Posted on: 4 June 2021
Hello, I’m Sarah and as I write this from my home office – ok, it’s the dining table – I’m reflecting on the last eight months since taking up my post. The front and centre emotion I feel is one of immense pride at working in this Partnership which is achieving so much during this unprecedented pandemic.
Like many others during this period I started my new role virtually and have had to establish and grow new relationships via MS Teams. I consider myself a ‘people person’ so the prospect of this was quite daunting at first and there’s no question that I felt out of my comfort zone at times. But then I took my cue from the amazing flexibility demonstrated by our incredible workforce every single day and adapted! That doesn’t mean I don’t miss the human connections such as corridor conversations and catch-ups by the tea point and I am acutely aware that, for some, ‘working from home’ can at times be more ‘living at work.’ However, I recognise that I am absolutely blessed to be working with some fantastic colleagues who - representing our whole health and care system – have the common goal of supporting and developing our ‘one workforce’.
Remote working has not been a barrier to that. This has been helped immensely through the leadership of Brendan Brown, the Senior Responsible Officer for the Workforce Programme because of his visible, authentic and consistent commitment to ensuring we are ‘a healthy place to live, a great place to work’ through the work of the People Board.
There are is no doubting the heroic and sustained efforts been made by everyone working in the Partnership’s eco system - health, social care, the voluntary community social enterprise sector (VCSE), unpaid carers and the education sector - whilst responding to COVID-19. However, there is also no doubt of its impact. Many colleagues feel stressed and exhausted and risk burn out.
The vaccination programme, whilst a crucial and hugely important step in our way out of the pandemic, has put additional responsibility on the workforce which is continuing to cope with a spectrum of direct and indirect consequences of COVID-19. Having had the opportunity to contribute to this from a system workforce perspective has given me a humbling insight to this; one which has only increased my admiration of the hard work and commitment from colleagues, including our army of volunteers, as they once more pull together and do what needs to be done to deliver the vaccination programme at pace to help protect our country.
As we now plan for the recovery of services which have been impacted during the pandemic, we risk putting even more pressure on our workforce if staff recovery is not baked into our service recovery plans. Ongoing and sustainable health and wellbeing (HWB) support is critical to building back the resilience of our workforce and therefore it’s our main priority. All the rhetoric around valuing our staff during this period must be demonstrated in the leadership actions we take now to support them as we start to emerge (hopefully) from the pandemic.
Given the pressures on service recovery we know this is not an easy balance to strike.
As a Partnership we have developed a huge amount of health and wellbeing resources, at a West Yorkshire and Harrogate and local place level, and within organisations, to support our workforce during these challenging times. We need to ensure that these become sustainable and the health and wellbeing of our staff and continue to build it into the DNA of our leadership culture. As a system, we are looking at the wide range of HWB offers available to ensure they are open to all sectors, accessible and culturally appropriate.
Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub was launched on the 6 April to support people who work in health, social care service and the VCSE as they deal with the impact of COVID-19. This provides a responsive individual focus for psychological distress. The service is hosted by Bradford District Care Foundation Trust utilising a staff bank model plus call off contracts with local private and VCSE partners.
In the Autumn of 2021/22 we were successful in securing £640K of funding from NHS England / Improvement to develop Enhanced Occupational Health Pilots at system level and in our local places, and we have opportunity to bid for further funding for 2021/22 to achieve spread and scale of these initiatives. There are many great examples, including: Long COVID Support Clinics for staff in Bradford District and Craven; a personalised ‘Physical Wellness Check Programme’ for staff across the Wakefield System, and; Health and wellbeing boost sessions in Calderdale focusing on ‘Eat Well, Sleep Well, Feel Well and Think Well’. Leeds are delivering a three-phase ‘Living Well’ programme designed to educate and support a cohort of health and wellbeing champions operating across all health and care employers across the area and Kirklees are extending the provision of mental health first aid training and access to psychological support to partners organisations. The commitment amongst our partners to support our workforce is clear.
We also recognise the significant contribution and challenges faced by our unpaid carers and working carers during this period. Our funding has been used to invest in HWB resources for this group of people as well as ensure they have equitable access to the breadth of resources available across the system. The Working Carers Passport has been adopted by all the NHS acute hospital trusts and mental health trusts and has the potential to reach 11,500 carers across these organisations.
Our priority now is to implement more widely across the heath and care sector.
