Posted on: 15 March 2019
This week’s leadership message comes from Brent Kilmurray, CEO for Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Hello my name is Brent,
It is now a little over six months since I came to work in West Yorkshire and Harrogate as Chief Executive of Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust. You have all been very welcoming and I am now starting to establish my networks and settling into my role within the Trust, Bradford and Craven, and the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (also known as an Integrated Care System). In my previous role I had the privilege of being part of three sustainability transformation partnerships (including WY&H) and from working across all three, W&H is further on its journey with a clear vision and plan, and the strongest partnership working arrangements.
I am looking forward to the next few months where we will see the Partnership’s clinical strategy broadening to further include mental health, learning disabilities and autism and similarly the development of our response to the NHS Long Term Plan. This will be a great systems’ level opportunity to demonstrate that there is a good balance in our Partnership thinking about how these aspects of people’s lives sit alongside physical health. It has been encouraging in joining this Partnership that the balance of representation and airtime for these areas has been carefully considered and we have every opportunity to work towards “parity of esteem”. This will become ever more opportune as acute trusts and other providers start to work towards their responsibilities, as set out in the Long Term Plan, to continue to do more to make appropriate and reasonable adjustments to meet the needs of those with learning disabilities and autism.
Our Trust is also part of the Partnership’s Mental Health Collaborative which is already well established and there are some significant pieces of work underway. We’ve already established a strong track record of working closely together on Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and eating disorders, and sharing good practice on reducing out-of-area placements. This work continues with important decisions on assessment and treatment unit (ATU) provision for people with learning disabilities across the region. This work aims to create a high quality, financially sustainable model that delivers on the national transforming care policy so that more people are living in their communities, with the appropriate health and social care support, to maximise their independence.
One of the stand-out features of the WY&H Partnership is the emphasis on subsidiarity - so the Partnership only leads on areas that can’t be done on a local level - and the priority given to community partnerships. Bradford and Craven is doing lots at a place level to enable the 13 community partnerships here to set their priorities and establish governance and delivery arrangements that are owned and facilitated by local organisations, involving a range of local health, care, community and VCS organisations. Most of the community partnerships in Bradford and Craven are making good progress, working on issues as diverse as social isolation and diabetes, and involve staff from our community physical and mental health teams. As a District-wide organisation we need to consider how we can best support these locally driven entities, but it’s right that we are thinking and working differently so that our services meet local communities’ needs. Primary care colleagues are central to this and, as the main provider of local NHS community services, I am looking forward to working with colleagues from primary care and the community partnerships to make sense of the new primary care contract and consider how we provide the necessarily responsive service, whilst maintaining our economies of scale, high standards of governance and access to the skills and capabilities needed to work across community partnerships. The breadth of our mental health, adult physical and children’s services brings a range of perspectives to this work, so it’s exciting times in this part of our Trust as well.
I’ve joined Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust after a period of success for the Trust in developing strong partnerships in the delivery of care. A great example being the development of our acute mental health pathway and establishing the First Response Service, that gives phone access to highly skilled mental health professionals that’s now taking over 5,000 calls per month, resulting in telephone consultations, a visit from our intensive home treatment team or a referral to one of our excellent VCS partners where they can meet with peer workers or receive one-to-one support in a less clinical setting. The impact of this has been extremely positive, seeing a huge reduction in the numbers of service users that are admitted out of area from Bradford and Craven – something that was a significant issue a few years ago.
The Partnership has made a short film (you can also scroll down to watch the film on this page below my blog) about how it works and the benefits. Further work across the whole pathway is now happening to strengthen our community provision and provide a more therapeutic hospital environment, but ensuring that people are only in hospital for as long as they need to be, to better support individual’s recovery and wellbeing, ideally in or close to home.
There’s much to look forward to over the next six months, once we have come through our Brexit planning and as a Trust, our forthcoming well led CQC inspection in April! There is a lot to be proud of across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, equally so in Bradford and Craven District. It is clear that the level of ambition matches what local people deserve and I know that colleagues from across all agencies in the partnership are keen to change the way we work and do everything we can to deliver on this to improve patient care.
Have a great weekend
Brent
What else has been happening this week?
Our Partnership Board
As part of establishing our new Partnership Board we are seeking four co-opted members to attend meetings and take part in relevant patient and public involvement networks. The board will be responsible for setting out the direction of travel and providing oversight for all Partnership business. It will meet in public for the first time in June. You can find out more here. Please share with people who may be interested.
