Clever Together. Having held over 13 physical events, and a live online conversation over a 7-week period, we generated over 600 individual contributions on the digital ‘SafeSpaces’ platform.
Trust wide priorities The Clever Together team analysed data from the Big Conversation platform and identified 12 key Trust-wide priorities for EEAST to consider. These priorities were grouped into two categories: six focused on leadership and cultural shifts, and six addressing technical or procedural improvements. From these, ELT selected eight priorities to take forward, chosen for their potential to deliver visible impact quickly and align with the development of EEAST’s new corporate values.
The leadership and culture priorities include:
- Stop the current Dignity at Work process and create something fit for purpose.
- Make our values a daily habit, not just a set of statements.
- Heal the divide between EOC and frontline Ops through empathy and shared work.
- Lead with visibility, vulnerability and humility—starting with the CEO.
- Give managers real authority and hold them to account with clarity; and
- Shine a light on the people already showing us the future.
The technical and procedural priorities include:
- Fix handover so every shift starts safe, not stressed.
- Create one drug sign-out system everyone can trust.
- Scrap the uniform rules that divide us.
- Give managers the GRS access they need to do their jobs.
- Fix broken kit, Wi-Fi and workspaces fast.
- Review outdated or contradictory policies and stop the knee-jerk rulemaking.
At an offsite, ELT selected eight of these priorities to progress, based on their potential for quick, visible impact and alignment with EEAST’s emerging corporate values (highlighted in bold above). These outcomes have been communicated to staff, and an internal communications plan is being actively embedded.
Big Conversation Programme
A programme consisting of 8 priority projects was established as below:
| Action | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Respect at work | Marika | Draft Respect and Resolution Policy has been written. Awaiting final policy edits from GMB and the revised policy template from internal comms. |
| Simplifying Policies | Marika | Awaiting the Respect and Resolution Policy. Other policies will not be updated into the new format until this policy has been agreed. The first policy to be reviewed will be the Attendance and Sickness Absence Policy. |
| Fix it Fast surgeries | Hein | Surgeries have been paused until a recruitment issue has been resolved. To date 35 appointments have been made and 25 of those have been resolved. A proposal is in place to move this to BAU, awaiting approval on this proposal. |
| Shift handover focus | Darren | Intensive union weekly meetings ongoing. The Herts and West Essex working location trial is on permanent hold as unable to progress. A time and motion study has been completed, which showed it took crews 9 minutes to de-kit after their shift. A proposal is being worked up to store yellow drugs bags on vehicles. Paper to go to OMMG on 11th November. A Make Ready training package is being rolled out to MR teams to clarify clearing up blood spillages. The End of Shift ESOP has been reviewed and approved at OSDG. The timeline for changes to processes is to be agreed. A proposal is in place to move this project to sit under the Operational Change Programme, awaiting approval on this proposal. |
| Time to Listen | Neill | Time to Listen events booked in until December 2025. 2 events taken place so far. The next Time to Listen event is 17th October 2025. A proposal is in place to move this to BAU, awaiting approval on this proposal. |
| Smarter Safer Systems | Simon Chase | Looking into the possibility of linking the ePCR record to provide a stock usage inventory using the P2P system. The process has been agreed in principle from a Pharmacy side, awaiting a decision from Digital as to whether this can be part of the current ePCR contract. A trial of a new lockable drugs system on the vehicles took place in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The results of this trial will be taken to Medicines Management Group in November. A proposal is in pace to move this project to sit under the Clinical Change Programme, awaiting approval on this proposal. |
| Empower our team leaders - GRS access | Marika/Darren/Hein | Action completed |
| One Team, one identity - EOC staff to be in green uniform | Darren | Gradual transition back to green has begun and is ongoing. |
Local priorities In addition to Trust-wide themes, the Big Conversation was segmented across 12 sectors and directorates to surface locally relevant ideas and priorities. A key aim of this approach was to empower local leaders to identify and implement meaningful actions within their areas.
