Posted on: 18 June 2021
Hello, my name is James
I work for the Bradford District and Craven Partnership, which is one of the five place-based integrated care partnerships that come together to form the West Yorkshire health and care system.
We have been working together for many years now, making shared decisions, and collaborating to improve joined up care and the impact our health and care services make to people’s lives. And by choosing to work this way, we have made great progress, and have influenced national thinking on collaboration and partnership working (most recently in this piece by NHS Providers).
So, what’s different now?
The prospect of new health and care legislation creates a different dynamic with externally driven deadlines and expectations. But it’s also an opportunity to accelerate our work and expand our ambitions because we anticipate that the legislation will encourage us to keep going in the direction to which we have already set our compass here in West Yorkshire. That is towards a greater focus on preventing ill health, addressing inequalities whilst working towards good jobs for all, community togetherness, and access to the great outdoors. To achieve this, it is important that we focus on neighbourhoods and communities; and towards a partnership owned equally by people, voluntary community social enterprise sector (VCSE), social care and health care sectors.
So now is the time to grasp this opportunity and organise ourselves to make it as easy as possible for everyone to work together with people so that more people are able to enjoy their life to the fullest; whilst reducing the gaps in life expectancy we know exist across our neighbourhoods and healthy life expectancy which result from inequality.
In Bradford District and Craven, we do this through our Act as One approach, which is our shared ethos, and ‘the way we do things round here’. As we develop our Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), we are frequently asking each other, “How can we do this in a way that helps people to Act as One?” Whether it’s the way we plan and deliver services; how we share decision making and accountability; or the way we support the running of our partnership; Act as One is the guiding principle.
This means that everyone has a part to play in Act as One, whatever their role. As Rob Webster, our Chief Executive Lead for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (our integrated care system) often tells us, it’s about leadership from every seat, finding connections, and taking the initiative to act. One of my favourite recent examples of this is the way that the business development teams from our local Trusts are applying their skills - inquisitiveness, creativity, and drive for results – to attract investment to the ICP as a whole. Showing how we can achieve more together than we can alone.
One of my business development colleagues recently remarked to me that by working collaboratively on a recent whole partnership project, they had been able to grow their local network, be part of building our future, and had gained a much deeper appreciation of the potential of partnership.
I love this example because it neatly demonstrates that everyone can Act as One, whatever their role; and it shows what exciting potential can be unlocked when we work together. You can read about many other examples of everyday heroes living the Act as One values in this brochure from our recent Act as One Festival Recognition Day
Many of these examples highlight an important lesson for us as we accelerate the development of our ICP:
“Transforming a system is really about transforming the relationships between people who make up the system”
This is a quote from The Water of Systems Change (2018), by celebrated systems thinker Peter Senge along with John Kania and Mark Kramer. The report sets out six conditions of systems change; some of which are visible, such as policies, practices, and resource flows; and others which are less visible but no less influential; relationships, power dynamics and mental models.
Applying this to our ICP development, we know that some of the biggest challenges ahead lie in attending to those factors which are beneath the surface. It won’t be enough to only change the formal partnership governance.
This is why our ICP development programme is focused in equal measure on:
- Vision and strategy – what we are trying to achieve
- Leadership and behaviours – how we need to be to succeed
- Design and delivery – how our partnership will be structured. Each part is interdependent and must be coherent as a whole.
For a place-based partnership such as ours to really change the power dynamics that underpin the current system, strong neighbourhood level collaborations will be key. In Bradford District and Craven these foundational building blocks are known as Community Partnerships. When enabled, they have a track record of using the strengths of local communities to respond quickly and creatively to the things that matter to the neighbourhood. Now it’s time for us to turn the system on its head and invert the power to act.
As Cormac Russell says in his book ‘Rekindling Democracy’ “Small local places are the stage on which a good, sustainable and satisfying life unfolds. Seeing the neighbourhood as the primary unit of change is a powerful strategy for addressing some of our most intractable socio-political challenges. It is, however, countercultural…”
In our Partnership we’ve always had a strong focus on doing what’s right, rather than simply complying. Now is the time to keep that in mind and focus on what’s strong in our communities.
Have a good weekend,
James
What else has been happening this week?
Let’s DiaBEAT this campaign
As part of our Let’s DiaBEAT this campaign, check out our latest video aimed at GP practice colleagues. The video features Dr James Thomas, Clinical Chair for the CCG and chair of West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Clinical Forum who offers top tips to increase referrals to the Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. There’s also an updated guide for general practice to invite eligible patients to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. The pack gives practices all the information needed to identify and mail out to patients who are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and who, we hope, will take up the opportunity to join the programme.
Pop-up meal success
In November last year we launched a new Targeted Prevention Grant Fund worth £100,000 to help reduce the gap in health equalities across the area. 11 organisations from across the health, voluntary and community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector successfully applied for the funding.
