Category Archives: SMT Roundup

Hi everyone,

Here’s a run-down of some of the news and issues discussed at last week’s LMT meeting…

FACILITIES

• There is a brand new menu set to be launched, with the exciting return of the popular salad bar!

CARE

• We are currently still operating at four beds, and offering respite on a month-by-month basis. The nurse recruitment is back on and we’re hopeful to reach more nurses and clinical support workers.
• LifeNoW charity has now closed down, and the trustees have transferred us the remaining funds which are being ring-fenced for young people services in the future.

FINANCE AND FUNDRAISING

• The last 2 months have been steady across income and retail and our investments are doing well.
• Fundraising finished the 2023/24 year strongly, bringing in £3.2m, which was £300k over budget.
• We are recruiting a Fundraising Manager to run the Community and Events Fundraising team under Mick Croskery’s leadership.
• Our investments have performed well over the last three months to boost reserves.
• We have finished the extended financial year to April at £37,000 operating surplus which is great news as we budgeted a deficit.

COMMS & MARKETING

• Our spring campaign ‘Daniella’s Story’ will be hitting the doorsteps of our donors in late May, and it’s a moving story about how we have supported Daniella through a variety of Derian services – she has a unique story as she’s used our bereavement services with Arthur, and continues to access our respite service with his twin, Tommy.
• We had the privilege of being shown the first draft of The Little Things yesterday, in its raw two-hour form. There’s still some work to be done, but we’re confident that the documentary is going to make a massive impact.

RETAIL

• Retail has seen six months of positive figures, and the refits of Horwich, Preston and Blackburn have helped this along. We’ve had some positive feedback and increased sales already.
• Retail finished the 2023/24 year in a strong position. In the last six months we have reversed the position from a predicted loss to one where we are set to make a profit in the coming year. This is a testament to the hard work of everyone involved.

GENERAL

• SMI has now been updated with everyone’s holidays and bank holidays, which are now merged as one.
• If anyone would like to put themselves forward as a CQC Champion or a fire marshal, please speak with Anthony Mohammed and John Boe respectively.

RECRUITMENT

• There’s lots of recruitment happening at the moment which is very exciting, starting with our new Estates Maintenance Support Ken, who will be joining us on Monday, he will spend a lot of his time working in our gardens.
• We’ve also got a new chef, Nicola, joining us in the next few weeks.
• From the 6^th May, we’ll see seven members of new care team staff starting with us over a staggered three-week period.
• Executive assistant to Catherine, Julie, will join us in June, and Catherine’s deputy, Bridget, will start with us on 20^th May.
• We also look forward to welcoming two family engagement leads, Natalie and Ionie.

Hi all,

One of the feedback areas at the previous We are Derian staff forum was the absence of Leadership and Management Team (LMT) roundups… and so they are back!

Here’s a run-down of some of the news and issues discussed at this morning’s meeting…

FACILITIES

• The vending machine is due to arrive today and will be located in Danni’s Diner.
• The removal of trees from the car park could provide an additional 12 parking spaces. This is being costed so we’ll update more at a later date.
• Electric gates are also being costed at the entrance to the site for security purposes and we will update once we know more.
• Work will be carried out to extend our reception desk to allow two people to sit at the desk. This will mean volunteers working on reception can be supported by admin staff.
• An audit of Wi-Fi blackspots is being carried out to ensure we have good signal all over the hospice. 4G dongles will be purchased for iPads to ensure that records will be able to be accessed if the internet goes down.
• We have a new starter in the facilities team who will begin work in April and are still looking for a second person.
• Further fire marshal training will take place. Please be reminded that if you have been trained as a fire marshal, you are required to undertake this duty.

CARE

• Current staffing shortages has meant we are currently operating at 4 beds. This has meant that some children and young people have had to have their planned respite stays cancelled. The current recruitment drive for nurses and CSWs is aiming to tackle this situation and get us back on track for our ambition to open 8 beds this year.
• Looking longer term, a piece of research is to be commissioned to clarify who we are and what services we can offer to families in the next 5 to 10 years. This piece of work will help clarify who we offer services to and our discharge criteria going forward.

