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A MESSAGE FROM OUR

CHAIR AND CHIEF

EXECUTIVE

2017/18 marked another eventful and successful
year for Alder Hey. For us, it has been an honour and
a privilege to lead such an outstanding organisation
and marvel at the many achievements of our
incredible staff.

Thanks to the perseverance, dedication and hard
work of our clinical and corporate teams, we again team – the idea of ‘ward to board’ brought to life –
delivered a remarkable set of year-end results. which has been of huge value to us all.
This included meeting all nationally mandated
standards and targets, as well as hitting our financial Alder Hey received two inspections by the Care
control total ahead of plan and thereby attracting Quality Commission during the year – in April 2017
additional funding to the Trust from our regulator and again in February 2018. On both occasions
NHS Improvement. Yet these achievements, inspectors commented on the compassionate,
although remarkable in the context of an NHS which child-focused care given by everyone they met
continues to face unprecedented levels of financial and we continue to be rated as ‘outstanding’ in the
pressure and challenge from increasing demand, Caring domain of the CQC’s fundamental standards.
are eclipsed by the day to day examples of our staff It remains our intention to provide outstanding care
going the extra mile to provide the very best care to for all our patients across every domain and our
our children and young people. We are immensely ambition to achieve that rating for the whole Trust.
proud of the way in which staff live the Trust’s values
in all that they do, every day. As further testament to the regard in which
Alder Hey is held, the Board was asked by NHS
We were greatly encouraged by the positive results Improvement in May of 2017 to take on the
of this year’s staff survey and this gives us much to management of Liverpool Community Health NHS
build upon in the next 12 months, supported by our Trust for a period of six months, whilst the final
highly successful ‘Listening into Action’ initiative. A arrangements could be made for transition of its
key focus for the Board has been to progress our services to another provider. The Board was happy
Quality Improvement programme which lies at the to lend its support to the excellent staff at LCH at
centre of our Quality Strategy; we have seen the a difficult time, as well as taking the opportunity to
enthusiasm with which this is being embraced by assist the local health system in the spirit of collegial
the whole organisation through a myriad of quality working and shared goals across the service for the
initiatives – many of which are described in the benefit of the local community.
Quality Report on page 81 of this document. We
have seen measurable improvement across a range Again, we could not have taken on this additional
of our quality metrics, notably no avoidable factors role without complete confidence that our Alder
found by the mortality reviews undertaken for all Hey family was behind us, keeping the organisation
deaths in hospital; a further significant reduction in running as smoothly as ever; the fact that this was
medication errors, bringing the total reduction since the case is evident in the report that follows. It only
in the last three years to 75%; and a 46% reduction remains for us to reiterate our enormous gratitude to
in the number of hospital acquired infections the whole team for their unfaltering commitment.
since 2014/15. The new style Quality Assurance
Rounds which we introduced in September have David Henshaw Louise Shepherd
been warmly welcomed by everyone who has
been involved so far, as the process enables a real SIR DAVID HENSHAW LOUISE SHEPHERD CBE
connection between Board members and the host Chairman Chief Executive

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust 6 Annual Report & Accounts 2017/18