Find out how the Old Fire Station community hub is using their share of the health inequalities funding to produce a series of pop-up meals at various COVID secure sites in the York Road Local Care Partnership area. Read the delivering pop-up meals case study to find out more.
Get Back Onside with the Bradford Bulls Foundation
With the support of the Partnership, the Bradford Bulls Foundation has re-launched Back Onside – a free health and wellbeing initiative designed to get people back to enjoying exercise. Back Onside is open to all age groups and fitness levels, particularly those aged between 35 and 64 years old.
By joining, you get free access to 10 weekly fixtures lasting up to 60 minutes each and delivered by qualified coaches. Fixtures focus on multi-sports activities, including rugby and football, as well as team-building exercises and circuit training. You’ll get all the tools and techniques to help you build a positive mindset towards exercise, while having fun in a relaxed atmosphere. There are separate sessions for men and women. All sessions are run in line with national COVID guidance. Visit www.bullsfoundation.org to book your place.
Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme Board
The Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Programme Board met this week. Members heard updates on our workforce strategy, understanding local good practice for people in crisis, psychiatric intensive care, community mental health transformation progress, accessing funding for autism diagnosis and pathways and how each of our clinical commissioning groups is meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard.
The board also discussed that NHS England / NHS Improvement is preparing a large-scale communications campaign about 24/7 mental health crisis helplines to encourage people to come forward for the support that they need. Data from Yorkshire Ambulance NHS Trust for May 2021 showed that the service had received its highest level of mental health calls in 13 months.
The programme will prepare a local communications piece which will capture the breadth of our support offer in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, including our Grief and Loss service, the staff mental health and wellbeing hub and the new NightOWLS (Overnight West Yorkshire Listening Service) service for children and young people.
This year’s University of Bristol annual LeDeR report shows some early indicators of improvements in the care of people with a learning disability. The three-year review of LeDeR reports shows that there is a layering effect of disadvantages experienced by people with learning disabilities which combine to result in reduced life expectancy.
The Partnership’s Learning Disability Health Inequalities Challenge will work across all partners to address these disadvantages locally, so that people with learning disabilities will live longer heathier lives, have better patient experiences and better outcomes, and that our health and care service is regarded as an example of best practice in how it promotes the health needs of people with learning disabilities.
Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub
The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has published a new report: Workforce burnout and resilience in the NHS and social care. The report explores burnout before and during COVID-19, workplace culture and support for staff, and workforce planning and makes several recommendations, including “that Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) be required to facilitate access to wellbeing support for NHS and social care workers across their systems, and that they are accountable for the accessibility and take-up of those services.”
Our Partnership Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub offers therapy and resources to help anyone, including people in voluntary and community services, access the help they need quickly and confidentially, free of charge. This new animation explains the work of the Hub and has been widely shared and well-received.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate People Board
The Board met on Wednesday. Members include NHS, council, university, and voluntary community social enterprise colleagues. The meeting was chaired by Brendan Brown, CEO for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. Brendan is also the CEO lead for the Partnership’s workforce programme.
The agenda included an update on the regional delivery plan, workforce programme updates, and an overview on the development of the Partnership’s People Plan, expected later this year. There was also an update on the progress made on the Race Equality Review Workforce Action Plan with a focus on recruitment and retention of skills.
Urgent and emergency care programme board
The Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Programme Board met on Tuesday chaired by Dr Adam Sheppard Chair of NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group. In attendance were Dr Jason Broch and Dr Peter Davies representatives from the ICS clinical forum. The meeting began by acknowledging the pressures currently seen across the whole of the UEC system. Increased demand is being seen in primary care (in hours and out of hours) emergency departments and Yorkshire Ambulance Service.
Demand at emergency departments is significantly higher than at any time previously and Trusts are consistently reporting days where attendances are higher than pre-COVID. There are evening surges of demand with high volumes booking in between 5pm and 10pm. NHS 111 are seeing high volumes of calls with the biggest impacts being weekdays with a morning peak, school closure peak and out of hours peak. How the Board can work together to respond to these pressures was discussed at the meeting.
The board supported the commissioning of insight work to understand the choices young people adults (20-29) are making as we know from data and insight that there has been an increase in young adults going to emergency departments with non-emergency needs.
14 GP practices now live with home ACR testing - all practices encouraged to sign up now
Healthy.io’s home albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) testing service is now live in 14 GP practices in West Yorkshire and Harrogate reaching hundreds of people with diabetes who haven’t had the test for 12 months. We’re encouraging all GP practices to take advantage of this time-limited service. So far, 475 people have completed their ACR test easily and conveniently from the comfort of their home in the area. 95% of those surveyed said they found the test "easy" or "very easy" to complete.
It takes less than one hour to set-up the service. To find out more, see the Healthy.io pages to register your GP practice now.
Queen’s Birthday Honours List
Congratulations to all who have been recognised across our area in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list including Rachael Loftus, Head of Regional Partnerships awarded an MBE for her services to people who were shielding in Leeds. During the pandemic it has been incredibly hard for thousands of people who were shielding, and Rachael contributed greatly to increasing everyone’s understanding of the significant sacrifices they made to stay safe at home, whilst ensuring their voices were heard.
Professor Marios Adamou Consultant Psychiatrist, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust received an OBE for services to Mental Health. Robert Mitchell, Principal Social Worker (Adults), Bradford Council also received an MBE for services to the social work profession. Abrar Hussain from Halifax received OBE for services to the community during COVID-19.
Nagina Akhtar, Assistant General Manager at Khidmat centres, Bradford, was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Chief Executive, Humayun Islam - BEAP Community Partnership, Bradford, also received a BEM. Congratulations also to Dr Anne Connolly, Bradford GP, on her MBE for services to primary care women’s health in Bradford and Roger Marsh from Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and The Piece Hall Trust received a Knighthood for services to business, to the economy, and the community in Northern England.
Huge congratulations also go to Kirkwood Hospice who have been honored with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
2022 Honours nominations
Following the recent announcement of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2021, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is inviting public sector organisations across the country to consider making a nomination for the Birthday 2022 Honours List, which will be published next June. More information is on the Government's honours website.
Fellowship of the College of Paramedics
Kirsty Lowery-Richardson has been awarded a Fellowship of the College of Paramedics. The title of Fellow of the College of Paramedics is an honour bestowed upon paramedics who have made an outstanding contribution to the achievement of:
- The development and growth of the College of Paramedics
- Improving paramedic professional practice and in turn patient care or population health and wellbeing
- Development of paramedic education and, in turn patient care or population health and wellbeing.
Huge congratulations to Kirsty.
#WYHRootOutRacism
Thank you so much for your interest and wonderful support for the anti-racism movement and to all who have registered so far. We have over150 organisations / colleagues registered already.
With the support of the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, our objective is to unite colleagues and communities in rooting out racism. This will help to tackle health inequalities for ethnic minority groups of people by kickstarting a co-produced movement which will be launched at the end of August 2021. The aim is to shine a light on racism issues and prompt individuals and organisations alike to act.
You can get involved by registering your support for this important movement by completing this registration form (if you can't access Google Forms, an alternative form is available at https://
Please share this information far and wide with any colleagues and communities who may also be willing to get behind this movement.
NHS White Paper for integrated care systems
Two key documents that will support the transition to the new ways of working set out in the NHS White Paper were published on Wednesday: the Design Framework and guidance on the Employment Commitment can be found on the NHS England website.
As a Partnership we will be reviewing these important documents over the next few days and will provide more information over the coming weeks.
Partnership CEO arrangements
With the support of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SWYPFT) and
following a process agreed by the Partnership’s Chairs and Leaders Reference Group, Rob Webster, our CEO Lead will work full-time as our CEO lead from Monday 5 July 2021. These arrangements will
be subject to review in three months’ time, when national appointment processes should have
concluded. NHS England and NHS Improvement currently intend to run a national recruitment process for integrated care system (ICS) CEO leads to be appointed substantively to new statutory ICS organisations. This is likely to conclude by September. We are clear that this change expands Rob’s time from his current part-time role in the job and is an arrangement, without prejudice to any recruitment process that will be carried out later in the year.
Low Calorie Diet Pilot Programme
Our Partnership has successfully applied for funding to join the NHS Low Calorie Diet Pilot Programme which will help around 500 people across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. People eligible for the service will be supported to lose weight, improve glycaemic parameters, and potentially achieve remission of type 2 diabetes.
A low-calorie diet, total diet replacement is an approach where usual foods are replaced with a micronutrient-replete formulated diet usually in the form of shakes and soups. NHS England will procure a provider later this year and we expect that the pilot will be up and running by January 2022. For more information see the NHS Low Calorie Diet Pilot Programme guidance for GP practices and referrers.
Kirklees vaccine take-up
New licensing initiative set to boost safety and security for staff, customers, and local communities
A new pioneering licensing initiative to help provide safe and secure bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels across Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, and Wakefield launches this week. The Licensing Security and Vulnerability Initiative (SAVI) is an online and confidential self-assessment tool which provides everything that licensees need to meet their legal requirements and create safer workplaces for managers, staff, and customers.
Our Partnership, together with West Yorkshire’s Violence Reduction Unit commissioned the Home Office backed the initiative in agreement with partners from the West Yorkshire Public Health Reducing Violent Crime Network. For more information please contact emmerline.
We are still Calderdale
#WeAreStillCalderdale - a special online event took place on Thursday to reflect on the past year and how Calderdale will come out of the pandemic renewed and ready for a better future.
Robin Tuddenham, CEO for Calderdale Council and Chief Officer for Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) talked about the area's kind, talented, distinctive, enterprising and resilient communities as well as the work they are doing to tackle health inequalities with the support of ethnic minority colleagues. Robin said “we’ve got brilliant people working for us”.
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