Staff briefing roundup

Here’s a summary of what was covered in today’s staff briefing…

General update – Rob Gerlis

COVID national and regional picture

National alert remains at level 3, which means COVID-19 is in general circulation in the community
The ‘R’ rate in the East of England is between 0.8 to 1.0 and 0.9 to 1.1 for the UK
The number of cases detected by testing has risen in the last two weeks with 853 reported across the UK on 24 August with a seven-day average of 1,060 On 21 August. This is up from 860 on 7 August
However, the number of patients in hospital continues to fall, along with the number of deaths
Report has come out suggesting a large number of COVID cases came from hospitals
The way COVID deaths are reported has now changed, so a death is only recorded as COVID if the person tested positive for the virus in the preceding 28 days
When comparing cross country we need to be mindful of the differences in the way data is recorded
ONS data suggests infection rates are levelling off but all social distancing and hygiene guidelines remain in place, along with face masks in shops and takeaways and public transport, corridors of schools

Local cases

All districts in Essex have had positive cases in the last 14 days
Epping Forest has had 17 positive tests in the last 14 days
Harlow has had 7 positive tests and Uttlesford 15. In Essex, the total number of positive tests is 164

Local update – Ian

Flu poll – just a reminder to take the poll if you haven’t done so already so we have an idea of how many of you would like to have the flu vaccination this year
Details were in the staff update yesterday and will also be in tomorrow’s staff newsletter
Working with Anurita and other colleagues on promoting the flu campaign
Widening out to over 50s and new eligible groups e.g Year 7 school children subject to availability
Potential COVID vaccinations – working with Essex Resilience Forum on how we can make it work logistically
Deep clean update – the offices have been cleaned and will soon be ready to welcome back those who want to work from the office. More details on this soon
Blinds have been removed as part of infection control and been replaced with athermal film over the windows. Thiswill help control the temperature in the buildings. It is also reflective from the outside, so you will only be able to see yourself
Repeat risk assessments for office and home working – these will be carried out again in September – given schools are back in, circumstances are likely to change for many staff members with children
We plan to go to Exec on 7 September to see where we are with new ways of working
Once staff are able to return to the offices, there will still be a mixture of home and office working at a limited capacity going forward
Windows 10 update – if you still need to have your laptop updated to Windows 10, please email Bria to book a time slot as soon as possible. There’s only two days left to do this
Antibody testing is still available, but you need to wait 30 days before having another one. This is now open to social care, care homes and domiciliary workers
Brexit/ EU transition – looking at a possible no-deal exit. North Weald airfield will become a customs transit area – will give updates accordingly
The Staff Partnership Group met yesterday – we discussed the staff briefing format…
- It is very one way, we want it to be more of a two-way conversation – informing you about what’s important but also allowing an opportunity for more interaction from staff during this meeting
- We want to make it a place to share achievements, presentations etc
- Give updates on whether anyone is leaving so we can say goodbye and anyone new starting so we can say hello
- Colleagues may also want to say thanks for something or acknowledge the work done by an individual or team over time, or sharing something interesting
- It would be good to get an understanding of how people are working differently and the positives and challenges of this. This could inform how we work in future, retaining what works well
- if you have any more ideas on how to make the briefing more exciting, please email your suggestions to the Comms inbox

NHS People Pulse – Kam Kaur

Voluntary survey across NHS as a whole – closes on 31 January 2021
Survey is in relation to how staff are feeling about COVID-19, working from home etc
It is confidential – it will only ask what work group you are in e.g. admin and clerical etc
More information on this will be in the staff newsletter tomorrow
It takes 5 minutes complete – it has a mix of scale of 1-10 questionsand narrative questions
While some questions are mandatory you can choose the ‘prefer not to say’ option
Aiming to help make things better for staff

Your questions

Is it likely that we will start to see changes to other CCG roles, now that the joint executive team is becoming established?

We are starting to establish a structure to our One Health and Care Partnership (One HCP) –
A number of people are going to be needed at local ICP level and ICS strategic level
A large majority of staff will be working at the local ICP level as we transition to one CCG
The movement to that transition is scheduled for April 2022
This is not a done deal; CCGs are still sovereign bodies – we are gradually working towards one CCG