NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) governing body has committed to making Sheffield healthier and being a great place to work as part of its improvement plan.

The improvement plan was published on Thursday 4 July, following sign off at the governing body meeting.

In March, the CCG received feedback from an independent 360 assessment that highlighted significant work was needed to ensure they returned to being a great place to work and becoming an outstanding CCG.

Lesley Smith, Interim Accountable Officer said: “I feel privileged to have been appointed accountable officer at Sheffield CCG. There are so many committed, talented people working here and I want to build on and develop this. I recognise that not everyone has had the best experience of working at the CCG and I’m committed to delivering our improvement plan to develop a culture where everyone is clear on the value they add, feels valued for what they do and has a great experience of working at the CCG.

“We have listened carefully to what has been said and are really concerned to hear that some staff are having bad experiences of working here. We delayed the publication of our plan, so we could fully respond to the issues that were raised and give us the opportunity to co-produce the plan with staff and partners.”

The CCG’s Governing Body has agreed and committed to delivering the plan which will focus on:

1. Creating a clear strategy to improve the health of Sheffield residents by planning and buying more care away from hospitals in neighbourhoods - closer to where people live. This will clearly set out the CCG vision, aims and values, and meets the expectations of staff, public and partners.
2. Developing a transformative leadership team who will lead on delivery of the new strategy
3. Having a visionary and visible governing body who will oversee the delivery of the strategy
4. Reviewing behaviours, and developing leadership training and support required for the CCG to improve
5. Promoting health and wellbeing at work and a healthy work life balance.

Although the publication of the plan was delayed, the CCG have implemented a number of changes since receiving the 360 review feedback including:

• Started executive director surgeries so staff can book time to discuss ideas and concerns with them
• Actively engaged with staff on what matters most to them
• Refreshed constitution
• Governing body members now attend staff briefings.

Richard Crosby, staff member at Sheffield CCG, said: “There has already been a visible shift in culture at the CCG, the senior management team are much more open and there seems to be genuine two way conversation between staff and management. All staff have been given many opportunities to input into the improvement plan and I think the general consensus is that the plan is owned by the organisation rather than it is being done to us.”

NHS England, the CCG’s regulators, have given their support for the plan and recognised “that the CCG has accepted fully the recommendations of the 360 Review and has taken seriously its responsibility to improve its way of working in order to benefit the people of Sheffield and the staff you employ”.

Dr Tim Moorhead, Sheffield CCG’s Chair, said: “We welcome the honesty and support of our staff and partners. Throughout this process staff have been fantastic and I’d like to thank them for their honesty and hard work to develop the plan.

“Governing body is fully committed to making Sheffield healthier and being a great place to work as part of its improvement plan. We fully accept that we need to make improvements. I’m confident we can make long-term improvements for the benefit of our staff and the people of Sheffield.”

The plan is published on our website here.