It’s been an exceptionally busy week for national NHS England announcements and I wanted to share my reflections so far.
NHS England published the Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships’ (STP) progress update
for 2016/17 today.
The STP progress assessment provides headline ratings in four bandings: Outstanding, Advanced,
Making Progress and Needs Most Improvement.
I’ve been notified that West Yorkshire and
Harrogate STP has been rated as ‘Making Progress’ overall, with ‘Established’ leadership
arrangements.
You can read the progress assessments for each of England’s 44 STPs (including ours) here
The banding is based on an aggregation of ratings, is a baseline assessment and a partial not comprehensive review or performance judgement. STPs have not been in existence long enough to be comprehensively reviewed on their own performance and we should keep this in mind in our delivery plan. Nonetheless, these indicators are important to the national system and the outcomes clearly benefit local people.
Moving forward we must also ensure that we continue to focus on our local priorities. This includes the critical role of our partner local authorities in integrated community services, social care, and the economic impact of health. All are essential. In addition, our work on harnessing the power of communities, preventing ill health, workforce development, stroke services, carer support and other innovations are of equal importance.
The recognition of our established relationships for system leadership across WY&H is helpful. It reflects that we have good arrangements in each of our six places and good collaborative arrangements too. You can see examples of this in the development of the Joint Committee of the 11 CCGs and the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Association of Acute Trusts (read more below) and their associated work. The System Leadership Executive Group and the joint meeting of provider Chairs I attended this week show this is an ongoing reality.
We can already see evidence of progress in the STP area: we have secured £31m in transformation funding for A&E, cancer, mental health, learning disabilities and diabetes. We have seen an 8% improvement in A&E performance since our acceleration zone collaboration began and have developed a strategic case for change for stroke services that looks at prevention to after care. Our work on carers, primary care and social prescribing is showcased and supported by NHS England. And the public engagement with staff, partners, public and communities on stroke that took place in March 2017 demonstrates the way in which further conversations on change will happen - with and for local people.
NHS England also published their headline ratings for Clinical Commissioning Groups’ (CCG) assessments for 2016/17 today.
Alongside this headline assessment, additional work has been undertaken by separate independent clinical panels to assess three of the six clinical priorities set out in ‘Next Steps on the Five Year Forward View’: cancer, mental health and dementia.
In these three important areas, many of our CCGs have been assessed as either Outstanding or Go
od. I believe this reflects the hard work of commissioners and providers in developing our partnership approach, locally and regionally. Away from NHS England, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts and Health published its Inquiry report Creative Health, The Arts for Health and Wellbeing. I was able to describe the work that we are doing here in SWYPFT with our Creative Minds programme alongside Debs Taylor. Debs talked about how Creative Minds and a simple art class “not only saved my life, but gave me a life”. Now a successful artist and peer support worker, she is off medication, off benefits and enjoying her life. The Report is a fantastic resource, full of evidence of impact and of what needs to happen next, including the role of STP leaders, Health and Wellbeing Boards, Trusts and CCGs in delivering its recommendations.
With our focus on prevention, communities and place – and with the wealth of creativity we have at our disposal – we are well placed to become an exemplar in this area. I would urge every place to nominate someone to take forward the recommendations. Whether the Hepworth in Wakefield or a local singing group in Harrogate, the arts can save lives and make lives.
Have a good weekend
Rob
View full weekly update for 21st July 2017