NHS Long Term Plan
We are updating our website with work taking place across the area on the development of the Partnership’s five year plan. The Partnership’s plan will set out our ambitions for the next five years and also identify any work needed to align to the NHS Long Term Plan. It will build on our work to date and will be a refresh of our ‘Next Steps to Better Health and Care for Everyone’. You can find out more here.
NHS Long Term Plan – Healthwatch support
Engagement colleagues are working with Healthwatch partners to ask people for their views on the development of the Partnership’s five year plan in response to the NHS Long Term Plan.
Healthwatch have been commissioned by NHS England to coordinate and support some initial engagement work. They will be coordinating two surveys and local focus groups / events across our area.
You can access the ‘What would you do’ generic survey here. There is also a survey on long term health conditions which you can access here. The closing date for both surveys is 3 May 2019.
- Digital resources to support #WhatWouldYouDo are available here.
Two focus groups / events will also take place in our six local areas (Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield). Themes for discussion include ‘personalisation’ and ‘digitalisation’ and what this means to people.
Healthwatch will submit a report to NHS England at the end of June, with findings from the survey and focus groups/events. A copy of the report will be made available on local Healthwatch, and the Partnership’s websites once complete.
This important work will help us to identify future areas of engagement at a local and regional level and will complement the work already taking place, as set out in our engagement and consultation mapping work. You can read last year’s publication here and an updated version will be available soon. We will continue to keep you updated as the work develops.
Implementing the NHS Long Term Plan: Proposals for possible changes to legislation
NHS England are inviting patients, NHS staff, partner organisations and interested members of the public to give their views on potential proposals for changing current primary legislation relating to the NHS.
The success of the NHS Long Term Plan depends on the collective will to change the NHS for the better and improve services for everyone working in them and using them.
It’s possible to implement the NHS Long Term Plan without new primary legislation, but changes could make implementation easier and faster. Local NHS bodies need to be better able to work together to redesign care around patients, and the same is also true for the national bodies. And the rules and processes for procurement, pricing and mergers create unnecessary bureaucracy that gets in the way of enabling integration of care.
NHS England have outlined eight groups of suggested legislative changes in the NHS Long Term Plan and are now setting out further detail. It is based on what they’ve heard from the public, clinicians, NHS leaders and partner organisations, as well as national professional and representative bodies, and it is intended to better enable NHS organisations to work collectively. These proposals are designed to solve specific practical problems that the NHS faces and avoid creating operational distraction. We are collating a West Yorkshire and Harrogate response.
You can read more here and also take part and ensure your voice is heard by completing the short survey which is available online here.
National Workforce Implementation Plan: emerging priorities and actions
Following the recent publication of the NHS Long Term Plan, we have been asked, alongside other Partnerships (also known as STPs, and integrated care systems) for our views on the interim Workforce Implementation Plan.
The Plan will be published in early April and will include a 2019/20 action plan together with a more detailed vision of how our workforce will transform over the next ten years. A full implementation plan will follow within two months of the conclusion of the Comprehensive Spending Review. The response is being led by West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Workforce Action Board and will include views on the ability to recruit and retain staff by making the NHS a better place to work; skill mix, new types of roles and different ways of working. We will keep you updated.
Organisations are also invited to submit their own responses. You can find out more here.
Launch of the Partnership’s ‘Looking out for our neighbours’ campaign
Today we see the launch of our first Partnership campaign to help prevent loneliness and social isolation in communities.
Backed by MP Jo Cox’s sister and supported by around 300 organisations and community champions, the ‘Looking out for our neighbours’ campaign, which covers Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, encourages people to do simple things to look out for one another to help improve the wellbeing of other local residents.
Our campaign hopes to inspire people to reach out to those who live alone or might need help, and encourage them to do simple things for them that will make a real difference to their wellbeing. This could be anything from picking up some shopping to something as easy as just saying “hello” next time they see their neighbours.
The regional campaign launched at the Carnegie Stadium, Leeds, home to Leeds Rhinos and included Rob Webster, our CEO Partnership Lead; Kim Leadbeater, MP Jo Cox’s sister and Ambassador for The Jo Cox Foundation as well as Gary Hetherington, Chief Executive of Leeds Rhinos Foundation and Jamie Jones- Buchanan, Leeds Rhinos, and England Rugby League Player.
Local area campaign launches also took place in all local areas. This included the ‘We are Calderdale’ conference. There is also a short film clip here of Kim Leadbeater, Jo’s sister, Jo Cox Foundation recorded at the conference.
