The NHS People Promise

The People Promise Trailblazers programme, at present, is open to all our 81 Practices and 14 PCNs in Lincolnshire.  Since its inception in 2024, the People Promise Trailblazers Programme has enabled us to work closely Practices, PCNs and the Training Hub undertaking excellent work in supporting staff and patients and well as enabling shared learning and development, aligned to the 7 elements of the values based People Promise framework.

Our next cohort starts in June.

The programme includes:

• A F2F teambuilding session at the practice or PCN incorporating reflective practice, a relook at team purpose and wellbeing
• An accompanying resource bundle including standardised appraisal documentation, stay conversation, itchy feet conversation and wellbeing conversation guides, templates and action plans, a Kindness, Civility and Respect toolkit for managers and leaders, menopause support and guidance for employers and employees, information on flexible working options including a case study, information on leadership courses, including compassionate leadership training for current and aspiring leaders and managers and a welcome pack for international Primary Care staff.
• Online support sessions for Practice/PCN Business Managers to help them implement the resources in their organisation
• Option to become an NHS People Promise Bronze, Silver or Gold accredited practice with a digital badge that can be used as a recruitment tool

As well as assisting with recruitment and retention, the People Promise Trailblazer programme will help practices comply with QOF, CQC requirements, Quality Improvement QEWS and the ICB Service Level Framework.

Celebrating Success

We’re delighted that Willingham by Stow Surgery has joined Beechfield Medical Practice, North Thoresby Practice, East Lindsey Medical Group, Swineshead Medical Group, Liquorpond Surgery, Birchwood Medical Practice, and K2 Healthcare in achieving the programme’s Gold Award, highlighting a shared commitment to developing people and maintaining high standards of excellence.

Congratulations to all those involved in reaching this milestone!

If your practice or PCN would be interested in getting involved in the People Promise Trailblazer programme, or would like to find out more, please contact Helen, OD and People Promise Manager.

Here’s the teams below receiving their awards from Wendy Cundy, Head of Workforce Transformation and Helen Ashwell, OD and People Promise Manager.

NHS England (NHSE) defines health and wellbeing champions as: people at all levels of the NHS who promote, identify and signpost ways to support the wellbeing of their colleagues.

One of the ambitions in the NHS People Plan is a programme of work that encourages all NHS organisations to roll out a network of Health and Wellbeing Champions, in a way that best works for their organisation.

With this in mind, we have set up a Staff Health & Wellbeing Champion Community of Practice network group that aligns to the NHSE Health & Wellbeing Champion Framework.

If you are interested in becoming a Staff Health & Wellbeing Champion or would like more information please contact Helen – helen.ashwell2@nhs.net

We have recently launched a Primary Care People Group Stakeholder Engagement Group to provide Primary Care staff working in all roles and at all levels with a voice. This group meets bi-monthly via MS Teams to discuss current challenges faced by Primary Care and suggestions for improvement.

The group is very informal and action-driven. Actions to have arisen from this group since its inception in July include the development of an violence and aggression reduction support package (further details below), distribution of standardised job templates with practices and PCNs to support with recruitment, and sharing of best practice between practices/PCNs across the county.

Meetings typically take place on the third Thursday of every other month, 9.30am-11am via Teams. If you would like to join the group, please contact Helen.

International Staff Welcome Pack

We have created a welcome pack for international staff containing an overview of Lincolnshire Primary Care, useful links, glossaries and a guide to life in the UK.

Download International Staff Welcome Pack

During our stakeholder engagement events and from talking with many of you in our roles as People Promise Managers for Lincolnshire Primary Care, it has become clear that increasing levels of verbal and physical abuse from patients towards staff are having a significant impact on staff retention in Primary Care, in particular among receptionists and care navigators as these roles typically bear the brunt of such behaviour.

In response to this clearly identified issue, we have developed a Violence and Aggression Reduction Support Package as part of the People Promise with resources to support you in addressing negative behaviour from patients and to equip your multidisciplinary teams with tools to cope with the impact of violence and aggression. The package includes:

• An editable and customisable Patient Code of Conduct which can be issued to all patients upon registration to set out expectations clearly from the outset. This document also contains an overview of different roles within Primary Care to raise patient awareness of which staff members they may see when they book an appointment.
• An editable and customisable Template Warning Letter which can be issued to patients who have exhibited violent or aggressive behaviour towards staff
• An Incident Log Template which can be used at practice level to track incidents of violent or aggressive behaviour in order to identify themes or patterns. Please note: The ICB has advised that such logs should be fully anonymous, i.e. contain no patient information, in order to comply with GDPR regulations.
• A PCSE Patient Removal Request Form
• A Sample Risk Assessment Form enabling practices to identify risks relating to violent and aggressive behaviour and take mitigating action.
• A bundle of posters designed for print and social media, videos and digital screens to combat patient violence and aggression.
• A Violence and Aggression Reduction Best Practice resource document, with a focus on reducing negative posts from patients on social media and encouraging positive engagement with patients on social media.
• An Anti-Violence and Aggression Support poster that can be displayed in staff rooms encouraging staff to report incidents and contact details for support organisations
• “PPE for the Mind” Wellbeing Webinars for receptionists and care navigators, together with an accompanying resource booklet to keep in the practice to make the training sustainable.
• Receptionist/Care Navigator Forum: Launched in September, taking place once a month moving forwards to give receptionists and care navigators a voice, identify challenges, discuss training needs and celebrate the valuable work of staff working in these roles. For the Teams link, please contact Ruth or Helen.

