Hello my name is Suzanne

I am one of three co-chairs [the other two are Anne-Marie Henshaw, Head of Midwifery, Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust; and Carol McKenna, CEO for Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group and North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group] for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Local Maternity System Board

Over the coming months you will start to hear more about the Local Maternity Systems (LMS’s) which have been established, in line with Sustainability Transformation Partnership (STP) areas, to implement a Maternity Transformation Plan as set out in ‘Better Births’ by the end of 2020/21. 

The programme management function of the WY&H LMS transferred to the WY&H HCP from 1 April 2018. Karen Poole leads on this work supported by Sonya Ainley, our project officer. We are also recruiting for two senior midwives, a public health specialist to work on the prevention agenda, a data analyst and a business apprentice. 

In delivering the Maternity Transformation Programme the values of ‘Better Births’ need to be embedded.  These are:

  • Make safety a thread running through everything
  • Put women their partners and families at the centre of care
  • Seek to give babies the best start in life
  • Work on a multi-professional basis and across boundaries
  • Value our staff
  • Listen and build consensus
  • Share best practice
  • Learn from what does not work
  • Empower and support local change

The seven themes of Better Births are:

  • Personalised Care
  • Safer Care
  • Continuity of Carer
  • Better Postnatal and Perinatal Mental Healthcare
  • Working across boundaries
  • Multi-professional working
  • Payment system 

Our vision of the WY&H LMS is to ensure women, their babies and their families can access the services they choose and need, as close to home as possible.

The role of LMS’s is to bring together providers involved in maternity and neonatal care including the ambulance service and independent midwifery practices.  It is also important that the services are co-designed with women, their partners and communities.

One of the aims is to have one system with one ambition.  Infrastructure will be put into place to support services to enable them to work together.  New approaches to commissioning services will be developed that span organisational and service boundaries. Services will be commissioned that support personalisation, safety and choice.  The LMS will be performance measured as a system rather than a place.

LMS’s across the country are at different places and will work at different paces.  However, what they will all do is provide the opportunity to do something different locally to meet the needs of their work force and people using services. A key part of this is working closely with NHS England Clinical Network.

We have made considerable progress since we developed our LMS programme – namely having people who access services at the heart of the plan we have produced. This has been seen as national good practice by NHS England. You can view our programme plan here

There is also good recognition of the excellent demonstration of partnership working, locally regionally and nationally that has been included into the work carried out with all our colleagues and stakeholders.

Naturally there are always areas where further work is needed – and ours are around finance and continuity of care, these are challenges for all LMSs across the country.

The challenge now begins as the programme moves into the implementation stage.

To find out more watch this film where Carol McKenna explains the work of our LMS in more detail.

Have a good weekend

Suzanne

 

What else has been happening this week? 

Stroke stakeholder event

Over fifty people attended a stakeholder event in Leeds on Wednesday 30 May organised by our Partnership and facilitated by The Consultation Institute.

In 2015/16 there were 3,600 strokes in West Yorkshire and Harrogate. The Partnership’s ambition is to have fewer stroke across the area, more lives saved and improved recovery outcomes.

In view of this, work has taken place cross West Yorkshire and Harrogate to look at improving the quality of care and recovery for people who have had a stroke. This includes preventing stroke happening in the first place, improving specialist care, making the most of technology and valuable skilled workforce – and connected high quality rehabilitation.

The aim of the event was to ask people who have had a stroke, their carers and community organisations, including charities such as the Stroke Association, Age UK and The British Heart Foundation for their views on how specialist stroke care (the care people receive in the first few hours and days after having a stroke) could be further improved to ensure services are fit for the future.

The event hosted by the Partnership’s stroke programme members, which includes doctors, ambulance services and public health colleagues, gave people an update on the work to date including findings from a stakeholder event in February and workshops held in March across the area in Bradford, Brighouse, Harrogate, Leeds and Wakefield. You can read the reports here

The findings included the need to look at preventing stroke happening in the first place, returning as close to home as soon as possible and seamless access to rehabilitation after a stroke; the important role of community and voluntary organisations; and travel time to specialist centres in the first few hours after having a stroke.

Discussions at the event included the need to recruit and retain specialist staff, ambulance travel times, people’s experiences and carers support – both practical and emotional.

You can read more about the event here.

 

Public health meeting

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Public Health Coordination Group met on Wednesday. The meeting is chaired by Dr Ian Cameron, Director for Public Health, Leeds City Council. The group discussed housing and health, stroke, alcohol and improved outcomes for people with CVD and diabetes. 

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance update

Proposals to change the role, responsibilities and structure of our Cancer Alliance Board – agreed previously by the Joint Committee of Clinical Commissioning Groups and also the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts – were approved at the Board’s May meeting. These will provide a clearer line of sight between the programme leadership and management and local places.  Chief Executives and Accountable Officers in local places are now being asked to agree representation on the newly-constituted Board.

NHS England has now agreed to draw up a transformation funding financial agreement with the Alliance for 2018/2019 based on reprioritised plans for both Early Diagnosis and Living With and Beyond Cancer transformation funding. However, the funding remains linked to the Alliance-wide performance against the 62-day cancer waiting times standard, and therefore the momentum around this work must be maintained, with the Alliance working closely with colleagues across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

The Alliance Tobacco Advisory Board met for the first time this week. The Board is chaired by Dr Ian Cameron, Director of Public Health at Leeds City Council and head of our Health and Care Partnership Prevention at Scale work programme, which includes a workstream around tackling harm from tobacco. The Board also includes Alliance Lead, Professor Sean Duffy;  Martin Barkley, Chief Executive, and Jay Naik, Consultant in Medical Oncology, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust; Scott Crosby, Public Health England Health and Wellbeing Programme Manager; Stacey Arnold of Cancer Research UK, and Leah Houlton of Yorkshire Cancer Research.  The Board agreed to do further scoping work on priorities, particularly with regard to the role of all health professionals in supporting and signposting smokers to specialist stop smoking services – the most successful way to quit.

Professor Duffy was due to present proposals for the Tackling Lung Cancer (TLC) programme to a development session of Bradford’s Health and Wellbeing Board yesterday (31st May) – designated by the World Health Organisation as World No Tobacco Day. TLC Programme Manager Hazel Taylor and Project Manager Chris Hunton are now in post, and a second Project Manager post is out to advert, closing date 4th June.

 

What’s happening next week? 

  • On Monday our Shadow System Leadership Executive Group meets
  • The Clinical Forum meets on Tuesday
  • Our Joint Committee of the nine CCGs meets in public on Tuesday.  The Committee aims to further improve the health and wellbeing of the 2.6 million people living across the area. Find out more at https://bitly.im/4PI6w
  • The System Leadership Executive Group meets on Tuesday.