Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) is one of the largest mental health and learning disability trusts in the country. Our 6,000 staff provide a wide range of inpatient and community services to 1.6 million people living in County Durham, Teesside and most of North Yorkshire.
1. Roseberry Park, Middlesbrough
2. West Park Hospital, Darlington
3. Lanchester Road Hospital, Durham
4. West Lane Hospital, Middlesbrough
Further sites in North Yorkshire:
– Cross Lane Hospital, Scarborough
– Harrogate District Hospital, Harrogate (mental health unit)
– The Friarage, Northallerton (mental health unit)
Our staff are our most important asset and we are committed to making sure they feel valued and have the right tools, skills and support in place to do their job well.
In December 2017 we achieved gold accreditation from the internationally recognised Investors in People. This is a significant achievement as the gold standard is only expected to be awarded to the top 2% of organisations assessed.
We are also proud of the Trust’s quality improvement system TEWV QIS which empowers staff to eliminate waste and improve quality, enabling them to focus on what’s important – improving the lives of the people who use our services. We run a number of programmes for staff including QIS training for medics.
Working with our occupational health service provider, we offer staff physiotherapy and counselling services to support their physical and mental wellbeing.
We have some of the best inpatient facilities in the country with modern, state-of-the-art hospitals in Middlesbrough, Durham, Darlington and Scarborough. Planning permission for a new 72-bed adult and older people’s mental health hospital in York has recently been granted and we have worked closely with service users, the local community and the local authority to develop plans. We also recently opened Huntington House in York, our largest mental health community hub.
Recovery and wellbeing is central to all we do and is one of our most important priorities. Our recovery programme has focussed on developing experts by experience taking paid and voluntary roles in staff training and service delivery. Our recovery college in Durham delivers courses aimed at equipping students with the skills and knowledge they need to manage their recovery and have more control over their lives and our online recovery college has continued to expand; offering service users and carers access to more recovery focussed courses and mental health information.
We have an extensive service user and carer involvement programme which is very active at a local level and supported across the Trust by our involvement and engagement team. We have also developed an infrastructure for embedding a trauma informed approach throughout all of our services.
We offer foundation year one and foundation year two trainees four month rotations. Each post has a tailored job plan including timetabled special interest sessions. We offer an exceptional core psychiatry and higher training scheme. All our job plans include one hour protected educational supervision session each week and we facilitate weekly postgraduate teaching within the localities. We have excellent facilities for learning including state of the art hospitals and buildings. We host GP rotations to equip GPs of the future with the skills and knowledge of mental health.
We have recently introduced a Trust grade doctor programme which enables junior grade doctors to gain the necessary experience, knowledge and exposure within psychiatry which allows them to confidently apply for a place on the core training scheme.
We have a speciality and associate specialists (SAS) doctor development programme which is facilitated bi-monthly by a SAS tutor and excellent development opportunities for consultant grade doctors, including involvement in research.
Following each rotation of core psychiatry trainees a trainee representative is appointed. These individuals from each locality attend the bi monthly trainee representative forums with medical development. We strongly encourage involvement from trainees in the development and decision making of future learning opportunities.
We have a dedicated medical development department, which enables collaborative working between medical staffing and medical education. The primary function of our faculty of medical education is to quality assure both the training and the experience of our doctors in training.
Following their quality visit to the trust, the Northern Foundation School and Health Education North East reported that we have a strong and embedded culture of learning and development.
We have excellent links with Durham University research department and have an academic core psychiatry post on the scheme.
We host a leadership and development programme for senior registrars. Due to its calibre and excellent feedback we have also opened this up to senior registrars in other local trusts.
Each year the trust hosts a clinical audit event for trainees to present their audits. We facilitate an annual medical education conference, which includes a key note speaker. This conference is open to all grades of doctors and provides a forum for both learning and networking. At the end of each year we host a medical education awards event and this celebrates the achievements of all those involved in medical education at all levels.
Geanina Ilinoiu
I was absolutely amazed about everything I found here, there is so much variety, so many things to do – I absolutely love this place. It is a hidden gem of England. I am respected and my opinion is counted.
Sehrish Shafique, CT3
I always felt supported by my clinical supervisors in my placements. I can safely say I feel at home when I come to work.