When Jayne Harrington first started work at the Priory Group as a registered mental health nurse, she thought it would only be for six months – that was 15 years ago. And she’s now the hospital director at Priory Preston hospital in Lancashire.
“I was unhappy where I was working so I thought I’d go to the Priory while I looked for another job,” she says. “But I loved it. I loved the way I felt I could have more input with patients than I was used to when working in the NHS. Now I’ve got my own hospital. I’ve sort of found myself at the Priory.”
Harrington is one of the Priory Group’s 18,000 staff who support more than 30,000 patients every year [pdf]. The organisation is split into three divisions – Priory healthcare, Priory adult care and Priory education and children services – of which healthcare is the largest.
The Priory’s services currently treat 70 different conditions in over 450 facilities in the UK, with many patients being referred through the NHS. Patients benefit from the expertise of psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, family therapists, social workers, among others, who all work together in multidisciplinary teams to address a patient’s needs. There are also nine high-street clinics – or wellbeing centres – around the country, offering private outpatient services, plus one in Dubai, which opened in 2017.
One of the managers Harrington credits with supporting her career trajectory is Paul Pritchard, now operations director in the northern region. He has been with the Priory for 10 years, and has worked in a variety of management roles at sites including Chelmsford in Essex, Roehampton in London, and at Altrincham in Cheshire. He now oversees 15 hospitals, split between the north of England and the east Midlands.
“The great thing [for staff] about the group is there’s a huge network of people with different skills … from different backgrounds, or with a different perspective,” Pritchard says. “The organisation’s very focused on how you develop personally … First and foremost, [our work] is about keeping patients safe … The dynamic bit about our work is coming up with new solutions to help people progress and recover to whatever extent they can, and to live the life they want to live.”
A new career pathway initiative introduced this year aims to encourage staff to take better advantage of the training and career progression available within the organisation. Emma McCarthy, people development operations manager, says it’s about supporting staff to be whatever they want to be. “One of our pathways, for example, is moving from a healthcare assistant to CEO – how you do that, and what training, development and support [the group] will give you to help,” she says. “[Someone else] might love being a healthcare assistant and that’s their career pathway. We will support them to be the best they can be within that [role].”
There’s also a new apprenticeship programme – in this first instance this will be for IT roles, but there are plans too for nursing apprenticeships and more across other roles. It’s hoped that developing alternative routes into healthcare might help address some of the recruitment challenges faced by the sector as a whole. “We have a national shortage of nurses, [but we also] have a national shortage of people wanting to move into health and social care, because they don’t necessarily see it as a career,” McCarthy adds.
Priory Healthcare chief executive officer, Sylvia Tang – who is a psychiatrist by background – feels the organisation has been guilty of not doing this enough in the past. “Staff had said one of the reasons they were leaving was because of a lack of career development,” she explains. “Our aim is that wherever you come into the group, you would have the opportunity to think about your career progression, both in terms of training and seniority but also in terms of specialty and division … it seemed ridiculous that some people were leaving the company to seek opportunities that were available internally.”
It was partly that breadth of opportunity that attracted Tang to join the Priory Group herself three and a half years ago. “There’s also a different pace,” she says. “Because we’re an independent healthcare company, things can move a lot faster. We have more freedom to act, more resources to develop new services, innovate and improve quality. That makes the job very exciting.”
But the challenge of working with patients with a high level of need – which can be emotionally and physically draining – can also have an impact on staff turnover, Tang admits. To address this, the group has an extensive wellbeing strategy that includes rewards for staff, such as free breakfasts and barbecues; an employee assistance programme, with a 24/7 helpline and face-to-face counselling; as well as a new app called Stress Free Island, offering advice on everything from practising mindfulness, to coping with personal difficulties outside of work.
Line managers also have a critical role to play when it comes to support, says Pritchard. “We have to ensure people have good quality supervision, because we work in a field which is quite difficult and high pressure, whatever job you’re doing. Keeping yourself well is really important if you’re going to assist in other people’s recovery.
“Give people the space and support to develop and flourish, and they’ll fly,” he adds. “That’s absolutely true for our patients as well. If you have the right people in the right environment, delivering the right care, patients just do so well.”
