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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
