Our Partnership is made up of organisations working closely together to plan services and address the challenges facing health and care services across the area.
In this section you will find links to useful information and publications about our partnership.
We are committed to meaningful conversations with people, on the right issues at the right time. We believe this is an important part of the way we work.
Engagement gives people an opportunity to have their say on services. By gathering people's views, it helps us understand what matters to people.
In this section you will find all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to our Partnership. You can also ask a question of your own.
At the launch of our Health Inequalities Academy from 3 to 5 February 2021, you'll hear from local and national speakers about the work taking place, before and during Covid-19, to address health inequalities. You can read more about the Academy, and the launch event on our Health Inequalities Academy page.
2020 has been an unprecedented year for people’s health and wellbeing. The pandemic has brought a sharper focus on inequalities in our society and a demand for work at scale and at pace to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged – to consider what’s good for all folk. The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Improving Population Health Programme has been in the vanguard of a collaborative movement in the region to identify opportunities and mobilise projects that will make a real difference.
The Programme’s first Annual Report provides a digest of the year’s work, case studies and a look ahead to what’s planned for 2021/22.
You can read more about the report here and a news release about the Report here.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership are delighted to allocate over £500,000 to thirteen voluntary and community organisations across the area. The funds will be used to support community organisations, working together with health partners, to support those that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Following an assessment with input from a number of perspectives, including public health, community sector, and partnership colleagues, final decisions were reached.
We now know that COVID 19 is not just an acute disease. Some people suffer from persistent and fluctuating symptoms or complications. These can continue for many weeks, or even months, after presumed or confirmed initial COVID 19 infection. This is called Long Covid, post-acute or chronic Covid.
We are working as a Partnership to bring together information about the resources and services available across West Yorkshire and Harrogate for staff caring for people suffering from Long Covid. You can find out more here.
As the pandemic has progressed, it has become clear that in addition to some people experiencing the death of family and friends in difficult and painful circumstances, many are feeling the impact of a loss of a way of life, normal contact opportunities, social and work interactions. Restrictions may also mean that the usual practical and emotional support people can physically get from family, friends, faith groups, community groups during difficult times may not be there.
The WY&H HCP Grief and Loss Service aims to bolster the local place offer by offering information and advice and, where appropriate, signposting into local place based services for specific counselling or other support.
The service is a free telephone helpline that operates 8am-8pm on 0808 196 3833, 7 days a week, and an online chat facility.
More information about how to access the service.
This new report and the work undertaken to gather the supporting information within, was prepared and developed prior to COVID-19. Unfortunately, as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the publication and launch of the report was delayed until October 2020.
The pandemic has resulted in a significant impact on the housing sector. In August 2020, the Health Foundation reported that the impact of housing on health is likely to have been greater than ever during the lockdown period. They reference research published by the National Housing Federation from June 2020 which indicates 31% of Adults in the UK had experienced mental or physical health problems linked to the condition of their home or their lack of space.
Furthermore, the recent publication “Homes, Health and Covid-19” by the Centre for Ageing Better and The King’s Fund (September 2020) highlights around one in five excess deaths during winter are attributed to cold housing. It goes on to report that should social distancing measures continue through winter, the impact on of fuel poverty on both physical and mental health could potentially escalate and that spending extended periods exposed to damp or mouldy conditions is “likely to exacerbate or induce respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, in turn increasing the risk of contracting COVID-19”
The same report highlights the significant impact of overcrowding and the associated, increased risk of viral transmission. The report by the Health Foundation reaffirms the importance of reducing overcrowding, and mitigating housing insecurity to help meet the health needs of our population in the years to come. Research by Shelter produced in June 2020 indicates the UK can expect to see 218,000 fewer homes being built over the next five years in comparison to Government targets prior to the pandemic and 4,600 fewer homes for social rent.
The importance of our housing initiatives across West Yorkshire and Harrogate will be crucial in supporting our health economy. The Covid-19 pandemic has put the basic need for good quality housing and support to sustain a decent home, in the spotlight. The Partnership’s report’ Housing for Health’ provides an opportunity to accelerate and develop our shared learning and adopt best practice across our geography. This in turn will help address inequalities and improve the standard of living for people living across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
We will be using the learning from this report to develop our system-wide work plans and progress our ambitions.
In 2020, we held our first Climate Change Summit to explore how the Partnership can work to reduce the effects of climate change and prepare for its impacts across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. At the summit, three schemes were announced as part of the Climate Change programme.
In October 2020, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership Review into the impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities and support needed for Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and colleagues published its report setting out the critical next steps.
The review panel sessions, chaired by Professor Dame Donna Kinnair, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, a leading figure in national health and care policy, included West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership leaders, members of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership BAME Network and voluntary and community sector partners.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership has set 10 Big Ambitions to improve health in our region. Several of these have a focus on reducing health inequalities.
