1. Improve the quality and experience of care
   Ensuring that people feel known, are supported through change and transitions, and experience a high standard of care wherever they are and whoever they see.
2. Make ELFT a place where people can do their best work 
   Creating an environment where staff feel safe and valued, and are supported to grow, learn
   and shape how we deliver care.
3. Advance equity in all that we do
   Improving access, experience and outcomes for people facing barriers to care, and standing with communities to tackle racism and discrimination.
4. Strengthen prevention and earlier help 
   Working with partners and communities to support people earlier, and developing clear, practical approaches to prevention that improve people’s quality of life.

• Our kind and caring staff 
• People  participation
• Quality improvement 
• Clinical and care professional leadership
• Our diversity and approach to inclusion 
• Responsible use of resources

•  Kind, inclusive and accessible communication, so people feel informed, respected and involved in decisions about their care. 
• Co-production with service users, carers, communities, alongside the voluntary sector and system partners, to improve outcomes and tackle inequalities. 
• A well-planned, supported workforce, with the roles, development and trust needed to deliver high-quality care. 
• Responsible stewardship of our resources, supporting financial and environmental sustainability now and in the future.

 In all things we do,  we are guided by our four-fold aim to improve: 

1. Experience of care 
2. Staff experience
3. Population health 
4. Value

Our trust mission: To improve the quality of life for all we serve 

For the past five years ELFT has championed a commitment to population health – improving the health and well-being of the communities we serve alongside providing excellent clinical care.

Ways of working include:

• Being a Marmot NHS Trust – using evidence-based principles to test the boundaries of what an NHS Trust can do to tackle some of the drivers of poor health and health inequity
• Setting out and delivering on a Trust Anchor Plan
• Embedding equity in the work of our clinical care teams

The publication of three annual reports in 2023, 2024 and 2025 share our population health work and approach alongside measuring impact.

At ELFT we aspire to improve the quality of life for all we serve in partnership people who use services and staff. As an organisation we embrace continuous improvement and learning as our way of achieving our mission.

This will mean we have to think differently, be innovative, and give everyone, at every level, the skills they need to be able to make change happen.

Our strategy takes a whole-organisation approach to quality improvement, and is built on over a decade of experience at ELFT, best practice from other healthcare organisations and systems across the globe.

We are partnered with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the world leader in healthcare improvement, to support our improvement journey. This partnership provides not only strategic guidance but also helps equip our staff with the skills needed for successful improvement.

As COO you will be integral in championing continuous improvement methodology, as well as spearheading change workstreams across the organisation and in partnership with system partners, service users and our communities.

The post-COVID years have been challenging for our staff, but their resilience, compassion and commitment to delivering high-quality care have remained steadfast.

During this time, we have strengthened our leadership, teamworking, culture and infrastructure to better support colleagues across the Trust. We continue to focus on recruiting from our local communities, embracing apprenticeships as a key pathway into healthcare and supporting career development for existing staff.

We have also established new NHS roles, including Nursing Associates and Psychology Associates, to broaden career opportunities and enhance patient care. Listening to and engaging with our workforce is central to our approach.

We maintain regular opportunities for staff to connect directly with senior leaders through CEO Breakfasts, Trust Talk Live webinars, Executive and Non-Executive Director walkarounds, Directorate Management Team away days and CEO lead discussion sessions with the wider Trust leadership. These complement ongoing engagement with clinical, operational and corporate leaders across all our services.

Following the 2025 NHS Staff Survey, which achieved an improved response rate, we launched an Executive team Trust-wide Staff Experience Programme to ensure colleagues’ feedback is heard and acted upon.

The programme focuses on reducing burnout, strengthening line management, improving recognition, and creating a culture where staff feel confident raising concerns.

We created a leadership framework that sets out the behaviours expected of all leaders and established six habits to help teams create healthy, supportive and high-performing workplaces. These principles are embedded throughout our leadership development programmes, appraisals and manager training, with dedicated programmes supporting aspiring and established leaders at every stage of their careers.

We are in the process of aligning the new NHS England People Standards and the NHS Leadership and Management framework that was launched in July 2026. This will enable the Trust to upskill our managers and leaders and to improve the experience of our staff.

Alongside this, we continue to develop our ELFT Anti-Racist Charter as part of our commitment to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and able to thrive.

ELFT has been at the forefront in involving people with lived experience of either using our clinical services or being carers to those who use our services, as key partners in helping us to improve and refine how we provide care. We have a well established people participation (PP) directorate and have an extensive PP network across the services that the Trust provides, through which our service users and carers help us to improve, develop, design, deliver and evaluate services.

This extends to recruitment processes, with service users included on all interview panels, on project teams, providing training and committees help to keep us grounded and remind us of our common aim – to do what matters most to people and to do things better.

Our PP team goes from strength to strength and continues to grow. The team is now supporting and leading improvement in corporate services and in our systems.

From its inception, the Trust has invested in research and innovation. We regard research activities not as an appendix of service delivery but as a core part of the Trust’s work.

Our five year plan supports the research culture and the interface between medical education and research, and is aimed at:

• Exploring and developing the synergy between research, innovation and education for the benefit of service users

• Linking effectively quality improvement and research

• Reinforcing the importance of clinical academic roles in education and services

• Promoting collaboration, co-production and inclusion across all dimensions, groups, stakeholders