The dis-proportionate impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority communities, and therefore a significant proportion of our workforce, is well documented. Many of the recommendations of the independent review carried out by Dame Donna Kinnair last summer relate to workforce which are we committed to progressing and are reporting to our People Board. This includes developing an anti-racism movement /campaign which we hope to launch at the end of August.
The recommendations in the review build on our commitment already made by the Partnership to ensure it is truly inclusive - which means that everyone who works for any of the organisations across West Yorkshire and Harrogate is accepted, respected and celebrated for their differences.
Our Fellowship Programme which aims to increase the percentage of leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds and support aspiring leaders into senior leadership or Board level positions is currently supporting 11 colleagues in senior placements. Our success in developing the Race Equality ‘Network of Networks’, through the leadership and determination of the network convener Fatima Shah-Khan, provides a great opportunity and ‘blue print’ to think about how this model has the potential to be expanded to other staff groups such as gender, LBGTQ+ and disabilities.
We know that the economic impacts of COVID-19 have greatly affected many of our communities, with people experiencing unemployment for the first time and the uncertainty young people face leaving education. The health and care sector is an area of growth and we have a real opportunity to support economic recovery through our approach to career development and recruitment. This means looking beyond the traditional routes into employment and careers and how we can use our levers, such as apprenticeships, more effectively to widen participation to those who might not ordinary be attracted to this sector. I was privileged recently to meet colleagues from Breaking Barriers Innovations - an organisation who are leading a project in Kirklees to support young people into careers in the health and care sector and tackling social isolation. A fantastic aspect of the work of Breaking Barriers is the work they do with young people in the design of career opportunities. I am really excited to learn from this and to look at how we can work with our education sector and anchor institutions to engage with young people to understand how we can best attract and retain them to roles in our sector in the future. Generation ‘Z’ will have different career and life aspirations, ideas of what a ‘good job’ looks like and have greater expectations of their employers so we need to start to prepare for that now!
A key enabler to understanding our future workforce needs and how we plan for them is to have effective workforce planning capability and capacity. We have been fortunate to secure funding through Health Education England (HEE) to drive forward our collaboration with Yorkshire Universities to develop a Health and Care Workforce Observatory across West Yorkshire which will provide greater insight and intelligence to inform future workforce planning. We are also supporting projects to better understand the opportunity and potential that global partnerships have in supporting our workforce development and supply. We are already starting to explore the potential of international partnerships to support workforce challenges in mental health and cancer and will use these as a platform to develop a strategy for global partnerships.
Our partnership with Health Education England (HEE) and the leadership of Kate Holliday (Workforce Transformational Lead) is fundamental to the success in driving forward our workforce transformation programmes. Our integrated approach to working with the HEE team as a West ‘workforce hub’ across our Partnership is central to this.
Looking to the future….
As a Partnership, we’re determined not only to emerge from this pandemic having grown for the better, but to continue to look to the future and the ambitions we have for our people and to ensure the health and care sector is ‘a great place to work’.
We are currently developing the People Plan for West Yorkshire and Harrogate. This will build on the NHS People plan 2021/22 and will be truly representative of our partnership and our ‘one workforce’. This will set out how we will support the entire workforce as we progress with the post pandemic recovery, embedding all the transformational work that has helped us through this period, as well as setting out the longer term ambitions for our people and how we deliver care in the future.
That said, we also need to remember that all of this is happening at a time of significant change for our system with the transition to an integrated care system accountable body from April 2022 as set out in the White Paper. This signals a period of great uncertainty for many colleagues who will need to be supported on this journey. As part of the work to transition to the future we will be working with you all to design and develop the People Function of the Partnership - an opportunity to build on the fantastic work already taking place to develop our workforce capabilities and to deliver our ambitions for our partnership, our communities and our people.
This also brings to my mind the Peter Drucker quote ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’, which I think reminds us how we need to proceed on this journey.
I hope you can all look forward to some well-deserved time off over the coming weeks when the sun will hopefully continue to be shining!
Sarah
What else has been happening this week?
Integrated Stroke Delivery Network Steering Group
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate, Integrated Stroke Delivery Network steering group, met virtually on 5 May. The meeting was chaired by Dr Prabal Datta and was well attended by stroke clinical leads and operational managers from acute trusts, community colleagues, allied health professionals and more.
The steering group were provided with updates on the progress of the patient and carer assurance group induction, telemedicine pilot, Yorkshire Ambulance Service stroke specific improvement plan and the newly developed West Yorkshire and Harrogate stroke dashboard.
