Helen Barker, is the Trust's Chief Operating Officer. She was appointed in January. The role is to provide leadership for the divisions ensuring we deliver and develop services which give patients and staff the best experience and ensure we meet the standards set nationally and locally. Here's more about her in the latest Hello My Name Is..... series.
Helen is originally from Middlesbrough and has lived in Bradford for more than 30 years having met and married a Bradford lad. She has two grown up children, a daughter who lives in London and a son who, she says, "won't ever leave home, it’s just too comfortable!"
Her working life includes a nursing background (orthopaedic and Theatre) alongside working in operational management since 2000 across the five acute trusts in West Yorkshire most recently being the Chief Operating Officer in Bradford, having worked in the health service since leaving school at 17.
Helen told us: “I am very patient focussed always looking for new ways to help us grapple with the challenges of improving the quality of the patient and staff experience. To help with this I try to ensure people are involved in the change work we do and I can often be seen wandering the wards and departments listening and talking to people to support this.
“Personally this is a very big year for me, having started my post here on 1st January, a great way to see in the New year. I have an important birthday coming up but I’ll leave you to guess which one.”
We asked Helen what the best bits about her job were and she said: “Supporting staff in developing their ideas for services that improve the patient (and their own) experience.”
“Being able to work with so many creative and enthusiastic staff, I love being able to walk around wards and departments, saying hello to people and listening to their stories.
“ I also enjoy being able to help to shape local services, using my own experiences and energy.”
When asked what the highlight of her career has been, here is what she said, “Wow, where do you start, I have been lucky to have been involved in lots of developments that all leave me feeling a little bit brighter. Two particular developments stand out so I hope you will indulge me in sharing both of them.
“In my first role as a Theatre manager in Airedale I led a change programme that amalgamated our internal and external porters with support workers training them to be generic support staff. Using the NVQ structure they all progressed with 5 of the original team using this as the step to ODP training and are now qualified practitioners.
“My second achievement was to be the executive lead for the Major Trauma Network development when I was in Leeds. The services developed really embraced the principles of the network and within 18 months the outcomes for the network had moved from just average to the top three in the country.”
And her hero? “This might sound unimaginative, but my hero was my Dad. Originally a Captain in the Merchant Navy he became successful in his second career in Social Services through hard work and determination. He was always approachable to those who worked with him, never asked others to do something he wouldn’t do himself and really helped me navigate my early days as a manager. We lost him four years ago but I can often be found talking to his photo when I just need to take time to work something through.”
And finally, Helen, legendary for her fab nails (see attached) told us her guilty pleasure! “It’s reality TV, my Saturday nights are only complete when I can watch Strictly followed by the X-Factor!”
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Helen's story will also appear in May's Trust News which will be arriving on a ward or department near you very soon. This will be the very last paper edition of the monthly update but it will continue to appear on the intranet and on the website in important notices.