After a glorious summer we enter into autumn, where the days are still surprisingly warm and sunny, with some worry about rising Covid cases and pressure on services. That said, there is so much to look forward to.

The work done at ELFT to look at waiting lists through an equalities lens is ground breaking. We are getting better and better data about whether there are categories of service users waiting longer than we might expect. There are examples where this had turned out to be the case- in Tower Hamlets waiting times for service users from an Asian or British Asian background can be longer than for others and in CAMHS Bedfordshire, females are waiting longer than males. This is helping our clinicians and provides us with a real opportunity to improve equality of access. The work is in the early stages, but the Board has strongly endorsed this approach and will ensure the Trust pays particular attention to those who are most vulnerable.

Collaboration with our neighbours at ELFT continues apace and to expand.

I attended an inspiring ELFT and NELFT service user designed and led Mental Health Summit in September. It was great to see the room packed out with service users sharing their experiences and updating their priorities and that those priorities will be for the whole of the North East London Integrated Care System. The ICS commitment was demonstrated by the attendance of the ICS Chair and CEO- Marie Gabriel and Zina Etheridge respectively. I look forward to hearing about next steps and sharing those with the board.

Collaboration on Mental Health and Community Health in both of our integrated care systems is shaping up nicely and in the coming months you should expect to hear more about how working with partners will lead to broader reach and better outcomes for the communities we serve.

I had the privilege of having both my Covid booster and flu jab last week and look forward to high take up of both across the Trust.

Congratulations to all the winners, and nominees, at our Staff Awards Ceremony!