FINANCE AND FUNDRAISING

• The last 2 months have been steady across income and retail and our investments are doing well. We have extended the financial year to end of March 2024 so February is the 14^th month of a 15 month year. This will bring us in line with the financial year used by most industries.
• A TV advert featuring Holly’s family will be showing, encouraging people to leave us a gift in their Will, throughout May. You can make a free Will with us. Visit derianhouse.co.uk/legacy for a information pack.
• We are recruiting a Fundraising Manager to run the Community and Events Fundraising team under Mick Croskery’s leadership.

GENERAL

• Did you know? Risk assessments will now be stored on the Q drive rather than the intranet. All policies will continue to be stored on the intranet. Both are available for all to access.
• Thanks to everyone for attending one of the 5 CQC preparation sessions that have taken place in recent weeks. There will be more sessions in July and then later in the year to help us all feel ready for our inspection, which we expect to be some time in 2025.

• Thanks to Tina for talking to us about the valuable role of the play & well-being team at Derian. It was interesting to hear all that you do, and a great reminder of the depth of work the team carry out.
• Andrew is off work currently, and Mick is leading the Retail team on an interim basis, in his absence.
• The Derian Team Away day has now been rearranged for September 4^th  at Brockholes – more details to follow nearer the time
• Thank you for all your feedback on the proposal for redesign of the car park, we’re currently looking at the options based on your comments. which are largely in favour of keeping the seaside garden as it is. We are looking at other options as explored at the We Are Derian Forum.
• Final approval for a 5% cost of living pay increase is anticipated to be received at next week’s Strategic HR meeting in which case this will be in your June’s salary.  We’re all set to press the green button!
• We’ll soon be celebrating Children’s Hospice Week which is a time to recognise all the great work that goes on at Derian – watch out for any special activities that may be happening
• To celebrate our 30^th Anniversary we will be holding an Open Day on 20^th October, as well as inviting your families along we’re looking for suggestions for an invited guest list so please let Jacquie know if there’s anyone you think would like to join us
• And finally.. the Birdsong survey closes on 16^th June, if you haven’t already done so please could you complete, we’d really value your feedback.

Hi everyone,

Here are the key points from yesterday’s Senior Management Team Meeting. Any questions as always please ask!

• Karen gave an overview of the last 3 months and how impressed she is at the outstanding care she has seen across the organisation – well done everyone.
• Karen and Kim have spent a lot of time listening to people as part of understanding some of the themes raised in the staff temperature check – thank you all for your time and Kim will feed back an action plan in due course.
• Don’t forget that this year’s first Open Gardens event takes place at the hospice this Sunday from 10am. It’s a great opportunity to invite your friends and family in to see our amazing hospice (tickets £3 for adults and free for children, available on the door).
• Our superstar fundraiser, six-year-old Oscar has hit his target of £29,000 in climbing 10 of the UK’s highest mountains – well done Oscar!
• Our Spring fundraising campaign telling the story of little Gaby and her family will be launched in May and will be sent to 40,000 donors.
• A new pool car booking process is to be launched – watch out for the new process. We hope that it will improve access to cars and this will not affect any current bookings.
• Our new phone system will go live in Wednesday.
• We have been working on our hospice strategy – an update will be coming soon.
• Our volunteers on Reception are available to help with any basic admin tasks. Please let Fran know if you have any work they could help with.

It was my last SMT meeting at Derian House – thank you to everyone for continuing to provide Outstanding care to our amazing families, thank you for everything you do!

Have a good week!

Afternoon all,

Here are some of the updates discussed in this month’s SMT meeting held yesterday morning (Tuesday).

• Parking at the hospice is being reviewed and a proposal will be sent to the board of trustees to create more spaces.

• A review of door access permissions has been completed and everybody will be issued with new ID cards. This is part of a project to keep the hospice safe and ensure people have the correct access relevant to their roles.

• Lynn is to represent Derian at the national palliative and end of life care board meeting next week.

• Income generation has had a positive start to the year, ending January £50,000 ahead of budget.

• Our new fleet vehicles are on the way (but we are experiencing a delay). We have taken delivery of one out of eight new vehicles and will be extending the leases on the current pool cars until the remaining seven new cars arrive.

• Our new sensory garden will be open soon. Snagging work is underway, but following the installation of our new water feature, it will be open for use. An official opening by the Mayor of Chorley will take place on 16 June.

Have a great week everyone and keep doing a brilliant job.

Hi everyone,

Here is this month’s SMT round up! Any questions, as always please ask.

Health and Safety

It is really important that health and safety incidents are reported on Vantage so actions can be taken.

SMT

• We know there are challenges for parking and whilst we continue with the options appraisal, we have engaged with contractors to review the site to see what opportunities there are for extra training.
• Agile working and how we can work more flexibly (which will help parking) will be discussed at We Are Derian on the 16^th March – Karen is Chairing the next working group- please pop along.

• Clinical Update:
  • Consultant post has been advertised externally which is very exciting and there is interest for the post already
  • There has been an increase in incidents and errors, there is a new Standard Operating Procedure which will be being cascaded to all the Clinical Team
  • Work on referrals and reviews is going well
  • CQC have been updated on the phishing incident.
• Retail
  • Really good start to the year – well done!
  • Offers are being made on other properties with openings in Quarter 2
  • Properties underway include Leigh, Nelson, Darwen, and further properties are being reviewed.
• People Services
  • This was Ben’s last SMT meeting thank you Ben for all your contributions!
• Facilities
  • We will be expecting the first stage of our fleet replacement to happen over the next few weeks where all 4 Nissan Micra’s will be replaced. We are currently managing changing scheduled delivery and transfers dates so please anticipate possible disruption when booking fleet vehicles. Please direct any queries to the Estates department
  • Our phone system will be moving to cloud based storage. Appointments will be made soon with each department to review needs.
• Compliance
  • Phishing incident has been reported externally and we have been visited by the police to gather evidence and for them to offer support and training – watch out for Detective Dave who will be coming back in, a number of families have contacted us – please pass on any requests for further information to Vanessa (spinks@derianhouse.co.uk)
• Comms and Marketing
  • Good start to the year – well done!
  • Oscar’s story has gone really well, Karen is going to the BBC today to be interviewed about it
  • Spring campaign is being developed
  • 30 years campaign is well underway
  • Gold Badges for major donors are going to be produced to thank donors
  • Raffle launches on Feb 20^th – staff and volunteers are unfortunately not able to enter
  • New telephone campaign for the lottery is underway, any questions please contact the Fundraising Team
  • First family newsletter is being designed to send out to all our families following their feedback from the Family Survey.

We had a meeting with the CEO from Make a Wish last week…..watch this space for some exciting news……….

Hello everyone,

Here’s some news and updates from this week’s SMT meeting:

• Mandatory training for all requires completing by the end of the month. Please ensure you have no issues logging in and have scheduled the appropriate time to complete
• Retail are having a successful start to the year and are also looking into securing new stores to add to their portfolio.
• We have successfully recruited an ACP and are excited to introduce Kev to Derian in April
• There has been a few changes to the fire evacuation procedure for the main hospice, this is available on the intranet https://derianintranet.co.uk/download/facilities-infrastructure-procedures/ . Please make sure you are aware of your responsibilities and bring any questions to Luke.
• DSE self-assessments are being collated. Please ensure you complete your form if you have not already done so.
• We are aware the dining room can be very busy at key times of the day. We are looking into plans with the Catering team to help with this including putting an extra table into the area but please be mindful when scheduling your time in there
• Nissan are replacing our 4 fleet vehicles with Nissan Juke’s on February 17^th . Please ensure your day is scheduled around this and communicate with the Estates team for a ‘getting to know you’ session with the new cars.
• The staff survey is now closed. Thank you to all who took part. Your feedback is valuable
• Both Ribby Hall holiday lodges are soon to be refurbished, ensuring they look and feel amazing for our families to enjoy their holidays post the shutdown period. If you are planning a visit, please make sure you confirm this with the Estates team
• This was Diane’s last SMT Meeting and we all wish her well for the future!