The Stroke Association were also in attendance and promoted May as stroke awareness month and highlighted their focus on research, with their ‘Save our Research’ campaign. The steering group will meet again Wednesday 4 August.
GP online consultations
Most GP surgeries in West Yorkshire and Harrogate use GP online consultation offering greater flexibility and choice to patients. We’ve published a special edition of the Digital Programme newsletter to seek support from colleagues to encourage the use of GP online consultation systems in a way that delivers benefits for both patients and practices.
Join Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust's "Rest of England" membership constituency
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust have a large membership community made up of people who live within our local areas in Calderdale and Kirklees. However, they now want to go national, so have introduced a new “Rest of England” constituency. They are looking for members who don’t live in Calderdale and Kirklees but who are interested in the hospital Trust and its activity to join the constituency and get involved. You may live in another part of Yorkshire for example. This fits perfectly in our Partnership approach.
Membership of the Rest of England constituency will be open to anyone who lives outside Calderdale or Kirklees over the age of 16. Joining is really easy – simply visit the ‘About Us’ page at www.cht.nhs.uk – and complete the online form.
The Partnership Board
Our Partnership Board met in public on Tuesday. The meeting was held virtually due to Government social distancing guidelines and to ensure people are not at any unnecessary risk. You can read the papers and watch the film from the meeting on our website.
Chaired by Cllr Tim Swift, Leader of Calderdale Council and Chair of Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board, the meeting focused on the Partnership’s COVID-19 response and recovery including planning and support for minority ethnic communities and staff; health inequalities; support for refugees and asylum seekers and the Government’s national proposals to further join up health and care services.
Several questions were received from the public, including on COVID-19 and health inequalities, independent scrutiny and challenge, provider collaborative, long-COVID, future Board memberships and data. A written response will be provided with questions and answers shared on our website.
Board members heard about the work of SOLACE in reducing health inequalities for refugees and asylum seekers, including the project funded by the Partnership’s Health Inequalities Grant Fund to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of refugees and asylum seekers. The work of the partnership has had a major impact on the lives of those they help and support. COVID-19 has resulted in fear and raised anxiety levels, with people saying they felt scared by not having a full understanding of the situation. Most activities stopped during lockdown. This led to people feeling abandoned and isolated. Solace therapists gave advice about setting a route or a time limit to build confidence for venturing outside. They provided links to walking groups who provided safe routes.
Clinical Forum
The Clinical Forum met virtually on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by Dr James Thomas, Clinical Chair for Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group. Forum members include medical directors, GPs, pharmacists, allied health professionals, lead nurses and NHS England/Improvement (NHS E /I) colleagues.
Members discussed preparation for the White Paper proposal arrangements coming into force from April 2022 and the importance of strong clinical and professional leadership. NHS England/Improvement have committed to the development of cardiac networks during 2021/22 and described a set of priorities for these networks, which will ensure the longer-term aim of developing strategic networks. Forum members discussed the next steps. There was also a conversation on national initiatives to support people experiencing long-term health conditions because of the pandemic.
Health and Care Champions
Our Health and Care Champions have been working hard on several projects for the Partnership programmes. You can read their latest update report here. Co-lead for the Health and Care Champions Project, Kelly Hartley has provided a video recording of what the Champions have told us about professional boundaries in the workplace. You can watch Kelly's video on YouTube and read more about the Health and Care Champions and see examples of their work on the Partnership website.
Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub
The Hub hosted a Summit event last week attended by 80 people from workforce, HR and organisational development roles across our partner organisations. Staff wellbeing is a high priority across our Partnership, recognising that COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the lives of health and care workers (whether front line or not), with high levels of burn out, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, grief/loss and frustration.
The Centre for Mental Health reports that “almost 20% of the population will need either new or additional mental health support as a direct consequence of the crisis”. Our CEO Lead, Rob Webster, shared his personal reflections of the pandemic with delegates in a moving presentation and a series of breakout sessions delivered substantial insights that will help us to refine the Hub offering and identify solutions. You can find out more about the Hub on our website and watch the Hub animated video on YouTube
Respiratory Quality Improvement Programme for primary care healthcare colleagues in West Yorkshire and Harrogate
Register for an innovative free programme supported by a dynamic, pioneering web platform that provides primary care professionals, such as GPs and nurses, in West Yorkshire and Harrogate with the resources and education to improve patient outcomes. The programme helps to shape patients’ outcomes by everyone:
- Knowing: The platform contains the most up to date pathways, guidelines, and resources
- Learning: An education library that contains TV shows, tutorials and videos delivered by national and local experts
- Assessments: To test your knowledge … all supported by local tutors
- Doing: A series of Quality Improvement (QI) projects
You can find out more at wyh.icst.org.uk
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity System Programme Board
The Partnership’s Local Maternity System Programme Board met on 21 May. It was Chaired by Anne-Marie Henshaw, Senior Responsible Officer for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity System and Director of Midwifery and Women’s Health at Mid Yorkshire Teaching Hospitals Trust. Karen Poole, Programme Director for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity System, gave a presentation on the maternity requirements of the Operational Planning Guidance for 2021/2022 this included an analysis of the work that needs to be carried out. The funding allocation to undertake this work was discussed and the Board agreed the process of allocating the funding on a fair share basis.
