Alliance hosts celebration, learning and networking event
A special showcase event brought together senior colleagues from across the East Midlands Alliance to celebrate successes and think about the future of joint working to improve mental health services in the region.
The event was hosted at the headquarters of St Andrew's Healthcare in September and was attended by chief executives, chairs, non-executive directors, senior clinicians and colleagues from the Alliance's provider collaboratives and communities of practice.
Vivienne McVey, Chief Executive at St Andrew's Healthcare, opened the event on behalf of Alliance CEOs before Andy Bell, CEO of the national Centre for Mental Health, presented on the future of mental health care including operational challenges and longer-term opportunities. This helped to underpin the event and provided a clear long-term narrative of the journey to improve mental health services.
A discussion on making anti-racism work for all mental health providers was then presented by Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE and Husnara Malik, Chair and Lead respectively of the national Patient Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF). Their presentation on the successful implementation of PCREF since launching, its next steps and priorities enthused and inspired attendees to be bolder and act at pace on race equity in services
Dr Sanjith Kamath, Executive Medical Director at St Andrew s Healthcare, then led a session on the work and progress of the Alliance's Patient Safety programme and Communities of Practice, which included some insightful and powerful films with a focus on lived experience.
Attendees found it valuable to find out more about this work and welcomed the opportunity to help positively shape the future direction of the Patient Safety programme and were very supportive of furthering the work on sexual safety and reducing suicide and self-harm. There was also enthusiasm for some new joint work on patient safety indicators to expand the work of the programme beyond inpatient wards to community provision.
Regional leads then hosted interactive break-out sessions on the significant progress and future plans of the Alliance s provider collaboratives: CAMHS, perinatal mental health, veterans mental health (Op COURAGE), adult low and medium secure services (IMPACT) and adult eating disorders. This initiated some beneficial conversations and active participation from attendees.
Angela Hillery, Chief Executive of Leicestershire Partnership and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The celebration and learning event provided a fantastic opportunity for colleagues to think together about the future and to be encouraged to be more outward looking, while grounding that thinking in reality. There was some really positive feedback on the value of meeting face-to-face and on the opportunity for cross-organisation and cross-professional group networking."
"Attendees welcomed the active participation of the Chief Executives and the positive, collaborative and open tone that they set for the event - and people came away from the session with a much clearer appreciation of the value of the Alliance, the importance of sharing learning and acting together when this adds value to our work.
"We thank all those who took the time to attend the event - in particular our excellent keynote speakers - and are grateful to St Andrew's Healthcare for providing such a great venue."
Following the success of the session, organisers are exploring the potential for further annual events, with participants expressing their interest in focusing on learning disabilities and autism in the future.