Each sector/directorate submitted three priority actions to focus on, and local leaders have since been working to deliver improvements based on these insights. Examples of progress made are included below, with a full slide deck attached providing a comprehensive overview of all sector and directorate submissions.
| Area | Action | Update |
|---|---|---|
| A&E: Herts and West Essex | Improve the experience, connection, and recognition of bank staff across HWE. | Successfully set up targeted communication channels, including regular bulletin updates and dedicated email lists for bank staff. Invitations to team Q&As are now extended to all bank colleagues, ensuring improved visibility and inclusion. |
| A&E: Beds and Luton | Improve communication across Beds and Luton | Local wallboards/screens up and active at both hubs. Updates including performance, local initiatives/campaigns, any urgent updates from EEAST 24 and local messages from the LAM/LOMs. |
| A&E: Suffolk and North East Essex | Build clinical supervision into appraisals | Clinical Supervisors now in post. Have been delivering the highest amount of clinical supervision across the Trust. |
| Commercial Services | Celebrate more, through peer-to-peer recognition, leadership recognition and sharing of successes | Utilising social media for public recognition of outstanding work, new recognition platform launched for EEAST being utilised by the teams. |
| Operations Support | Engage with L&D Manager to find out resources for training and development available | Details and dates of LDF training has been made available to all leaders/ supervisors/ master technicians. Individual training/ coaching has been offered and is taking place. 360-degree feedback has been offered. Available training and development opportunities are publicised regularly. |
Introduction / Background:
Earlier this year, we appointed Clever Together to work with us on shaping the next step of our cultural transformation. Following the work they completed in helping us determine our strategic direction and new corporate values, it was a natural next step to now consider what mattered to staff the most and ‘got in the way’ of them adopting our new corporate values.
Previously, a central pillar of enabling and driving these improvements have been the focused efforts to listen – through the National Staff Survey, Pulse Surveys, Behaviour Surveys and FTSU throughout 2023 and 2024. However, we recognised that more could be done to further culture change and to drive improvement and innovation.
‘What matters most’ was designed to be the first in a series of ‘Big Conversations’ for EEAST, enabled by the development of an internal team who have now been trained on the approach, data analytics and the SafeSpace portal.
Key Issues / Risks:
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Some of our workstreams will have activity beyond the end of September deadline, for example, Respect and Resolution policy now needs to progress through policy subgroup for sign off. We have tried to keep all delays to a minimum however we must also ensure we comply with our internal governance procedures.
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We will need to ensure we maintain momentum beyond the end of September deadline, until we have reached a natural conclusion on a few remaining items.
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Linked to the above, we will also need to maintain communication and awareness of any further updates for this programme which may become confusing for staff as we move into our field work phase of the next National Staff Survey.
Options:
Not applicable. This is an information only paper to provide an update on the outputs of the Big Conversation Local Priorities.
How does this report link with EEAST’s vision, purpose and values?
The Big Conversation is a part of the Trust’s Organisation’s Development (OD) plan. The OD plan is the enabling programme for cultural change and evolution at the Trust, supporting the strategic direction and purpose. The Big Conversation has also focused heavily on introducing the new values and supporting the embedding of these through listening to staff, role modelling the right behaviours and enabling success through gathering ideas to improve staff experience.
Summary:
The second ‘Big Conversation’ was launched in April 2025 to ask staff ‘What matters most’. This conversation generated over 600 individual comments, responses or reactions. The data from this, captured within a Clever Together portal called SafeSpaces, identified 12 key themes of which we selected eight to take forward. This report provides an update on where we are with each of the eight workstreams.
Appendix 1: Slide Deck from Big Conversation, Local Priorities Update
TITLE SLIDE:
Big Conversation - Priorities Update
SLIDE ONE:
- The Big Conversation was segmented across 12 sectors/directorates to surface local ideas and priorities.
- Each area identified three key actions to improve locally, with autonomy given to leaders to implement changes.
- Local leaders have actively progressed these actions, driving improvements aligned with staff feedback.
- Some areas have opted for quick win style actions, whereas others have opted for major project actions.
SLIDE TWO:
Area: A&E: Bedfordshire & Luton
Latest Update:
- Local wallboards set up and active at both hubs to improve communication.
