Combined invites feedback on its draft Strategic Review of Communications and Engagement

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is proud of its reputation as an Outstanding organisation which delivers services which are safe, personalised, accessible and recovery-focussed and which are delivered by staff who abide by its values of being compassionate, approachable, responsible and excellent.  The trust is also proud to be unashamably ambitious with an overall vision to be “Outstanding in ALL we do and HOW we do it.”

Good communications and engagement is crucial to realising this vision and delivering these outcomes.  

Since 2016, the Communications and Engagement team at Combined has supported and enabled the trust to successfully pursue its relentless journey of improvement and innovation.  It has done so by applying to itself the same ambition and commitment to continual improvement and innovation which the trust has adopted more widely to its service delivery and leadership. 

The journey which the team have been on has enabled it to continually:

• grow and develop its services;
• build its skills and competencies;
• expand and improve its channels; and
• innovate and lead.

The strategic review contains details of the next stage of that journey.  

A new aim for communications

It proposes a new aim for the team to be delivered over the next three years to “maximise the reputation of Combined Healthcare and support delivery of its services through professional, high-quality, inclusive, innovative and impactful communications and engagement which inspires and supports its staff, involves its partners, stakeholders and service users and leads the NHS.”

Five new strategic objectives

It anchors that aim in five new strategic objectives, which we are calling the 5 ‘I’s:

• Information – we will provide high quality, actively managed and well-planned information and content to our staff, stakeholders and service users that is (i) timely, (ii) accessible, (iii) accurate, (iv) honest and (v) proactive;
• Involvement – we will involve our staff, partners, stakeholders and services users in design and use of our communications and engagement to maximise access, experience and outcomes;
• Inclusion – we will ensure that inclusion, diversity and accessibility is at the heart of all we do, so that everyone can be involved and benefit to the fullest extent;
• Impact – we will ensure that we deliver maximum impact by aligning our activities and outcomes with the trust’s strategic priorities and supporting its services and people to deliver outstanding, personalised, compassionate care; and
• Innovation – we will promote and adopt innovation and leading edge tools and techniques to support the trust’s reputation for excellence and ensure we are always in the vanguard of thinking and practice.

Four engagement pledges

To complement our Strategic Objectives, we also have four engagement pledges that we make to our staff, stakeholders, service users and their families:

• If you have a story to tell – we will help you tell it
• If you have a question to ask – we will help you ask it
• If you have insight to share – we will help you share it
• If you have a contribution to make – we will help you make it