Kirsty Beasley MBA MCIM Chartered Marketer

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Yesterday was an early start and a late finish after a trip to Birmingham, where I worked with the pharmacy leadership team at Birmingham Hospital Trust. It's the first of eight sessions, and one of the insights was an interesting one: "Leadership in healthcare—or anywhere, really—is a constant journey of improvement. Whether it's self-leadership, adaptability, or communication (all of which are products of increased resilience), there's always room to grow." On the long trip back, It got me thinking about where I want to 'grow'. In the L&D/coaching world, it's easy to focus on clients and neglect one's own health, behaviours and areas for growth. I do plenty of reading, but is that enough? The topics are interesting to me, but is that enough? Is someone currently training or coaching me in something so I can do it differently or better? I had a few things to digest. What are you working on improving right now? #leadership #management #thoughts

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Good opportunity across the Group

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Like everyone else in the country the independent sector will be digesting the impacts of yesterday's Budget announcements and in particular how the £40 billion of tax rises will impact on them. Undoubtedly the changes to employers National Insurance is the biggest part of that reflection and the government should be in no doubt that this cost increase will be keenly felt. In our response we reflect on the fact that the Chancellor made great play of the increase in the NHS budget but that did not include any milestones by which the public can expect to see improvements on access times. It may be that the forthcoming NHS planning guidance and/or 10 Year Health Plan sets this out but whilst the public will welcome the continued government commitment to delivering NHS constitutional standards again by 2029, including the 18-week target, there needs to be clear transparency on the journey to getting there. https://lnkd.in/ePV7t4Ad

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Social care providers will have wage increases of 9% if you combine Employers NI and differentials of NLW increases. As 80% of our costs are staff - this is massive. Local Authorities have had boosts of £600m for a number of years for social care - it just props up fee increases marginally - but always well below the real wage inflation we are experiencing. This year will be worse with local authority settlements based on a lower prevailing inflation rates - so effectively a cut of 5-6% if we are ‘lucky’. God help social care - those that need it and those trying to deliver public services. #budget2024 #socialcaredisaster #unfairtocare #thoughtwewerebackboneofNHS

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👨‍💼 👩‍💼 As business leaders, we all know that our people are our greatest asset. But with NHS waiting times getting longer and GP appointments harder to come by, it’s becoming more challenging to support the health and wellbeing of our teams. 🚑 That’s where MET Medical’s Urgent Care Service comes in! Our business and corporate plans give employers the ability to switch up their employees' health and happiness in Hertfordshire! 🤧 With our subscription, you can ensure your staff have immediate access to medical care, whether they’re at the office or home. This level of convenience not only fulfills your duty of care, but also significantly enhances employee happiness and well-being. It's a benefit they won't want to give up. 😘 When your team is assured of their well-being, they’re less likely to take sick leave, leading to fewer disruptions in your business. Moreover, when employees feel valued, they become more engaged, motivated, and loyal to the company. 🌟 We've even found in many cases where our clinicians have seen employees in their workplace, they can often be discharged back to work, rather than A&E, meaning less impact and a faster recovery. A win-win for employer and employee! #EmployeeWellbeing #UrgentCare #EmployeeHealth #BusinessHealth #DutyOfCare #SicknessPrevention #business #corporate #management #hr #hertfordshire

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Commissioning reviews at the start of a new term is a battle-tested way of setting expectations and shaping the political message. Reviews can also mobilise leaders around a new set of priorities, provided they’re sufficiently clear and express meaningful choices. We should also learn from outside the NHS; we are usually far too insular and myopic. For example, this week I read the Thai health system is stunningly effective. For 6% of GDP, its citizens live longer than in the UK and virtually everyone has access to care. This seems to be down to a preventative focus, often delivered by community health workers, and a meaningful capitation model of financing, amongst other factors. What elements could be adapted to the NHS?

