Focus Weekly: events and training edition
3 July 2026
Welcome to our new Focus Weekly bulletin, this week focusing on events and training across the Trust.
If you are looking for a specific section of the newsletter, click on the grey square in the bottom right of your screen.
What's happened this week...
- Message from Mark - 29 June 2026
- Heat health yellow alert across East Midlands, 4 to 8 July
- Policy Bulletin for June 2026 issued, with details of new Sickness Absence: Support and Care for Staff Policy
- Latest IM&T and Records newsletter published, with details about the new online starters and leavers process and more
- Sharing your news: please continue to submit your news on Focus. You can also post on the closed staff Facebook group - visit Facebook to join up.
Events
League of Friends fayre is back this Saturday!
The League of Friends Summer Fayre is set to return on Saturday 4 July from 1pm - 4pm at Kingsway.
There will be a range of events and attractions including a bouncy castle, fancy dress competition, food stalls, live music, a raffle with the first price of £100 and lots more. There will also be a dog show, with plenty of categories to enter your pet dog into and lots of prizes to win.
The League of Friends is a charitable organisation, run by volunteers, that supports the work of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. All
the money that the group raises is reinvested back into patient care across the county.
Entry and parking for the Kingsway Summer Fayre are free. To reach Kingsway Hospital, take the Kingsway Boulevard from the roundabout for Manor Kingsway housing, then turn right onto Cherry Tree Close.
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...And don't forget about the NHS parkrun this Saturday, too
Lace up those running or walking shoes and join the NHS birthday parkrun at Markeaton Park on Saturday (4 July). The run starts at 9am but Trust colleagues and others supporting the NHS are encouraged to arrive ahead of time, ideally at 8.30am, for a group photo. Kids and dogs are welcome - the more, the merrier!
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Nursing Council meets 8 July: nursing colleagues encouraged to join in
The next meeting of the Nursing Council takes places on Wednesday next week (8 July), 2pm to 4pm, and all Trust nurses are welcome to get involved.
The meeting will be held in Kingsway House Room 10 at Kingsway Hospital, Derby. Or you can join the meeting virtually - ask your head of nursing to share the Teams link or email Louise Croft for the link in a calendar invitation.
The Nursing Council is a Trust platform designed by nurses, for nurses, where every voice matters and every idea can spark change.
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Staff Conference is next week: request to join the reserve list
This year’s Staff Conference will take place on Thursday 9 July at Pride Park, in Derby. The theme of the day will be Small Changes, Big Impact: Together and throughout the day we will return to the two central priorities from our Staff Survey; how we can work together to make the Trust a place that colleagues recommend as a great place to work and receive care. Our guest speaker will be best-selling author Andy Cope, who will talk about the art of being brilliant.
Although the number of attendees has now been confirmed with the venue, colleagues are welcome to email the Communications team to be added to the reserve list. Please check with your line manager before emailing, and please indicate any dietary or access requirements.
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First ever Questions for Mark? session is 16 July
In response to colleague feedback, our Chief Executive Mark Powell is piloting a new regular question-and-answer session. The first Questions for Mark? session will take place at 3.30pm on Thursday 16 July. Everyone is welcome to attend and there will be no set agenda, just an opportunity to ask any questions you would like to discuss. Says Mark: "I can’t promise I will know all the answers off the top of my head, but if I can’t answer your question on the day I will certainly take it away to find the answer." A calendar invite has been sent to all colleagues or you can use this link to join the 16 July session on MS Teams.
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Join the next Derbyshire Dialogue on 22 July
The next Derbyshire Dialogue, on the subject of getting people home sooner: Derbyshire’s Care Transfer Hub, and will take place on Microsoft Teams on 22 July from 1pm – 2pm.
This session will give an overview of the Derbyshire Care Transfer Hub and how partners are working together to improve hospital discharge and patient flow. They will explore how a coordinated, system-wide approach supports timely, safe transfers of care and reduces delays across health and social care.
Please register for the event here.
If you wish to subscribe to Derbyshire Dialogue emails, please email ddicb.engagement@nhs.net with 'Subscribe to Derbyshire Dialogue' in the subject line.
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CQC Well-Led development session for Band 7 Leaders – 27 July
A CQC Well-Led development session for Band 7 leaders will be taking place on 27 July 2026, from 1pm to 5pm, via Microsoft Teams. This interactive session will provide an overview of the CQC Well-Led Framework and the eight Quality Statements, helping attendees to understand what CQC looks for and how these themes translate into day- to-day leadership practice. Learn more by reading the Well-Led development session news page on Focus. Please contact Hannah Buckland if you would like to be added to the attendee list.
Training
Supporting People to Support Themselves: half-day training on self-management next week
With demand on health and social care services growing, and people living longer with more complex needs, supporting self-management is essential. When people feel confident to manage their own health and wellbeing, we see better outcomes and independence, reduced pressure on services and more meaningful, person-centred conversations.
Join this practical training session on Tuesday 7 July, 1.15pm-4.30pm - led by the Joined Up Care Derbyshire (JUCD) Quality Conversations team - to build your confidence in encouraging people to take an active role in their health via supportive, empowering conversations. This session is ideal for anyone working with people across health, social care, or the voluntary sector.
Book your place on 'Supporting People to Support Themselves' via Eventbrite.
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Having Better Mental Health Conversations training, 14 July
Develop the confidence and skills to have supportive conversations about mental health and wellbeing in a safe, compassionate way. This session from the JUCD Quality Conversations team will take place on Tuesday 14 July, 9.15am-12.30pm. It is an interactive session relevant to anyone working with people and is packed with practical tools you can use straight away.
