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.
There are an estimated 260,000 unpaid carers living in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, including children and young people caring for parents with long-term health conditions.
For the latest information about coronavirus (Covid-19) and how it affects carers, please visit the dedicated page on the Carers UK website at: carersuk.org/help-and-advice/health/looking-after-your-health/coronavirus-covid-19
The Children’s Society has developed some resources, advice and information for young carers and professionals during Covid-19.
The programme has developed My Coronavirus/Covid-19 'Plan B' which will help you to think about the different ways and people that can help you in an emergency if you look after someone who couldn’t manage without your support.
Our Working carers and Covid-19 web-based resource has been developed to help unpaid carers who work, look after the person they care for, and themselves, during these unprecedented times. It covers: money worries; your rights as an employee; looking after your mental and physical health; healthy eating; looking after the person you care for; looking after children's mental and physical health; and trying to get back to 'normal'.
Whether you're finding yourself in a caring role for the first time, or you're just looking for some additional information or advice, at West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership we are working hard to ensure you feel supported.
The programme has created a Carers Toolkit offering guidance and support, along with useful resources to encourage you to think about your Plan B.
Around 1/9 people in general employment, 1/7 in civil service staff and working 1/5 NHS staff are juggling work with caring.
The scheme provides a straightforward way to document flexibility and support so it can be carried into an employee’s future roles, without having to repeat the same conversations.
Many carers are ‘hidden’ and provide the majority of care without formal support. Being a carer can be stressful and have a major impact on your health, relationships, education and employment. With this in mind we are working with NHS England to ensure that identifying carers and supporting them is further embedded within our work. This includes developing ways to support the existing and future workforce who balance caring responsibilities, signposting and identifying service standards for all organisations – not just in the public sector.
Read more about our approach to improve the support for unpaid carers in West Yorkshire and Harrogate in our strategy document, 'Caring for Carers'.
You can view the programme's response to the Carers UK report 'Caring behind closed doors during Covid-19' here.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate carers resources are being shared nationally. This includes the working carers passport via NHS England and NHS Improvement and e-learning Resources developed specifically for carers developed by Health Education England.
Although caring can be rewarding, there is substantial evidence that carers have poorer physical and mental health than those who are not caring, and that the more care you provide the more likely you are to have poorer health.
For many carers, the biggest priority is the health and wellbeing of those they care for and as such they are more likely to neglect their own health and are known to put off treatment for themselves. – with this in mind we are working closely with primary care professionals, including GPs and practice nurses to give carers the support they need.
NHS England and Improvement have created guidance with practical ideas that have been developed in partnership with carers, primary care teams and other key stakeholders. Collectively, these provide a framework for improving how general practice can better identify and support carers of all ages.
You can find out more about the Primary Care Quality Markers here.
As part of the programmes communication and engagement strategy, system leaders from across the Voluntary and Community Sector, Local Authority, NHS Acute Trusts and primary care are invited to make a pledge to better support unpaid carers within their organisations in line with national care awareness days.
Carers Rights Day 2019
Carers Week 2020
Young Carers Awareness Day 2020
Carers Rights Day 2020
As the pandemic has progressed, it has become clear that in addition to some people experiencing the death of people they care about, or care for, 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, 7 days a week and online chat facility.
More information about how to access the service.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership want to develop a mechanism that engages young people with the health and care sector to inspire them to pursue a career in the sector. And to help raise the aspirations of young carers by helping them to idenitfy and recognise their own skills and showcasing work opportunities and the diversity of roles available to them.
The Partnership commissioned Ahead Partnership to help them support one of the workforce recommendations set out in their strategy to 'increase the number of people training to work in health and social care role across West Yorkhsire and Harrogate'.
An engagement event took place on Tuesday 25 June 2019 at 3M Buckley Innovation Centre in Huddersfield. 31 young people attended the event which provided an opportunity for young carers from across Kirklees and Calderdale to come together.
You can read the report of findings here.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership held an event on Thursday 4 April with over 100 delegates, including carers and carer organisation representatives to discuss how the NHS Long Term Plan can support better outcomes for unpaid carers across the area.
The event brought together a range of local people, carers and health and social care professionals to seek their views. This will help align the West Yorkshire and Harrogate carers’ strategy with the Long Term Plan.
You can view the presentations from the Long Term Plan event here.
Report of findings from our Long Term Plan unpaid carers engagement event held in April 2019
You Said We Did
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Parternship (WY&H HCP) shared their vision and aspirations for unpaid carers, including young carers living across the area at an event in Leeds.
Over 60 health and care professonals working in primary care including GP practices, social care and the community sector attended the event to find out how they can contribute to the WY&H HCP vision for unpaid carers. The event, supported by NHS England, focused on improving the quality of life and well-being of the 260,000 carers living across the area.
Working in parternership with Carers Trust, Carers UK, The Childrens Society, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England have developed voluntary quality markers for GP practices, based on what cares have said matters most to them. The CQC have also endorsed the quality markers as a model of good practice and will be looking how these markers from part of future assessments.
Event speakers included David Ross, NHS England Patient Experience, Dr Gordon Sinclair, Clinical Lead of Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group and Fatima Khan Shah, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Carer Programme Lead.
You can find the presentations here and read the report of findings here.
You can read an update on the work of West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership programme for unpaid carers here.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate, Health and Care Partnership shared their vision and aspirations for the 260,000 unpaid carers, including young carers, living across the area at a special event in Wakefield on Thursday 14 December 2017. Over 60 representatives from voluntary and community organisations including, Carers Count, Carers Wakefield and District, Carers Leeds and Carers Resource attended the event supported by health services, local councils and Carers UK to find out how they can contribute to the WY&H vision for unpaid carers and share good practice. Guest speakers on the day included Rob Webster, Emily Holzhausen OBE from Carers UK, Fatima Khan-Shah, Partnership Lead for Carers and Neil Churchill from NHS England. Read more here. You can also view the event presentations here presentations here and view the event findings report on our 'Get involved / engagement section'. To support this work we also wanted to gain an understanding of the organisations across West Yorkshire and Harrogate that provide support for unpaid carers. A mapping exercise was undertaken and this report provides a summary of that exercise.