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🏉 From tackling on the rugby field to tackling personal growth! 🚀 Had an absolute blast kicking off our 1-2-1 coaching sessions with the legendary David Seymour of Hospital Innovations UK last week at Enigma Education Ltd. Watching a former pro rugby player dive into the depths of personal and professional development - just brilliant! David's curiosity about the differences between coaching and teaching really sparked some lively discussions. It's all about asking the right questions to help you find your own answers. And yes, we had a few laughs along the way—learning should always be this fun, right? 🔍 Each month, I’ll be sharing snippets from our sessions—expect insights, breakthroughs, and maybe even a few bloopers (because we all need a good laugh now and then). Stay tuned, and if you’re itching for a change or just want to spice up your professional game, drop me a message. Let’s explore what you can achieve with a little nudge (or a big push) from our coaching at Enigma Education! #EnigmaCoaching #LaffWhileLearning #Training #Coaching #Education #salescoaching #salestraining

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Business relationships are like shadows, you live them & give them everything, knowing that the people that built, sustained & protected the foundations, will move on, leaving a wake of uncertainty. After 20+ years operating as ABLE 2 TRAIN LIMITED, we can reflect on the Business Angels that have been the cornerstones of our achievements, Julie Haden, Ann Brookes, Philippa James, Denis Twomey, Anne McClarnon, Linda Webster, Karen Matthews-Shard, Pam Selfe, Helen Shave, Erica Pryce ... these people, we are indebted to, as our business moves through another transition, with the additional uncertainty of the imminent UK Budget. No matter what happens, we Sue Brownfield & a Chris Brownfield will continue to deliver the highest of standards, physically in the training room, while maintaining our ethical, moral & professional values. Over the years, we have been approached to deliver training to organisations, that simply are not aligned to our model; ABLE 2 TRAIN LIMITED refused to support them & whilst, this may have been a pay day, as a brand, we would rather give 100% to our existing clients; additionally, we had the oppotunity to secure a nationwide contract, which we rejected, as we simply refuse to engage with promises that we are unable to deliver. On reflection, our ethical standards, have held us back from expansion, but has given customer satisfaction, with 58% of our clients being with us for 15yrs or more. Looking forward to another week/month/year/decade of training. As you know ABLE 2 TRAIN LIMITED is committed, to #SupportingYouToSupportOthers

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I'm excited to share Picker's Impact Report for 2022/23, highlighting our collaborative efforts with organisations, healthcare providers, and patients to improve the standard of care across all user pathways. Discover the full report below! #PersonCentredCare #PickerImpactReport #PickerPrinciples #ImprovingCare #CareExperience

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I hope for many of my UK connections, you made like a bank and holidayed yesterday. And if you did, I hope today isn't too much of a shock to the system. Why not take 5 and have a blog break (TM pending)... What kind of leader are you after you've made a tough call? Get it right and you can bring your teams with you, even if the path ahead is tricky. Claire Irving's blog has some great tips for leaders at all levels handling change and challenge.

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I just read a fascinating article from The King's Fund on NHS productivity that's a must-read for those interested in the future of healthcare. It explores the challenges and opportunities in enhancing NHS efficiency, highlighting how productivity metrics can improve patient outcomes and optimise resources. Key takeaways: - Understanding productivity metrics in healthcare - The impact of increased productivity on patient care - Strategic approaches to boost productivity while maintaining quality A great read for anyone in healthcare management or policy! Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eUCbPhvE #NHS #Healthcare #Productivity #PatientCare #TheKingsFund

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‘Do sweat the small stuff!’ - reflections from NHS Confederation Expo. As always, #NHSConfedExpo was a stimulation on all the senses! The mass of stands, presentations, speakers and themes always provides an interesting view of the world of NHS leadership and policy development.   This year there was a noticeable increase in presence for the VCSE and those who are leading from the perspective of lived experiences with National Voices The Patients Association Healthwatch England all playing an active part in the sessions and the likes of Picker and Stand proactively discussing the power of patient experiences to drive improvement and change.   But I can’t help but wonder to what extent this is icing on the cake and whether the role of #patients and #communities is really valued for all that it can bring. There is no denying that the biggest presence in the room was once again big tech. It’s certainly where the money sits as evidenced by the flashy stands and gallons of free-flowing free coffee.   Along with my colleagues Laura Golding and Isabella Carreon from The Point of Care Foundation our biggest takeaway was the importance and impact of the small stuff - such as providing break room spaces for staff that don’t have resident mice and cockroaches, having hot meals for staff working long hours, re-opening a community soft play area that is used as an informal community hub. It starts with listening well to patients, staff and communities.   The solutions to many of the challenges lie in how communities are able to respond to the problems they face. Both Matthew Taylor and Chris Ham spoke of the need to devolve more power locally to the VCSE and communities with a focus on prevention, primary care and holistic person-centred approaches. Building services around and with people. Music to our ears, but how do you move this from rhetoric to reality? By empowering the assets of community, investing locally, in a significant and sustainable way. Shifting some of the resourcing from big shiny solutions, to smaller more nuanced community led ones. Accepting the complexity of people’s lives as normal and working differently with people to understand their health and care in context, building solutions back from where people are at.   Sarah Woolnough talked about the need to have a different kind of conversation with the public, and made a call to action to stop talking about doing it and get on with it!  