The Support Pack can be found under the We Are Safe and Healthy dropdown in the People Promise Library of Resources below

See How Our Primary Care Services, General Practices and PCN Service Improvement Case Studies are Bringing the People Promise to Life.

These real-life Case Studies highlight how teams, services and organisations within Lincolnshire Primary Care are driving meaningful change. Through best practice, shared learning, creative thinking and collaboration – all contributing to better outcomes for staff experience and for the patients in our care.

East Lindsey Medical Group – Staff Wellbeing Rooms

K2 Healthcare Ltd – Staff Newsletter

The Welby Group – Flexible Working

Beechfield Medical Centre – Enterviews

‘A Day in the Life’ Birchwood Medical Practice

We know that feeling valued in your role can have a huge impact on staff morale and retention. We are heading up a team organising the 2025 Lincolnshire Primary Care Staff Awards and look forward to the winners being announced at the Lincolnshire Primary Care Valuing and Recognition Event taking place on Wednesday 26th March at the Lincolnshire Showground. This event will celebrate the hard work and dedication of staff working across the four pillars of Primary Care, i.e. General Practice, Community Pharmacy, Dentistry and Optometry.

The event will feature a keynote talk on team cohesion and the power of positivity by Michael McGrath MBE, breakout workshops, a celebratory afternoon tea and an awards ceremony covering individual, team and long service awards.

We have launched a county-wide “Lincolnshire Primary Care Saying Thank You Campaign” to encourage patients to leave messages of thanks to Primary Care staff working in all roles and at all levels. The campaign highlights the positive impact of a simple thank you, with a view to increasing staff morale in these challenging times and countering the increasing amount of negative feedback from patients.

Please click on the following link to view a booklet with further information on the background behind the campaign, practice engagement and impact:

Lincolnshire Primary Care Saying Thank You Campaign booklet

We have developed a library of resources to help practices and PCNs embed the People Promise values within their own organisation. This resource library can be found below.

We are thrilled to say that the Lincolnshire County Council/2 Aspire and Blue Phoenix Career Mapping project has successfully come to a close.

As a result, the project aims have come to fruition via the Lincolnshire County Council/2Aspire website platform: https://careers.2aspire.org.uk

This platform has been created to showcase the diverse range of careers available in Lincolnshire and help people of all ages explore opportunities within the region.

Within the platform you will notice an array of Health and Social Care career descriptions and videos from our amazing staff in Lincolnshire Primary Care – from: Beechfield Medical Centre, Community Dental Services – North Hykeham Health Centre, Clear View Opticians and East Midlands Pharmacy.

Please see below our rationale for the collaboration.

Background

When developing our Lincolnshire Primary Care people resources, it became clear that there was a lack of photo images of clinical and non-clinical staff working in Primary Care. This seemed to be the case for many other Primary Care systems up and down the country.

In a bid to encourage Primary Care staff to engage with resources and media by providing imagery supporting the text that they could relate to, a comms plan in collaboration with the ICB Comms Team was put in place by the People Promise Managers with approval from the Primary Care People Group to undertake a series of photo activities with staff in their working environments in all four pillars of Primary Care.

At the same time, a Lincolnshire County Council Career Mapping project, promoting living and working in Lincolnshire was getting underway.

What We Did Next

The People Promise Managers were introduced to the project lead who was keen to work in collaboration in a series of photo and videography activities with staff across our four pillars of Primary Care.

Primary Care services expressed interest in involvement in response to promotional e-posters.

Photo and videography activities began in January 2025 and finished towards the end of February 2025, with involvement from services and practices in General Practice, Optometry, Community Pharmacy and Dentistry, with great success.

As well as fulfilling a need to create a stock library of photos, the campaign will include videos of staff promoting a broad range of clinical and non-clinical roles.

This project will also promote working in Primary Care much wider, as there will be a dedicated webpage to Lincolnshire Primary Care on the Lincolnshire County Council website as part of the Working in Healthcare platform.

We aim is to have a suite of staff in role photos and videos by May 2025 to use in Lincolnshire Primary Care resources and media. The Lincolnshire County Council staff mapping project including the webpages is due to be completed in 2025.

For more information about this project, please contact Helen: helen.ashwell2@nhs.net

Recordings of Staff Engagement Drop-in Sessions:

April 2024: Introduction to the NHS People Promise:

August 2024: NHS Champions, including Freedom to Speak up Guardians.

Sepetember 2024: The General Practice Staff Survey