Hello everyone,

Here’s some news and updates from this week’s SMT meeting:

• There have been a couple of fire evacuations recently in the hospice – please remind yourself of the fire and evacuation procedure which you can find here and any questions please just ask: https://derianintranet.co.uk/fire-evac-procedure-main-hospice/
• We have been fortunate to receive matched funding from NHS England to provide funding towards an Education Project for Palliative Care for Lancashire and South Cumbria the work on this will be commencing during December
• Another project now well underway is Derian in Place – outreach work in the community with our Community, Family Support and Play and Wellbeing teams is being piloted, two sessions have been completed in Oldham, watch this space for more information about where we may be headed next!
• We are currently £356k ahead of budget at the moment – well done everyone!
• Christmas fundraising campaigns are well underway and performing really well, both fundraising and finance are super busy processing donations.
• On Friday BBC will be filming their weather forecast from the Trees of Love – watch it on Friday evening (news starts at 6.30)
• 19^th December Granada TV  will be coming into the hospice for filming with a child.
• This was David’s last SMT Meeting we all wish him well for the future!

Morning everyone,

Here’s some news and updates from this month’s SMT meeting that took place on Monday (7.11.2022):

• Fire marshal training is due to take place this month.
• Thank you to everyone who has had their COVID booster and/or flu jabs for helping to keep our children and young people safe – please can everyone who has had either vaccination please inform HR so they can update our records.
• We have received positive feedback from NHS England about our exemplar work making links with hospitals and other children’s hospices. The project has seen Derian House Advanced Practitioners making regular visits to children’s wards at hospitals in our area to improve care for children, provide education to professionals, and to offer families extra support. The project has been hailed as best-practice with other hospices and hospitals interested in following the same model.
• Thanks to those who took part in the Chief Exec recruitment process last month. An announcement will be made shortly about the appointment, subject to a couple of pre-employment checks.
• Fundraising income is performing well at £124,000 ahead of budget and £792,000 ahead of where we were at this time last year.
• We have been awarded £100,000 in match-funding from NHSE to develop an education and training programme for Lancs & South Cumbria  next year – watch this space for more details.
• Building work – work is on schedule and the new sensory garden is progressing well – we can’t wait to see the finished result.

Good afternoon everyone,

Following this morning’s SMT, please find updates from it for your attention:

• Following initial Options Appraisal meetings between David, Lynn and Architects to discuss ideas on how to use the Hospice, Vanessa, Lynn and Luke will be meeting with them on Thursday to discuss these and next steps.  We’d also be open to a more interesting name that encapsulates this exciting project!
• CEO interviews will be held in October to appoint David’s successor
• Birdsong will be published after this September’s Board meeting
• Luke will be meeting with our Contractors to discuss the impending changes in the Sensory Garden.  He’ll update after the meeting
• Flu Jabs will be available later this month with dates to follow
• The Great Big House Giveaway campaign ends tonight at 23:59.  Ticket sales are approximately £100,000 ahead of budget.  The winner will be drawn during Saturday’s Gala Ball
• Sadly our Leyland store ceases trading at the end of today.  The decision was taken to stop trading as the store doesn’t fit the overall retail strategy.  I’d like to thank all our past and present Team members and Customers for their service and support in the 4-years we’ve traded in this store

Hi everyone,

Here’s the top stories from this week’s SMT meeting:

• A fire drill was successfully carried out last month, well done everyone!

