Across the country, and right here in West Essex, demand for care is rising fast. Our population is growing older, long-term conditions are more common, and inequalities mean some communities experience far poorer health than others. At the same time, staff are working under intense pressure in buildings and systems that were never designed for today’s challenges.
Standing still is not an option.
Rise sets out how The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust will respond – with honesty about where we are, confidence in what we can achieve, and determination to build a better future together.
This strategy is about people first. It is about delivering safer, more reliable care for patients, supporting staff to thrive, and working alongside partners to improve the health of our communities – not just treating illness, but preventing it wherever we can.
Rise is clear about the direction we must take:
• shifting more care closer to home
• using digital technology to make care simpler, faster and more joined up
• moving from reactive treatment to earlier support and prevention
• and working across organisations as one system, not in silos
It also reflects who we are and where we serve. As an anchor organisation in Harlow and beyond, PAHT has a responsibility that goes beyond hospital walls – to support local jobs, skills, regeneration and wellbeing, and to tackle inequality head on.
This will not be easy. The pressures we face are real, and change takes time. That is why Rise is grounded in a clear, realistic journey – Recover, Renew and Rise – helping us stabilise today, rebuild for tomorrow, and redesign care for the future.
Above all, Rise is about ambition with humility. We know we must improve – and we believe we can. We have outstanding staff, committed partners, and strong examples of what works when we collaborate, innovate and focus relentlessly on what matters most.
To our patients and communities: this strategy sets out our promise to you – to listen, to improve, and to deliver care that is fairer, closer to home and fit for the future.
To our staff: Rise is about backing you – creating the conditions for excellence, wellbeing and pride in the care we provide, every day.
Together, we will rise to meet the challenges ahead – and build a stronger, more compassionate and sustainable future for the people and places we serve.
We will rise to meet the needs of our people and place through resilience, innovation and service that improves lives for generations.
Our Values
People at Heart:
We put compassion, respect and inclusion at the centre of everything we do, valuing our patients, communities and colleagues and supporting each other to thrive.
Creative Collaboration:
We work openly and creatively across teams and partners, sharing ideas and expertise to design better solutions and achieve more together.
Everyday Excellence:
We strive for high standards in every interaction and every task, continually improving to deliver safe, reliable and outstanding care every day.
Introducing Rise
Rise is PAHT’s unified vision for the future, an organisation-wide commitment to lift our people, our communities, and our standards together. It sets a clear, upward trajectory of continual improvement, inspired by both the regeneration of Harlow and our own determination to evolve. Rise brings together our ambitions for our workforce, our neighbourhoods, and the quality of care we deliver, creating a single, coherent framework for change. It captures our belief that progress must be constant, that excellence must be intentional, and that reducing inequalities must be at the heart of everything we do. Through Rising Hope, Rising Communities, and Rising Standards, Rise creates the foundation for a better, fairer, and more sustainable future for the people we serve.
Rising Hope
Rising Hope captures PAHT’s determination to build a culture where wellbeing, compassion, and ambition come together to shape a better future for care.
At the heart of Rise is Rising Hope, grounded in our core value of People at Heart. It recognises that while progress has been made, further improvement is needed, and it sets out our ambition to create an organisation where patients, staff, and communities feel supported, valued, and confident in the future.
Rising Communities
Rising Communities is about redesigning health and care around the lives, places, and needs of the communities we serve.
Grounded in our value of Creative Collaboration, it focuses on strengthening connections between people, services, and neighbourhoods so care is locally accessible, integrated, and responsive to population need.
Rising Standards
Rising Standards sets excellence as the norm, not the exception; raising quality, safety, and performance consistently across every service.
Underpinned by our value of Everyday Excellence, it is about driving improvement at pace and scale, using data, technology, and research to deliver care that is not only reliable, but exceptional, and to position PAHT as a national leader.
Our Key Milestones
Our Recover–Renew–Rise framework recognises that lasting transformation takes time. With services under pressure, we must first stabilise, then rebuild, before realising our longterm ambitions. Recover lays the essential foundations by restoring performance and strengthening resilience. Renew provides the bridge, redesigning pathways, modernising infrastructure, and embedding new ways of working. Rise sets the longterm direction: an integrated, digitally enabled, community focused model of care. Together, these phases give teams a clear, realistic framework for short, medium and long-term progress, ensuring we move forward with purpose and stability.
Thank you for reading.
You can find out more about Rise on AlexNet (for staff) and at www.pah.nhs.uk.
Recover (6–12 months)
Recover is about creating immediate stability. Over the next 6–12 months, our focus is on restoring core performance, strengthening operational grip, and alleviating the most critical pressures across urgent care, flow, workforce and estates. This phase enables teams to regain headroom, rebuild confidence, and put in place the essential foundations – data, processes, capacity, and leadership stability –required for safe and reliable dayto-day delivery. Recover ensures we are steady enough to move into deeper transformation.
Renew (1–3 years)
Renew provides the medium-term bridge between stabilisation and long-term redesign. Over 1–3 years, we will modernise pathways, invest in digital capability, strengthen neighbourhood models, and upgrade key parts of the estate. This is the phase where new ways of working take shape: integrated teams mature, inequalities focused interventions are embedded, and services evolve to meet future population needs. Renew is about rebuilding the system – methodically, sustainably, and with a clear forward trajectory.
Rise (1–5 years)
Rise sets the long-term strategic direction for the next five years. It describes the care model we are building toward: integrated, digitally enabled, community anchored and continuously improving. This phase represents our upward trajectory - reflecting Harlow’s wider regeneration and our commitment to progressive, sustained transformation. Rise is where we embed excellence, scale innovation, and deliver the long-term outcomes our communities deserve.
Photo captions: Left, our new St Margaret’s Community Diagnostic Centre; middle and right, some of our fantastic integrated teams, representing our focus on Renew and Rise.
