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Trust chair and non executive report - May 2025

Meeting: Trust Board – Public Meeting

Date: 7 May 2025

Report Title: Trust Chair and Non-Executive Report

Agenda Item: PUB25/05/1.5

Author: Mrunal Sisodia, Trust Chair

Lead Director: Mrunal Sisodia, Trust Chair

Purpose: Information/Noting |

Link to Strategic Objective:

  • Be an exceptional place to work, volunteer and learn.
  • Provide outstanding quality of care and performance.
  • Be excellent collaborators and innovators as system partners.

Link to Strategic Risk:

  • SR1a: If we do not ensure our people are safe and their wellbeing prioritised, there is a risk that we will be unable to attract, retain and keep all our people safe and well.
  • SR1b: If we do not ensure our leaders are developed and equipped, there is a risk that we will not be able to change our culture, and value, support, develop and grow our people.
  • SR2: Failure to achieve continuous quality improvements and high-quality care delivery.
  • SR3: If we do not ensure we have the ability to plan, influence and deliver across our systems to secure change, we will not be able to meet the needs of our public and communities.
  • SR4: Failure to deliver an efficient, effective and economic service.
  • SR5: If we do not clearly define our strategic plans, we will not have the agility to deliver the suite of improvements needed.
  • SR6: Ability to ensure sufficient capacity and capability to ensure sustainable change.

Equality Impact Assessment: No negative impact identified.|

Purpose: To update the Public and the Board on Chair and Non-Executive Director activity since the last Public Board meeting in February 2025.

Recommendation: Report for noting.

Executive summary:

The report identifies

  • Key areas of Board focus since the last report.
  • Key areas of Board focus in the coming months.
  • Non-Executive Director additional activities providing wider assurance and Board visibility.
  • Key activities by the Chair since the last Public Board.

Introduction/background:

Q4 performance Improving our ambulance response times has been a key focus for the Board. In my reports over the last year, I have updated on the work we have been doing to improve the management of our performance – this has included an investment in greater digital and analytical tools, listening to insights from operational leaders and a project to understand how the different factors that make up or performance inter-relate. The resulting operational improvement plan (OPIP) was validated by external partners and has formed the basis of our planning and delivery since the autumn. I am pleased to say that this seems to be delivering some results with our January, February and March C2 response times being 10, 8 and 6 minutes better than the corresponding periods last year despite worse handover delays. This was led by an increase in patient facing hours, internal productivity improvements and a rise in Hear and Treat rates. However, as I always say, there is no complacency and we are very aware that our response times are not good enough and we must continue to work with our partners to improve further.

Our 2025-26 business plan recognises this and we have set ourselves very ambitious targets for improvements in productivity to deliver these improvements. We will also continue to work with our partners to build the unscheduled care co-ordination hubs and improve hospital handover delays.

Listening to our staff I am a huge advocate of listening to our staff and I wanted to take a moment to highlight Board activities in the regard and their impact. In the table below, I have listed the engagement events by members of the Board since our last Public Board meeting. The things we hear when talking to staff are invaluable in helping us understand the organisation and are used directly to focus the work of the Board. For example, feedback we heard about the team leaders programme was explored at People Committee, cyber security has been followed up at Board and feedback on the experiences of women at the Trust fed directly into the preparations for the sexual safety workshop held in December.

Another way we listen to staff is through the staff survey and I am delighted that for the third year running EEAST is the most improved ambulance service in the country when it comes to staff survey results. This has not happened by accident but reflects the hard work from countless people in the HR and our management teams. The impact of the leadership development programme is clear to see. However, we continue to see that these improvements are not uniform across the Trust and we have a lot of work to do in a number of areas. We are committed to doing this and the “big conversations” being hosted by the executive team will feed directly into organisation wide and local plans to address the concerns we have heard.

