We will create a compassionate, inclusive and high-performing organisation where our people feel proud to work, are supported to thrive and are empowered to deliver outstanding care for our patients. 

This means listening to and involving our people, acting on staff feedback, developing and retaining talent, strengthening leadership capability and working with education and system partners to build the workforce we need for the future.

Our people are central to the successful delivery of this strategy. It is when staff feel valued, supported and included that patient experience, safety, quality of care and organisational performance are best.

Our People Commitment 2026 – 2028 will provide the framework for making The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre a great place to work, aligned to the NHS People Promise, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, our Trust values and our ambition to deliver world-class cancer care.

We will build a culture in which staff are listened to, involved in decisions and able to influence change. Insight from engagement will help us better understand people’s experiences, recognise what is working well and focus improvement where it is most needed. We will close the loop with teams by showing how their feedback has influenced decisions, strengthening confidence that staff voice leads to visible change.

We will continue to work towards achieving an ‘Outstanding’ CQC Well Led rating by embedding compassionate and inclusive leadership, clear management standards and the NHS People Promise across the organisation. Our leadership programme will support leaders and managers at every level to lead with kindness, inclusion, respect and accountability, create psychologically safe teams, manage change well and build high-performing cultures.

Staff retention will be a core measure of success. We will strengthen career pathways, talent management and succession planning for critical and hard-to-recruit roles. We will make it easier for staff to work flexibly and we will expand wellbeing support and recognition.

Restorative employee relations and inclusive development opportunities will foster a positive culture where everyone has opportunities to learn and grow. Our ambition is to retain skilled and committed colleagues by making CCC a place where people can develop, belong and do their best work.

Our workforce priorities

Developing our people: Improving leadership, management, digital, improvement and specialist capability through equitable learning, career pathways, coaching, mentoring and succession planning.

Supporting our people: Creating healthy, safe and compassionate working environments through wellbeing, flexible working, recognition, psychological safety, civility, respect and effective people management.

Workforce for the future: Developing sustainable workforce plans, strengthening recruitment and retention, expanding apprenticeships and entry routes, and working with schools, colleges, universities and Institutes of Higher Education to build future talent pipelines.

Inclusive culture: Embedding our values and behaviour framework, improving WRES, WDES and wider equality outcomes, strengthening staff networks and lived experience engagement, and ensuring everyone has fair access to opportunity.

We will:

  • Embed the NHS People Promise and our People Commitment through annual delivery plans, divisional workforce plans and routine assurance to the People and Organisational Development Group and the People and Culture Committee.
  • Use the National Staff Survey, quarterly Pulse survey, listening events, staff networks and local engagement to shape priorities, act on feedback and report clearly on what has changed as a result.
  • Implement a leadership and management development programme aligned to national standards, strengthening compassionate, inclusive and accountable leadership at every level.
  • Improve staff retention through targeted action on flexible working, wellbeing, career development, recognition, onboarding, line management support and support for colleagues at key career and life stages.
  • Work with education partners, higher education institutes and system colleagues to strengthen clinical and non-clinical workforce pipelines. Examples include placements, apprenticeships, supported employment and future skills development.
  • Strengthen partnership and system working across Cheshire and Merseyside so our workforce initiatives support service transformation, population health outcomes and our commitments as an anchor institution.
  • Reduce sickness absence rates, and those employees experiencing work related stress, by offering proactive wellbeing support.
  • Continue to use our workforce policies to enable flexible working. We will put reasonable adjustments in place for those who will benefit.