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If you operate a care business, this is truly scary. First let me say that any #care business operating with #honesty and #integrity would absolutely want to pay it's people better wages. I know that we do at St Martins Care. But, if Angela Rayner and The Labour Party think that sectoral pay bargaining is the solution, we are headed for a whole lot of pain. Let's just look at a few things: The estimated cost of a care sector minimum wage of £15 per hour (that's £3.56/31.1% higher than the current minimum wage) is £10bn per annum. There's a few problems with that: 1. I bet these calculations are just for those currently paid at or around the minimum wage. But what's the cost of maintaining the differential for those paid more than minimum wage (i.e. senior care assistants, maintenance, nurses etc)? 2. Apparently, only £4bn of this will be picked up by the #taxpayer, so who is paying the rest? Local Authorities probably won't have the money and care providers definitely don't have it. Is there some sort of magic money tree that I'm not aware of? 3. In addition to the "sectoral minimum wage" the new deal would impose minimum conditions on pensions, working time and holidays, training, work organisation, diversity and inclusion, health and safety, and the deployment of new technologies. In other words, more cost for providers and who is going to pay for that? And just to make it even better, it would be enforced on workplaces where the unions have no members at all 😟. Key Point #1: care providers all want better pay in #socialcare but imposing this without proper #funding will drive many independent care providers out of business. So, let's hope that any promised engagement between unions and providers on this is truly collaborative and a "sectoral minimum wage" is not imposed until care fees paid by Local Authorities are increased by enough to fully fund this. I, for one, am very happy to talk to anyone who wants to #listen so we get this right. The last paragraph of this The Telegraph article refers to a "race to the bottom in care". Let's all be clear that that is not perpetuated by care providers but the continual underfunding of the sector by Local Authorities whilst at the same time increasing regulation and the expectation of the quality of care. Key Point #2: no care provider I know pays minimum wage because they want to or deliberately provides poor care. Both happen because the fees paid are insufficient to pay well or deliver the care we all want to provide. Key Point #3: the solution is simple. Better fees = better wages = better trained people = lower staff turnover = better care. AND it has to happen in that order, miss out the first and watch the sector fall apart. Key Point #4: if you don't pay for it; don't expect it but that will mean higher taxes. You choose. https://lnkd.in/g5t6f7aX

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My latest column in The Orcadian which focuses on: ➡️ our financial position for year-ending 23/24 ➡️ our financial plan for 24/25 ➡️ our Team Orkney Improving Together Programme ➡️ our new Corporate Strategy (Delivering what matters to our community 2024-2028) & why it’s different to anything that has gone before #TeamOrkney

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“The NHS and Social Care are inextricably linked” “unless we collectively make considerable progress in this area, the NHS and social care services will struggle to provide timely care” Spot on, but we need to move on from everyone pointing this out repeatedly….to actually working to solve it. What’s happened? Medical advances have led to people living much longer, but much less thought has gone into supporting older people with these longer lives. This has led to older people who should be at home being hospitalised, which in turn means that hospitals are fuller than they should be, which in turn means that unwell people can’t get the urgent care they need etc etc… How do we fix it? I believe that charities with social care capability, working in collaboration with likeminded healthcare organisations can play a leading role in providing better/preventative care for older people, with a cost effective service easing the pressure on Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust , Health Boards, Local Authorities and Welsh Government. Older people deserve better support, let’s innovate, we have to try something different if what we are doing now doesn’t work…..don’t we? Age Cymru Gwent provides life changing services across Aneurin Bevan University Health Board area. Age Cymru Gwent is an independent charity working in partnership with the wider Age UK and Age Cymru network.

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Great to see this report

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