Chair, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Chair,
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

United Kingdom

About Berkshire Healthcare

We are the main provider of mental health and community health services to a population of 900,000 people across Berkshire. We operate from approximately 100 sites across the county, including 323 inpatient beds across 16 wards over 8 locations. Much of our healthcare and therapy services are provided to people within their own homes.

We employ over 5,000 staff which includes medics, registered nurses, therapists, psychologists, and both clinical and non-clinical support staff. The commitment of our staff and the way we respect and support staff is the principal factor in excellence.

Quality

Following a comprehensive Inspection by the Care Quality Commission in November/December 2019, we’re proud to be rated as ‘Outstanding’.

Highlights from the CQC report:

The trust created a positive culture where patients, carers and staff could share their experiences and concerns and where there was a genuine commitment to learning from experience.

Staff across the trust felt valued and there was a real focus on doing what was best for both staff, patients and carers and a real commitment to the delivery of good quality patient care at every level. Staff at all levels of the trust were proud to work here and morale amongst staff was good.

Quality improvement methodology was embedded throughout the trust and was championed at all levels from ward to board, giving genuine opportunities for staff and patients to identify areas for improvement and make changes. The trust consistently encouraged and supported staff to innovate and develop new ideas.

The trust was a leader in using technology to improve patient care and was continuing to build on its status as a ‘Global Digital Exemplar’.

People

We want Berkshire Healthcare to be a place where everyone can thrive, grow, and feel valued. Our staff engagement scores place us as one of the top-performing combined mental health and community health trusts in the country. But we are not complacent.

Our vision is to continue to develop our culture so that we are a place where our people want to work and stay. Through workshops and focus groups we’ve listened to our people and identified four key priority themes for the People Strategy: growing and retaining for the future; looking after our people; belonging to our organisation; and finding new ways of working. This means we’re addressing the issues that our people want us to resolve.

Finances

Our financial performance is excellent, and we have a history of delivering our annual financial targets. In 23/24 we delivered a surplus of £3.8m and in 24/25 are again on track to deliver our plan.

Our Mission and Vision

Our mission and vision were renewed 18 months ago, with the help of 800+ staff who contributed through a significant engagement programme. We believe they outline our optimism and ambition for the future, a future that will see us working closely and in collaboration with our patients, communities, staff, and partners.

These few memorable words encapsulate our everyday purpose and ambition for the future.

Our mission is to:

Maximise independence and quality of life

We want to support people to live as independent and full a life as possible for their individual circumstance. Whether providing beginning to end of life healthcare, our purpose is to support the best quality of life outcome for our patients.

Our Vision is to be:

A great place to get care, a great place to give care

With a focus on safe, high quality patient care, supported by continuous improvement and excellent teamwork, we will deliver our vision to provide great care for all patients. We know that building inclusive, motivated and engaged teams who are working towards shared goals translates to great care for patients. Our vision for high quality patient care will be directly supported by making Berkshire Healthcare a great place to work for all staff.

Please take note of the reference number found under section “How to apply”. This is needed for us to process any application.

For a confidential discussion on this role please contact: