Posted on: 14 May 2021
Hello, my name is Nadeem
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today.
There is no doubt that the Covid-19 Pandemic took us all by surprise. Despite statutory authorities mobilising and adapting well-rehearsed contingency plans and systems, the public were left stunned and confused as to its scale. Whilst the Government grappled and stumbled at the enormity and severity of the virus, communities became isolated and frightened.
Key findings from Public Health England’s report on Covid-19 deaths (August 2020), identified major inequalities in the risks and outcomes of Covid-19. Mortality risk from Covid-19 being higher among Black, Asian and minority ethnic people.
Health inequalities are avoidable and unfair differences in health status between groups of people or communities. They can include inequality in health outcomes by socioeconomic status or level of deprivation, or by characteristics such as gender, ethnic group, or sexual orientation. They also reflect historic and present-day social inequalities in our population and reducing them should allow everyone to have the same opportunities to lead a healthy life.
To implement effective change, you need to understand the issue and its cause. Your data should be timely and from several trusted sources. Engagement with stakeholders and people who access care must be key. Understanding the journey of people helps to identify gaps and areas for development.
Yorkshire has one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in the UK. A large majority of whom live in the top ten most deprived areas. So, it is no surprise that health inequalities exist.
Despite this grim picture there is always optimism and a willingness shown from the Muslim civil society, to make improvements. This means working in partnership at every level. Consultation and surveys are all well and good but are only one part of the solution. Active participation of communities creates trust and confidence. People start to feel valued, their contribution acknowledged. Communities start to understand and buy into the strategy and process.
The Council of Mosques is an effective conduit and stakeholder in reaching large sections of the Muslim Community. It has access to large congregations where targeted interventions are effective. It often acts as a barometer in understanding change.
During this pandemic working alongside key partners and stakeholders we have managed to identify risk and harm more effectively. Rather than being reactive the partnership model has put us ahead of the curve and allowed proactive initiatives to take place. These have included religious and culturally focussed awareness campaigns about the pandemic, how to keep yourself safe, how to keep places of worship safe and reduce the risk of transmission. Dispelling myth and rumour about the pandemic have been a key part of our work. Using social media, video, discussion panels, posters and leaflets has created discussion and dialogue with people who are less socially active. It has helped to develop a safe place in which to have conversations about concerns and what matters to them.
Partnership involvement at director level has delivered timely information and data. This allowed early intervention and review of approach to gain maximum traction within the places of worship. Understanding the complexities of managing and running places of worship allowed the organisation to bring our key stakeholders along this long and ongoing journey right from the outset. The implementation and ongoing governance of Covid-19 guidelines has now been built into their systems and processes, which I believe has played a key role in reducing transmission of the virus within the places of worship setting.
Our work has not been exclusively with the places of worship, rather it has spread into households, the hub of family life, where deprivation and multi- generational households have suffered greater risk of transmission and tragedy. Providing guidance and support at this grassroot level has allowed us access to people’s fears and apprehensions around the vaccine programme being rolled out. Trusted members from the community, Imams and role models have played a crucial part in getting the right information out at the right time. The use of places of worship to administer the vaccine has allowed practitioners to separate myth from fact, tackle rumour and anti- vaccine narratives with counter narratives.
Prior to the National roll out of Lateral Flow testing, places of worship were one of the first places to use the process to test those attending for congregational prayer.
There is still a lot to do, however the future is brighter, people are feeling safer. Communities feel protected. The key denominator being “Working together smarter”.
Have a happy and safe weekend,
Nadeem
What else has been happening this week?
Let’s DiaBEAT this
Around 90 social prescribers, wellbeing coaches, link workers, health champions and support workers attended our online Let’s DiaBEAT this event on Tuesday to find out more about the crucial role they can play in preventing type 2 diabetes. We held the event as part of a range of activities to support Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Week which runs from 10 to 16 May 2021. Initial feedback about the event has been excellent and the format is being adapted by other regions.
During the week, colleagues have been sharing their #HealthierHack tips on social media to improve overall health and wellbeing and reduce the risk of diabetes. Watch out for our ‘Let’s DiaBEAT this’ animation coming soon featuring Dr Waqas Tahir in animated form. The animation is intended to be a resource for health and care professionals working with people at risk of diabetes. You can also read how Steve benefitted from attending the Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme in our case study on the Partnership pages.
Act as One Diabetes Programme colleagues published the learning from a Let’s Talk Diabetes engagement event held with the Bangladeshi community in Bradford District and Craven last month. The feedback will help to get a better understanding of the cultural nuances between different communities so we can develop culturally appropriate materials to support people either managing or preventing type 2 diabetes.
Digital first in primary care and in communities
The Digital Programme has hosted two packed online masterclasses, one on the 6 May aimed at primary care and the second on Monday for community colleagues with some excellent feedback and ideas to progress our collective strategies in the future. Over 110 colleagues joined the events to hear from a range of national and local speakers including from NHS England, Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network, Locala and digital clinical leads.
There were place breakout sessions too with great participation from attendees and ambitions to enhance and improve the use of digital in primary care and across communities. Attendees discussed their ‘art of the possible’ ideas and what initiatives we could adapt and scale at pace as well as looking at the digital future after COVID-19, funding proposals and delivering innovation and best practice.
Healthy Hearts
It’s May Measurement Month - a global campaign to encourage people to get their blood pressure checked. High blood pressure is a leading cause of a heart attack or stroke. Tips for preventing it include:
- stop smoking
- limit alcohol
- have a healthy and varied diet with not too much sugar and salt More information is here Good practice scaled up across our area starting in Bradford comes from the Healthy Hearts Project which aims to prevent 1,200 heart attacks and strokes in the next ten years. 6,900 additional patients have joined hypertension registers and 22,000 additional patients with blood pressure controlled (22 Mar 2021).
Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16 May)
This year, the theme for the week was ‘Nature’. Across the country, people have been celebrating the mental health benefits of being at one with nature in their local community in a range of digital and creative ways. The Partnership has funded 10 Green Social Prescribing Projects, which help connect people to nature to improve their mental and physical health. You can read more here.
Dr Sara Munro, CEO Lead for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership's Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism programme and CEO for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said:
“Our Climate Change Team gathered feedback from a survey on green social prescribing which asked people about their relationship with the local environment, looking at issues such as access to green spaces and nature-based activities. More than 92% of people who responded said they are interested in accessing nature-based activities such as yoga, walking groups and community food growing projects. In response, we have recently funded ten nature-based projects that specifically focus on improving mental health, targeting communities experiencing additional barriers to accessing nature, and expect to do more. I’m looking forward to hearing more about how they all got along”.
Pioneering licensing initiative
West Yorkshire’s high profile Violence Reduction Unit, which leads a number of partner organisations across the county to tackle violent crime, has signed up to a pioneering licensing initiative to help bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels run safer and more secure venues. This initiative is being delivered in partnership with public health, police and licensing teams via the West Yorkshire Public Health Reducing Violent Crime Network. This network is led by Chloe Froggett, Knowledge Hub Manager, West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, and Emm Irving, Manager for Improving Population Health, for our Partnership, and public health colleagues.
Supporting young carers
Young Carers Support App
The Young Carers Support App developed by the Partnership and Expert Self Care launched on Young Carers Action Day 16 March 2021 is now live and free to download on both Android and IOS platforms. The numbers of downloads are rising steadily with over 120 to date. An online survey produced positive results and we continue to work with the developer to share feedback and update the App:
- 100% found the information on the App useful
- 83% liked the layout and design of the App
- 67% found what they were looking for on the App
We are targeting young carers to promote the App. A young people’s workshop is planned with our youth collective engagement group. The workshop will explore the best way to launch the App to young people as we are mindful many young carers do not identify themselves as being such.
During Carers Week 2021 we will be sending information schools to share including the definition of a young carer and QR code for the App. An event is being planned in June to showcase the App to colleagues across health, education and care sectors.
Sara Humphrey, GP, said:
"Just found out about these Apps to support young carers- what a fab resource- thank you."
Get cooking
Through engagement activities young carers have voiced the need for resources they can access to support their health and wellbeing. The unpaid carers team is delighted to be working in collaboration with the award-winning Hebden Bridge based Verd De Gris creative arts company to co -produce a resource. Two creative workshops are planned on Zoom in May to share young carers thoughts, ideas, and creations under their guidance. The finished resource based on food, cookery, and caring aims to be a unique bespoke product created by young carers for young carers. 11 young carers including primary and secondary school age from across the Partnership are taking part.
Working with Healthwatch
Healthwatch CEOs and colleagues from across our area met with Rob Webster, our Partnership CEO Lead and our Director, Ian Holmes to discuss proposals in the government’s White Paper. This is all about building on the response to the pandemic and bringing health and care services closer together. This includes new legislation for partnerships like ours.
The proposals set out in the White Paper are intended to support health and care partnership like ours to continue to deliver quality care to communities, in a way that is less bureaucratic, more accountable, and more joined up. If the legislation passes through Parliament our Partnership will become a statutory organisations from April 2022.
The proposals support things that we already do together with local places continuing to manage and provide care locally, the power of an equal partnership that is broader than just the NHS; providers working together to join up care and our collective effort to tackle health inequalities. Healthwatch is an important partner. They bring their expertise and challenge to the way we work, including ensuring we are putting people and communities at the heart of all we do. The role of Healthwatch will continue to be very important at local and system-wide level.
Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme
The Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme Board met this week. Members heard presentations on workforce, children and young people, the carers’ passport and updates on autism and learning disabilities work. The workforce team has collected the information it needs to inform a strategy and narrative that will take the Partnership’s mental health workforce forward to the next stage of development as the system emerges from the constraints of the pandemic.
The Board appreciated the interesting and compelling information brought forward from the work of the Adversity Trauma and Resilience Knowledge Exchange, which highlighted the impact of adverse childhood experiences on children and young people’s mental health, leading to poorer outcomes throughout the life course.
Learning disabilities and autism
- Our Health and Care Champions group has made a new suite of cancer screening videos accessible to people with learning disabilities.
- Two new "Top Tips" leaflets are available to download from our website - Top Tips for Supporting People with Learning Disabilities in Secondary Care and Top Tips for Organising Autism-Friendly Events.
Bereavement support
A new webinar has been recorded by Bradford Bereavement Support for sharing if helpful. The webinar takes viewers through bereavement theories and practices with the aim of breaking down stigma and improving understanding.
Personalised Care and Unpaid Carers Programmes
The advance care planning training and bereavement support training is underway with four cohorts completed. So far 40 champions and 40 facilitators have been successfully trained by providers St Gemmas, Overgate and Wakefield Hospices.
The course will support champions across our communities as well as health and care staff to raise awareness of the subject and support better conversations with people about their future health and care wishes.
The programme has piloted the SUCH (Supporting Unpaid Carers) training which received positive feedback from 20 attendees with further courses to follow later in the year with a focus on the resilience and wellbeing of unpaid carers. Over 400 health, care and VCSE colleagues and volunteers have completed at least one training module of personalised care training programme. Evaluation of is now in progress.
We have completed a workshop in April which engaged with primary care networks across the region ‘’Bridging the gap to cancer care and support for ethnic minority people – an exciting opportunity to shape access communities’’.
Our Connecting Communities workshop took place in March and April. It received positive feedback and was attended by 50 participants. The Network will meet quarterly with our first meeting in June focusing on amplifying the voices of diverse communities.
The carers programme is currently undertaking a scoping exercise to identify current needs to further develop and embed the working carers passport into local organisations building on the successful launch of the initiative across our acute and mental health trusts and the programme being awarded workforce initiative commendation from the HSJ awards in March 2021. Paul Casson will be joining the team in May as workforce/working carers programme manager.
Improving population health programme
Members will discuss a paper to consider a pilot approach for infection prevention control leadership for the Partnership. Also high on the agenda is climate change and options on using national resource earmarked for carbon reduction.
The board includes representatives from public health, VCSE, council and the NHS. Dr James Thomas, Chair of Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group and Robin Tuddenham, CEO for Calderdale Council and Chief Officer for Calderdale Commissioning Group are the board chairs.
Bradford Act as One Festival – line up expands
We are now heading in to the final two weeks of #ActAsOneFest and are delighted to announce that more events have been added to an already exciting calendar, celebrating the great work going on across Bradford District and Craven as well as giving people a chance to shape our thinking on our emerging integrated care partnership.
On Wednesday the theme was health inequalities and included a session joined by Dr Bola Owolabi, Director of Health Inequalities for NHS England and NHS Improvement and Rob Webster, CEO Lead for our Partnership. On 18 May the theme is COVID and there is an opportunity to hear stories from the frontline as well as a session on how our communities came together in response to the pandemic.
The Festival ends on 20 May with a recognition day showcasing projects and teams that are already living the values of Act as One. We will be joined at the event by Chris Hopson, Chief Executive for NHS Providers and Prerana Issar, Chief People Officer for the NHS.
Lots of great events don’t miss out book today and please do give the Act as One Twitter account a follow @ActAsOneBDC
Almost nine out of 10 people with a learning disability get an annual health check in Bradford district and Craven
As a place, Bradford district and Craven have managed to deliver above their planned recovery for 2020-2021, with 88% of people with a learning disability having an annual health check and a further 300 people being added to the learning disability register.
People with a learning disability often have poorer physical and mental health than other people. This does not need to be the case. Annual health checks are for adults and young people aged 14 or over with a learning disability. An annual health check helps people with a learning disability stay well by talking about their health and finding any problems early, so they get the right care. Find out more about how colleagues have lived the values of Act as One to help people by reading this short case study (an easy read version is being developed).
Using education to prepare the clinical workforce to deliver the digital future
The Digital Futures Programme, which offers the opportunity for senior teams across the Partnership, to work together to strengthen the capacity of the NHS and social care workforce is open for applications. Working in partnership with Yale University, USA, this international digital leadership programme will offer a unique learning experience and interaction with top-tier academic and practitioners from both the UK and US. Teams are made up of representatives from health, care and local government to expand thinking from local to global, explore and look for solutions to health and social care problems outside of the local system, and broaden perspectives on the importance of digital. For more info. and to apply see the Health Education England website. The deadline for application is 11 June 2021.