The Board members were given assurance that the Ockenden recommendations were being implemented in hospital trusts and in the Local Maternity System/Integrated Care System. The Local Maternity System Board agreed to a new term of reference that now includes their new quality surveillance remit. It was recognised that significant time and dedication has gone into responding to these recommendations. System working continues to be strengthened and the Board were pleased to hear that the Band 5 recruitment process had gone well.
The Newly Qualified Midwives will have the Local Maternity System Preceptorship Package Programme to support them in their new roles. The next Board Meeting will take place on 16 August 2021.
Racial inequalities training
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership working alongside the Race Equalities Network are on a journey to become an anti-racist system and to reduce the health inequalities that exist within society, help educate and raise awareness and be a catalyst for positive change. A suite of training is now available on the partnership website and builds on a Black History Month workshop hosted with our senior leaders last year. This training is accessible for colleagues, partners and beyond at no cost, and all that we require is a personal pledge. The training modules provide an opportunity to build a better understanding of key issues in a safe space where we can critically challenge our own beliefs and biases in efforts to reduce the everyday discrimination faced by our colleagues from ethnic minorities. View the advert here
People of West Yorkshire and Harrogate urged to support the NHS by choosing the right care at the right time in the right place
Our Partnership is asking people, before visiting emergency departments (also referred to as A&Es) or requesting an urgent GP appointment, to think about which service is right for them. This helps us ensure that the most poorly people in our community are receiving the right care when they need it. Over recent weeks emergency departments across the area have seen a very high demand in terms of people attending and seeking treatment for minor conditions, a significant proportion of which did not require emergency or life-saving treatment. This makes it challenging for staff to identify those most in need of urgent help.
Dr Richard Keeble, clinical director for emergency medicine at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said:
“I would urge everyone to think carefully before coming to A&E. Members of the public can help by making sure that if they do choose to come to A&E for treatment, that it is the best place for them to go to get the right care, as soon as possible. Our Emergency Department is for accidents and emergencies only, such as severe chest pain, difficulty breathing, significant head injuries and broken bones. The most urgent and life-threatening cases take priority, which means that people coming in with less urgent issues are likely to experience longer waiting times. Using an alternative to A&E when you aren’t seriously ill is likely to mean that you end up waiting less time and receive more suitable care.”
If people are unsure what help they need, the NHS is asking them to visit the NHS website www.nhs.uk as some conditions can be managed by seeking advice online. NHS 111 online (www. 111.nhs.uk) will direct them to the right service or advise on self-care for their needs. 111 can also be called from a phone for urgent advice, but not a health emergency. 111 is also the number to call for minor injuries – such as a cut, sprain or burn – where appointments may be made at an urgent treatment centre or minor injuries unit. Throughout the pandemic and subsequent vaccination programme, GP practices have been working hard to ensure patients, particularly those who are vulnerable, get the care they need.
Dr Adam Sheppard, Chair of NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group and West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Urgent and Emergency Care Programme Board, said
“For all patients needing medical care, practices will continue to provide this in the most clinically appropriate way, through a combination of telephone, online and face to face appointments. By doing so, we can ensure even more patients get the care they need. Practices are currently busier than ever, and phone lines are exceptionally busy. We understand that this can be frustrating but please be patient. Our staff are working very hard to deal with everyone.”
Read more about choosing the right care at the the right time at the right place.
Pathology laboratory
Work on a new purpose-built, dedicated pathology laboratory at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds has begun with the demolition of old buildings to pave the way for the new facility.
Once up and running, the new £27m facility will serve hospitals across Leeds, West Yorkshire and Harrogate. Preparation of the site continues, with construction due to start later this year and the new facility completed in the Spring of 2023.
You can hear more about the project, including demolition footage, in this short video or read the news online.