We have identified key population groups through the Health Inequalities Network for a targeted approach to improving outcomes and reducing health inequalities.
COVID-19 has brought our work on health inequalities into sharp focus, and has led us to consider wider population groups that have been disproportionately affected by the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic.
The Health Inequalities Prevention Pathway (HIPP) framework has been developed to break down high level partnership ambitions into specific objectives and preventive actions. We can learn from the inequalities that have been exacerbated by COVID-19 to better understand for the future about how we can target preventative interventions to improve health outcomes.
The Improving Population Health programme is developing HIPP pathways for a range of priority population groups, including people with severe mental illness, people with learning disability, and people from BAME communities.
The second in a series of virtual events for colleagues and other stakeholders from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate to talk about community resilience before, during Covid-19 and moving forward was held on 9 October 2020, and celebrated community resilience around the world.
Find out more on the Harnessing the power of communities programme page.
Improving health and wellbeing is at the very heart of the partnership and we are working with people, communities and organisations to seize new opportunities for improving health.
We are working with partners to reduce health inequalities due to social, geographical or other barriers and by addressing some of the preventable differences that contribute to inequality; we are tackling the unjust differences in life expectancy which exist across our area.
For example, people with learning disabilities have worse mental and physical health than people without, and we are working with people with learning disabilities so they can become health and care champions for our priority programmes including cancer, mental health, maternity care, and hospitals working together.
Our environment has causal links to health and it is our ambition to work with all key organisations, sectors and communities, particularly around preventing ill health and promoting wellbeing.
Our aim is to increase the years of life that people live in good health across West Yorkshire and Harrogate compared to the rest of England. We will reduce the gap in life expectancy between the people living in our most deprived and least deprived communities by 5% by 2024, reducing the gap by six months of life for men and five months of life for women.
This presentation uses 100 people to represent the 2.7 million people who live in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
West Yorkers presentation
We know that hospitals and healthcare professionals are not alone in keeping people well. Where people live, their homes, the community environment, family support and the life choices they can make are vital.
The role of voluntary and community organisations (also known as the third sector) is vital, no matter what their size. From the very smallest volunteer-led community group, to the largest not-for-profit organisation, they enable people to take collective action on issues that matter to them. A thriving third sector is vital for our health and care system, as they often have established high levels of trust with people who may have faced multiple barriers when accessing statutory services. They have a strong empathy and knowledge of the people and diverse communities they serve. They are often rooted in that community or work in ways that empower people to bring about their own lasting change.
People living in areas with the most disadvantages are more likely to have a long term illness or to have been diagnosed with lung cancer. They are also more likely to be living with risk factors such as smoking. In May 2019, the partnership launched a quit smoking “Don’t be the 1” campaign. It delivered hard-hitting messages that at least one in two long-term smokers will die from long-term tobacco smoking. The campaign, which sign-posted smokers to support services, was balanced with a positive, empowering call to action that if you quit you can reduce those risks.
By improving walkways, promoting active travel and investing in local food growing, we can improve population health. The Leeds City Region is committed to being a zero carbon economy and sees the health and care sector as a key partner in achieving this vision. Across the Partnership we are working to reduce single use plastics in hospitals and care homes, reducing transport costs and cutting carbon emissions by the use of smarter technology.
More than 200,000 people are at risk of diabetes in West Yorkshire and Harrogate. Our aspiration as a system is that 50% of these people are offered diabetes prevention support and we have local teams in each of our six places who are already working hard to help people take control of their health and make the most of the support that is available.
All our work is informed by knowledge from local people and places. We are bringing data together to identify ways to improve services for specific groups of people.
By using data, we can better understand the inequalities within our communities and anticipate patterns of behaviour.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership is committed to helping its partners in Primary Care Networks to develop their population health management work.
For example, in Leeds, we analysed data to learn more about which groups of people living with frailty would be most likely to benefit from improved care. The results identified a man who was at high risk of hospital admission and by using the data, health and care professionals worked with his family to develop a new advanced care plan. The plan enabled the man to spend the final months of his life at home rather than in a hospital bed giving comfort to both the man and his family.
Most importantly, by working together, we will have the chance to create the conditions so that children get the best start in life and everyone’s chance of living a long, healthy life improves.
In this eppisode of the We Work Together podcast, Sarah Smith (Partnership programme lead for improving population health), talks with Robin Tuddenham, CEO for Calderdale Council, and Dr James Thomas, Chair of NHS Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group. Robin and James are joint senior responsible officers for the Partnership’s Population Health programme. As well as the podcast's usual focus on leadership, there is discussion on the wider determinants of health such as housing, homelessness and climate emergency, and how we can do more to listen to our communities.
