South West London CCG Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

However, feedback suggested that we seemed to be doing less well at involving and listening to our staff. Looking at the responses from staff who identified themselves as from an ethnic minority background, these staff were less likely to feel positively about the organisation. We paid attention to the feedback from this survey and other listening events and have responded to the issues raised. Following this survey, we appointed a new Director for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, who ran a series of listening events over the summer to learn more about the experiences of our staff. More detail about this work and the actions we are taking is available in the ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ section of this report. We have run a series of staff focus groups and listening events to better understand the issues raised in the staff pulse check and to develop solutions. Our action plan revolves around the four key areas: • Employee voice – staff experience and health and wellbeing. • Engaging managers – making sure staff get the support they need. • Strategic narrative – where staff fit in. • Integrity – how the organisation’s values are reflected in everyday behaviours. New Ways of Working This year we established a New Ways of Working programme, supporting staff to work at home and making sure that people had the equipment they needed. Senior managers undertook one to one assessments with staff in July, and again in December, to check the wellbeing of each staff member working at home and to make sure that everyone had the IT equipment and furniture they need to do their job effectively. Staff were able to access up to £150 to buy additional IT equipment and a further £150 to buy any office equipment needed like desks and chairs. Some people have not been able to work from home. For staff who have needed to come into the office who meet the exemption criteria, we have undertaken risk assessments at each site and made sure that appropriate measures are in place to ensure their safety. The safety measures we have taken for these staff include making sure desks are socially distanced and have screens and Covid-19 infection control and cleaning processes are implemented. As more people are vaccinated, we are talking to our staff about how we use our offices in the future. We are keen to learn what the benefits of working from home have been for staff, and what staff have missed about being in the office. We hope to be able to reopen our offices in July 2021. Our absolute priority is keeping everyone safe, so will only reopen if we are convinced it will not put staff at unnecessary risk. We want to continue the new ways of working we have established over the last year so, at first, we will only open our offices in Wimbledon. Our aim is to create a new working culture with less desk based 166 | NHS South West London Clinical Commissioning Group