• Birdsong survey results have now been received and are being reviewed, these will be presented to the Trustees at the HR Strategic Committee meeting on 15^th September and the Board meeting on 22^nd meeting. We will share these with everyone as usual before the end of September.

• We discussed our out of hours catering and Lynn shared that the care team are looking at idea so, any proposals please send to Luke by 26^th August.

• The Horwich shop has had a much needed refresh and we are now seeing the results of everyone’s efforts in increased sales – thanks go to all those who helped.

• The Great Big House Giveaway is now only 5 weeks away – but income from this has already achieved the target of £250,000.

• The Hospice results for the first half of the year are showing a surplus and we are significantly ahead of our budget which is great news.

• The 2022 Danni’s Diary is now in production and will be distributed to 41,000 people in late September.

• Please remember to keep COVID testing twice weekly and continue to register the results on the gov.uk site.

Hello,

Here’s the top stories from this week’s SMT meeting:

• Unfortunately due to a rise in COVID cases we have been advised by Public Health England to reinstate some COVID restrictions for a one week period (11^thJuly – 17^th July 2022). Guidance has been published via email and is available on the intranet

• EMIS training and reporting is progressing and learning lessons have gone well. The next phase of the project will be the implementation of more operational functions.

• Vantage incident reporting software is now live. Please familiarise yourselves with the new system (test the log on details you have been sent).

• Those who attended the We are Derian staff forum on July 5^th were tasked to come up with ideas for a staff recognition project. It was unanimously agreed that we need a Summer party. Plans are now in motion with the Comms & Marketing team.

• Departmental strategic updates were issued to the Trustees. Ask your line manager to have a look at the strategic focus of the organisation

• We have completed the tendering process for our external I.T provision. Abbey ICT shall be taking over this service from October

• Financially we are in a great position and are ahead of budget half way through the year. We are also awaiting a large NHS Children’s Hospice grant

• Danni’s Diary is in production. For content, please speak with Becca if there is anything specific from your department

• The trustees have approved Derian’s very first TV advert that shall start production soon to go out with the Christmas campaign

• Our Horwich retail store is currently closed whilst works are completed to refresh the building. We are hoping to reopen to the public this Thursday

• We are in the final 9 weeks of the Big House Giveaway prize draw. We are on track to hit our £250k target

Here’s the top stories from this week’s SMT meeting

• A big thank you to all the staff and volunteers who organised and took part in the Forget Me not service last weekend. It was lovely to see so many families attend, especially after the challenges of the last few years
• As you may be aware, we’ve been looking at a number of options to expand the services we deliver including building a Well-Being Centre, we’re going to take the opportunity over the next few weeks to update you on plans – look out for Keep in Touch dates and if you can’t make any then please just ask either David, Lynn or Vanessa
• The annual Birdsong survey will be coming our way soon, this is our opportunity to celebrate our successes and compare how we are doing with other hospices across the country
• Thanks to all of you who have completed the fleet survey questionnaire, just to remind you that this will close on 28^th May
• There has been no changes to any covid guidance for healthcare settings at this point but there are a couple of points as a polite reminder
  • Face masks should be worn at all times with the exception of when you are sitting at a desk
  • Masks should cover your mouth and nose
  • We have a clean desk policy in place so all desks should be cleared at the end of your working day and cleaned with disinfectant spray
  • LFT’s will continue twice weekly and ALL tests should be reported via the gov.uk site which is essential if we are to continue to receive free test kits
• The retail empire continues to expand and whilst we are disappointed that the shop in Bury has recently fallen through we are still looking for other suitable sites

And finally…..

• Whilst we’re not quite ready for a dress-up day we are going to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a Garden Party in the sensory garden on 30^th May – more details to follow from the Play & Well-Being team but get your red, white or blue outfits dusted off and ready to wear. Thank you to the team for organising this for us