Book your place on 'Having Better Mental Health Conversations' via Eventbrite.
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SystmOne drop-in sessions: more dates arranged for this month
Got a question or query about how to use SystmOne? Then come along to one of the drop-in sessions run by the EPR Training team. There are two sessions next week, focusing on referral management and the sending and receiving of tasks.
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New Practice Supervisor and Practice Assessor training dates
If you are needing to complete your Practice Supervisor and Practice Assessor (SSSA) initial training, there are further Teams training dates from local universities. You would only need to attend one session for Supervisor and one for Assessor.
Practice Supervisor training is in the morning 9.30am – 12.30pm and Practice Assessor in the afternoon 1.30pm – 4.30pm on the following dates:
30 July 2026, 14 August 2026, 3 September 2026, 8 October 2026, 9 November 2026 and 10 December 2026
If you have not currently completed any SSSA training, you will need to start with Practice Supervisor first. You must have been an active Practice Supervisor before attending the Practice Assessor training.
If you would like to book on please complete this form: SSSA (Student Standards Supervision and Assessment) Nurses only and you will then receive the Teams invite two weeks before.
Any queries please email dchst.placementsupportteam@nhs.net.
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New training package for Older Adults colleagues on managing psychotic depression
A new Managing Psychotic Depression training package for the Older Adults Care Group is being rolled out to support staff in recognising and managing this severe mental health condition. This is a mandatory training package for staff in the older adult care group. The training focuses on:
- Early identification of depression with psychotic features (e.g. hallucinations, paranoia, delusions)
- Understanding high risks, including rapid deterioration and suicide risk
- Evidence-based treatments
- Trauma-informed, person-centred care approaches
- Relapse prevention using the “4 R’s” (Recognition, Rapid treatment, Risk assessment, Relapse planning)
Older Adults colleagues: please arrange to complete this training on ESR as soon as possible. Once you have logged in via MyESR, the Managing Psychotic Depression training can be accessed here.
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Inpatient colleagues: LIO Contactless Patient Monitoring training is now live on ESR passports
LIO Contactless Patient Monitoring (CPM) is now live across all inpatient sites at DHCFT. Now that CPM is 'business as usual', training is moving to ESR (the Electronic Staff Record system), and a new competency will appear on staff training records.
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Introductory psychotherapy course - applications open to Trust clinical colleagues
Are you interested in psychodynamic psychotherapy? Do you want to gain experience of seeing a psychotherapy patient?
For the third year running the Derbyshire Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Service is offering the popular course "Introduction to Psychoanalytic Approaches". This unique opportunity is run as a partnership between Derbyshire Healthcare, Nottinghamshire Healthcare and Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trusts.
The course is open to any clinical staff member. You do not need to be a psychologist or psychological therapist to apply. Applications are welcomed from a diverse range of health professionals who feel that understanding psychotherapeutic approaches would help their work and/or their professional development.
The service is offering an open afternoon / information session for potential applicants to find out more about the course. This will be on Thursday 23 July between 11am-12pm on Microsoft Teams. Please contact Nathan Babiker by email nathan.babiker@nhs.net if you are interested in attending.
For more information about the course in detail and how you can apply, please visit Focus.
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Additional Oliver McGowan mandatory training sessions now available to book
Additional Tier 1 - Part 2 online interactive session dates for Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training have now been released and are available to book. Learn more about which tier of training is right for you, and then book your place using the UHDB Trust training academy webpage.
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Patient safety: new page on Focus to support with training
Patient safety training is required by NHS England as a way of ensuring that we prioritise safety and open cultures. A new Focus page on patient safety training explains the two levels of patient safety training, and how to access them via the e- learning platform on ESR. The page also includes a video on SEIPS - Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety. SEIPS supports us in gaining a greater understanding of the human factors that contribute to patient safety incidents and encourages improvement actions to focus on addressing flaws within the work systems around us, rather than blaming individuals.
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FJYPB Voice of the Child Conference 2026
The Family Justice Young People's Board (FJYPB) is running its virtual Voice of the Child Conference on Wednesday 29 July from 10am to 3pm. This year’s theme is ‘Knowing our rights, growing up safe and happy.’ The conference will bring together key professionals in family justice to deliver speeches, participate in a panel discussion, and lead workshops that are focused on a wide range of key family justice topics. Learn more on the CAFCASS website where you can also book your place.
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Free online Microsoft webinars with Chesterfield College
Chesterfield College are offering four more training webinars on the 8, 9, 10 and 21 July for Excel, Word and PowerPoint. These are all one-off webinars taking around 3-4 hours.
These are open to our employees (except those already studying an apprenticeship). Your home postcode must be in Derbyshire (including Derby City) or Nottinghamshire.
If you are interested and would like to book on, please see the news page on Focus.
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ReSPECT: free digital ReSPECT authorship training course by Ashgate Hospice
This practical workshop on 20 August (9.30am - 12.30pm) is aimed at doctors, senior nurses and AHPs who are undertaking ReSPECT conversations as part of their role. The training was developed to complement the Derbyshire wide ReSPECT competencies which can be found on the Derbyshire Alliance for End of Life Care Toolkit.
Learn more and book your place on Eventbrite.
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Save the date: Derby and Derbyshire wide Educator, Supervisor and Assessor Day
This multi-professional event takes place on 23 September at the Post Mill Centre, Alfreton. To reserve a place, please complete the booking form on Microsoft Forms. To find out more, email Michelle Hoole at DCHS Trust.
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