- LOMs are enforcing the no BBE guidelines with staff. Clinical Supervision assessment paperwork is reviewed before appraisals and comments added to Staff Circle with any subsequent actions/expectations.
Progress Against Plan: 33% - Three local priority actions identified, One completed
Area: A&E: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough
Latest Update:
- Proactively looking at cohorting to minimise EOS challenges.
- Promoting and celebrating staff through local virtual wallboards.
Progress Against Plan: 33% - Three local priority actions identified, One completed.
Area: A&E: Herts & West Essex
Latest Update:
- Local wallboards set up and active at both hubs to improve communication.
- LOMs are enforcing the no BBE guidelines with staff.
- Clinical Supervision assessment paperwork is reviewed before appraisals and comments added to Staff Circle with any subsequent actions/expectations.
Progress Against Plan: 33% - Three local priority actions identified, One completed.
SLIDE THREE:
Area: A&E: Mid & South Essex
Latest Update:
- Liaising with Leadership Development Team to arrange difficult conversation training.
- Adverts are out for Clinical Supervisors.
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Three local priority actions identified, 0 completed.
Area: A&E: Norfolk & Waveney
Latest Update:
- No updates received, escalated
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Three local priority actions identified, 0 completed.
Area: A&E: A&E: Suffolk & NE Essex
Latest Update:
- Sickness rates have been improving and SNEE has one of the lowest sickness rates in the Trust.
- Clinical Supervisors now in post. Have been delivering the highest amount of clinical supervision across the Trust.
Progress Against Plan: 100% - Two local priority actions identified, Two completed.
Area: Special Operations
Latest Update:
- HART Team Leaders have been tasked to resolve the issue around the HART footprint.
- The Executive Team have been invited to MTA Exercises.
- Awaiting a response from Procurement around making booking hotels easier.
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Five local priority actions identified, 0 completed.
SLIDE FOUR:
Area: EOC
Latest Update:
- Transition back to green uniform has started and is ongoing
- Promoted all leaders to attend LDF sessions.
- Managers have been briefed on using direct communication
- EOC Educator LDO and secondment secured.
- Staff to receive 30 minutes per week and 2 days a year to undertake continuous learning
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Three local priority actions identified, 0 completed.
Area: Operations Support
Latest Update:
- Ops Support staff now in attendance at the Operations planning calls every day. Ops Support Leadership team are also attending other Operational calls such as OSDG.
- Wellbeing champions have been increased.
- Q&A meetings held monthly
- Newsletter being published quarterly
- Weekly accountability meetings being held
- Skills gap analysis and training pathway completed
- Make Ready training package developed and rolled out
Progress Against Plan: 77% - 13 local priority actions identified, 10 completed.
SLIDE FIVE:
Area: Clinical
Latest Update:
- A trial of a new lockable drugs system on the vehicles took place in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The results of this trial will be taken to Medicines Management Group in November.
- Looking into the possibility of linking the ePCR record to provide a stock usage inventory using the P2P system.
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Two local priority actions identified, 0 completed.
Area: Commercial Services
Latest Update:
- Utilising social media for public recognition for staff
- PTS newsletter is shared monthly and is easier to access via a digital link
- Fleet working group has been started to review and monitor PTS resourcing.
Progress Against Plan: 20% - Five local priority actions identified, One completed
Area: Digital
Latest Update:
- No updates received, escalated
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Three local priority actions identified, 0 completed
Area: Finance
Latest Update:
- A new Finance page on EEAST24 has been designed and work to implement is ongoing.
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Two local priority actions identified, 0 completed
SLIDE SIX:
Area: People Services
Latest Update:
- A visual workflow of how to request personal training has been created and is awaiting publishing.
- A training needs analysis is being worked on and is ongoing.
Progress Against Plan: 0% - Three local priority actions identified, 0 completed.
Area: Strategy and Change
Latest Update:
- A new stakeholder map has been created for use within the Trust and Trust Programmes.
- A new Strategy and Change front page has been published on EEAST24.
Progress Against Plan: 0% - 55% - Nine local priority actions identified, Five completed.
