Posted on: 7 November 2022
We opened our AGM on Monday 7 November with CNWL’s Chair, Prof Dorothy Griffiths holding a 72 second silence in honour of the Grenfell community - "72 seconds for 72 lives. Forever in our hearts".
She also presented our Annual Report, which has been laid in Parliament, as well as our summary of the Annual Report. Both are dedicated to the Grenfell community, five years on from the event.
With our Senior Executives joining remotely over Zoom, we opened with a film showing our highlights from the last year. Watch this here: https://vimeo.com/762279943
In her opening address, Prof Griffiths said:
“A key focus has been on our staff. You need great staff to deliver great quality services, which leads to one great CNWL.
"We stand ready always for the unexpected. I am proud of the way our staff met people fleeing Afghanistan at Heathrow Airport and enabled health checks for them all. I am proud of the way we have responded to support our Ukrainian colleagues, carers and patients. I am proud of the way our sexual health services reacted to the monkeypox virus and organised so many vaccinations. I am very proud of CNWL.”
Cllr Ketan Sheth, our Lead Governor echoed this:
“What is great is the commitment our staff and volunteers show in good times and in bad times. We want to pay our tribute to them who do a tremendous job. As we begin to emerge from pandemic our staff have been busy again at the forefront of the monkeypox outbreak; playing a leading role in the fightback.”
During the AGM, Chief Financial Officer, Hannah Witty, ran through our accounts while our Chief Medical Officer, Dr Cornelius Kelly and Chief Nurse, Maria O’Brien spoke about Quality Improvement and how our services are striving to deliver better and safer care across the organisation.
You can read our Quality Accounts here.
Our Chief Executive Claire Murdoch gave an update on our performance and achievements during 2021/22 and outlined our future plans. She said we will be busy focusing on a number of areas:
“A big priority is winter. The NHS is under immense strain and there is more demand for health services. Caring for our patients, whether that is looking at mental health and not spending longer in A&E, investing in community mental health services, changing our culture of care or doing more work with local authorities and acute hospitals – this will be a big priority for us.
"We also have to think about and understand impacts the current economic crisis could have on both our staff and patients. We’re living in tougher times and it’s our job to bring hope. With so much good work going on it's the job of the Trust board to create conditions where our staff and our service users can continue to innovate. But we also want to support our staff on lower salaries or those who are going through economic hardship.
"I remain incredibly proud to be the CEO of CNWL. We have to look after our precious resource that is our staff and we have to look after what they care for most."
We were joined by Zoe Sargent, Children’s Strategic Director, Sian Thomas, Head of Children’s Services in Hillingdon and Vicky Hancock, Service Director for CAMHS and Eating Disorders in Milton Keynes - who took the opportunity to launch a new programme running throughout 2023; Year of the Child.
This campaign will celebrate CNWL’s large portfolio of children’s services and showcase our expertise in this area.
We also played a film sharing the experiences of a young person and staff member from our CAMHS service. This can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/766524044
Launching Year of the Child, our Chief Operating Officer, Graeme Caul said:
“At CNWL we are proud to lead a broad portfolio of physical and mental health services for children and their families, and this will shine a light on the fabulous work we do.”
We shared a round of applause at the end of meeting, bidding farewell to our well-respected and much-loved chair, Prof Dorothy Griffiths. This will be the last AGM Prof Griffiths presides over, and she will retire from her role after serving the Trust for more than 10 years.
Chief Executive Claire Murdoch offered a special tribute, reflecting on and acknowledging her contributions in progressing the Trust.
“Thank you on behalf of everyone. You are funny, encouraging and always driven by the right values; a love of healthcare and supporting people from diverse communities. With an incredible heart, you have been the biggest champion of equality, always wanting to know more about what we’re doing about our diverse colleagues and how we support our staff. The values of CNWL is something you live and breath and we will miss you enormously.”