Foundation Focus - January 2009 Edition - Kent and Medway NHS ...

NEWS
Kent and Medway
NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
Black History Month’s Food Fayre in Medway
To celebrate Black History Month, the
Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) Staff
Network held a Food Fayre in October in
the Christina Rossetti Day Hospital in
Medway
Members of staff cooked food from a
variety of countries, and all staff were
invited to wear their national dress, which
ensured a very colourful and culturally rich
event. The event was well attended, with
support from directors David Tamsitt and
Mark Brampton. Everyone had the
opportunity to sample food from all over
the world (from the comfort of Block A in
the Maritime Hospital!). The event
featured speeches from the Chair of the
BME Network, Selina Willis, the lead for
the BME Network in Medway, Noah
Kantoh and the Head of Equality and
Diversity, Aishnine Benjamin. All three of
the speeches had a message for staff
to get more involved in the network and
events like this – to raise awareness of
the diversity of cultures of staff and
service users of the Trust, and celebrate
that diversity.
Black History Month occurs every
year in October and is a time of
celebration, where awareness of the
history, literature, arts and culture of Black
and Minority Ethnic groups in the UK are
celebrated and promoted – for people to
understand how BME History is a part of
British History.
Left to right: Olayinka Soyoye, Aishnine
Benjamin, Selina Willis, Noah Kantoh,
Martine Fante and Oluwadola Gbadekale cut
the cake to celebrate Black History Month.
Romanians visit award
-winning Fant Oast
Trust Chairman Peter Smallridge
welcomes our Romanian visitors
to the award-winning Fant Oast
garden (inset).
Since 2007, The Health and
Europe Centre has been
working with health and social
care sectors across Kent and
Romania to identify where the
Trust’s health professionals are
able to offer expertise, advice
and support to their European
counterparts to help develop
the Romanian healthcare
system. This has resulted in a
number of study visits between
the two countries, including a
visit by Romanian healthcare
professionals to Fant Oast in
Maidstone during October to
learn about the Trust’s unique
inpatient service young people
between 12 and 17 years of
age who are suffering from a
range of illnesses including
depression, Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder and
eating disorders.
Our Romanian visitors were
highly impressed by what they
saw, not least by the fact that
Fant Oast has just been Highly
Commended in the Building
Better Healthcare Awards 2008
in the ‘Best External Space’
category. The awards celebrate
and reward the very best in
healthcare building projects,
product design and estates and
facilities management with one
ultimate goal – to improve the
patient experience through
well-designed, therapeutic
places which aid recovery and
recuperation. Fant Oast garden,
created with the help of awardwinning
landscape designer
Lucy Huntington as part of the
Enhancing the Healing
Environment programme, is a
therapeutic garden designed to
allow residents to relax, play
and provide them with a
homely environment.
Congratulations to everyone
involved in the project for this
well-deserved recognition.
www.kmpt.nhs.uk/camhs
Local men appointed
to Trust board
Ian McBride from Culverstone
Green and Guy Foster from
Canterbury are to be appointed
as Non-Executive Directors of
the Trust.
Ian McBride (right) has lived in
the county for 35years. Following
military service in the Royal Army
Medical Corps, he enjoyed a long
career in banking holding senior
management positions in Citibank,
Arbuthnot Latham Bank, and as the London advisor to
Emirates Bank International. Since 1992, he has worked
as a consultant providing risk management advice to
large institutions in the UK, Far East
and Africa.
Guy Foster (right, who takes up
his post on 1 April 2009) is recently
retired from mcch society ltd, a
social care provider in the voluntary
sector based in Maidstone, where
he spent nearly eight years as
Executive Director of Finance. He
also has experience as a Company
Secretary and worked for BP for
over ten years. Guy has a degree in
economics and is a fellow of the
Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.
Non-Executive Director posts within the NHS are part
time positions, which attract a taxable remuneration of
£6,005 per annum. Non-Executive Directors are
expected to spend about two and half days a month on
NHS business, although it is almost always considerably
more than this.
Trust Chairman, Peter Smallridge, said, "These new
appointments to the Trust Board are excellent news.
Their experience in providing leadership, governance
and risk management expertise – at a critical time for
the Trust – will be invaluable in helping us achieve
Foundation Trust status."
Foundation Focus January 2009
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