The campaign will run across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, having been designed with the input of over 100 residents across the region. 30,000 neighbourhood packs have been localised and shared across the area. This includes a range of resources to inspire and encourage residents to champion togetherness in their area and look out for a neighbour in need.
For those who don’t receive a hand-delivered pack, all resources are available to download from the campaign website, ourneighbours.org.uk. Key to the success of the campaign is the involvement of local community organisations. Organisations who haven’t already pledged their support are asked to do so here.
A huge thank you to all partners, including the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Communication and Engagement Network - and beyond for their wonderful support - you can read the media release here for more information.
Local place based planners meeting (Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield
The local area planners met on Tuesday. Colleagues working in the six local places gave an update on the work taking place in their areas. There was a discussion on implementing the NHS Long Term Plan and the national proposals for possible changes to legislation. This includes a shared duty for clinical commissioning groups and providers to promote closer collaboration. The proposals also include planning services together and joined up national leadership. Getting the structures right will be an important part of delivering the NHS Long Term Plan.
Local area colleagues also gave an update on their priorities - this included the local planning process and work programmes. Leeds colleagues talked about refreshing their strategic needs assessment and the BIG Leeds Chat (how people perceive health care and well-being). Listening to the voice of people and their experience of care is high on all colleagues’ agendas, for example asking people what the big issues they would like addressed over the coming years; which includes health inequalities, mental health and wellbeing. This will all be discussed as part of the local area updates at the Partnership Board in June.
Bradford is looking at their planning guidance for 2019/20. There are some great community partnerships working well together around children, young people; mental health and long term health conditions.
Operational planning for Wakefield has been discussed locally. The ambition is to represent Wakefield District and not individual organisations when improving care and support for people. Work continues on how the Wakefield District partnership tackles the impact of poverty and the importance of inclusive growth, i.e. employment and business.
There was also an update on the Long Term Plan engagement work and the campaign launch.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate personalised health care group
Personalised care features heavily in the Long Term Plan and was on the agenda of the March West Yorkshire and Harrogate Partnership Clinical Forum. The forum discussed progress with personalised care and discussed engaging clinicians in scaling up and spreading personalised care approaches across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
The Universal Personalised Care Model was published in January and provides more detail on the delivery of NHS England’s ambitions. You can read it here.
The long term plan will bring an accelerated roll out of Personal Health Budgets, a fully funded link worker for each Primary Care Network/Community to support Social Prescribing, and helping people to self-manage their own health. People having choice of options for elective care, support and help to train staff to have personalised care conversations and increased use of decision tools to engage people in being equal partners in making decisions about their care and treatment to ensure the least effective interventions are not routinely performed – are key parts of the programme. For more information please contact ruth.twiggins@nhs.net West Yorkshire and Harrogate Personalised Care Programme NHS England Delivery Partner).
New Healthy Hearts programme set to go live
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate’s Healthy Hearts programme officially goes live on the first of April. The three year programme seeks to help reduce the impact of heart disease and prevent the number of heart-related illnesses, including heart attacks, stoke and diabetes, every year across the region.
The programme, which is being delivered by the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network, aims to reduce the number of people affected by heart disease by 10 per cent by 2021, meaning 1,100 fewer CVD incidents by 2021.
By adopting a common evidence-based approach West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts, along with all its partners, will benefit from economies of scale and shared learning, leading to better healthcare outcomes for local people. To support this we’ve created a website that will be continuously developed into a storehouse of trusted information on CVD and its related conditions, for both the public and local health care professionals across the region.
We’re delivering the programme in three phases. Phase one sees us working to help GP’s identify patients with high blood pressure who haven’t yet been diagnosed, as well as helping to optimise the treatment of those already diagnosed through improvements to their individual medication, alongside the provision of advice and support on the kinds of lifestyle changes needed to stay healthy.
In fact, we estimate that the work we’re carrying out in phase one alone will prevent 285 heart attacks and 421 strokes across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, freeing up £8m to be spent elsewhere in the local health economy.
To support the programme a dashboard has been developed allowing clinicians to carry out GP system searches to increase detection of at-risk patients, along with Local Hypertension Treatment Guidance and an Implementation Resource. These materials will be sent to practices by their local CCGs.
Phase two of the project, due to begin in the autumn of 2019, will see an emphasis on Lipid/Cholesterol management. Phase three, set to begin in 2020, will see a concentration on Glycaemic Control in Diabetes.
For more information about Healthy Hearts please contact Pete Waddingham the programme manager.