Keeping our eye on the big picture As well as oversight of delivery of our existing plans, one of the roles of the Board is to ensure that we are constantly identifying the big themes and looking ahead. One of the ways we do this is through Board sessions dedicated to specific areas or themes. Over the last 6 months we have held a number of these sessions and looked at a mixture of current issues as well as things that we believe are becoming more important. Examples include sessions on Freedom to Speak Up with the National Guardian’s Office, sexual safety with AACE, a digital workshop, a risk management workshop and a sustainability workshop. All of these have shaped our strategy and plans for the coming year. Also, from these sessions we have identified changes we want to make to our performance reporting and risk management that will be coming through in the next few months.

Looking ahead It is clear that 2025-26 is going to be an incredibly challenging year for EEAST. I have already mentioned the very challenging productivity targets that we have set ourselves for the year – it will be a herculean feat to deliver these and we are committed to doing it. In addition, it is clear that there is likely to be further restructuring of the NHS which, being a regional provider, will have a profound impact on our operations. In addition, the corporate costs cuts that have been mandated by NHS England (NHSE) will have a large impact on EEAST simply because the timeframe over which they have been assessed coincides with extra work and expenditure on improving our performance, staff wellbeing and culture (with good effect as evidenced above). As a Board we will approach these changes with calm determination.

Staff and Stakeholder engagement

The NEDs and I undertook the following activities since the last Public Board meeting over and above our core Board, Committee and working group commitments:

Internal engagement and activity

  • Monthly meetings with the BLMK sector leadership team
  • Regular meetings with Executive and Non-Executive colleagues
  • Continued reverse mentoring meetings
  • Joined a LOM evening shift at Cromer Ambulance Station
  • Joined a welfare wagon visit to Bedford Hospital to promote the new Call Before You Convey service
  • Visited the digital, communications and finance teams in Norwich
  • Attended EEAST leadership day at Newmarket racecourse
  • Attended meetings with the Multi-Faith Network
  • Met with union representatives

Link to goals: Well-led improvement

**Board / Committee ** (in addition to regular Board and Committee meetings)

  • Attended Audit Committee meeting in February
  • Chaired the Trust Board workshops on Health and Safety, Risk Management, and Sustainability.

Link to goals: Well-led improvement

**External Governance and events **

  • Joined two East of England regional NHSE meetings
  • Regular meetings with NHSE regional director, Clare Panniker
  • Regular meetings with CQC lead, Robert Shannon
  • Regular meetings with Paul Burstow, HWE ICB chair
  • Attended the HWE ICB chairs meeting
  • Attended the AACE chairs and council meetings
  • Attended the Southern Ambulance Services
  • Collaborative Board meeting

Activity undertaken by other NEDS

George Lynn attended the following engagements:

  • 1:1 with the Director of Strategy, Transformation and Integration to discuss strategy
  • Meeting with the Well-being Lead
  • Meeting with NHSP
  • 1:1 with the CEO

Catherine Glickman attended the following engagements:

  • Meeting with Ant Kitchener on planned Apprentice Programme
  • Meeting with the Director of Director of Strategy, Transformation and Integration
  • Attendance at the Medicines Management Committee
  • Meeting with members of the Community Engagement Group
  • Meeting with the Head of Well-being, Debs Crelly
  • Meeting with Jean Clark, TIAA
  • Meeting with Denver Greenhalgh, Governance review

Wendy Thomas had the following engagements:

  • Met with the MSE EEAST team
  • Attended the Transformation Portfolio Board

Julie Thallon had the following engagements:

  • Met with the Director of Strategy, Transformation and Integration
  • Met with the Deputy Chief of Clinical Operations
  • Met with the Sustainability Lead

Chris Brook had the following engagements:

  • Meetings with the SNEE leadership team
  • 1:1 with CEO and Director of Director of Strategy, Transformation and Integration

Omid Shiraji had the following engagements:

  • 1:1s with the Director of Strategy, Transformation and Integration and Chief Executive Officer
  • Represented the Trust at the Mid and South Essex ICS Chair Group
  • Advised the CEO on the recruitment of the Director of Digital Innovation and actively supported the recruitment process
  • Represented the Trust on a panel at the Ambulance Leadership Forum on the topic of Digital
  • 1:1 with the Head of Research to understand the Trust’s activity and capability in research and academic partnerships

Trust board

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