This week’s leadership message comes in the form of a podcast interview with Brendan Brown, CEO for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

What else has been happening this week?

Communication and Engagement Network

Over thirty communication and engagement colleagues across our Partnership met on Wednesday in Bradford. This included colleagues working for Healthwatch, clinical commissioning groups, Public Health England, the Academic Health Science Network and representatives from councils, hospitals and community organisations.

The meetings, which are held four times a year, give colleagues the opportunity to share good practice across West Yorkshire and Harrogate as well as hear about the Partnership’s priorities for the coming months. Colleagues received an update on the NHS Long Term Plan, Healthwatch engagement report and the development of the Partnership’s Five Year Strategy, which is due to be published at the end of the year. They also heard about the work of the Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme, primary care home, also known as communities, and networks (which are being led locally); the Cancer Alliance and developing the role of health champions across the area with people with learning disabilities.

Alex Trewitt from Public Health England gave an update on future campaigns, including Change for Life; Starting Well; Living Well and ‘One You’.  Every Mind Matters, which is part of ‘One You’, launches on the 7 October. The aim is to make adults living in England better informed and equipped to look after their own mental health and that of others. Communications will be available nearer the time at the campaign resource centre online, including a digital action planner tool.  The media will feature on TV, with celebrities and key influencers. Please support the campaign.

There was also an update on the ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’ campaign around ‘Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them, puts you and your family at risk’ which will also launch in October. There is also some good work taking place in Leeds via a local campaign called ‘Seriously – help us keep antibiotics working’. 

Colleagues also took part in table discussions on ‘what makes a good campaign’; developing a podcast; and an award winning internal communication project. Thanks to everyone who led the table discussions including Shak from NHS Leeds; Dannie from Wakefield CCG; Ben and Christine from the Partnership’s core team and Paul from South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Through working together we aim to spread good practice to the benefit of everyone living across our area (including us). The next meeting takes place in September. Please contact karen.coleman2@wakefieldccg.nhs.uk if you’d like to join the network.

National workforce development tool: field testing

One of the biggest challenges facing health and care organisations is retaining good staff and skills, for example the shortage of nursing in hospitals, mental health and communities; and the impact this has on people’s quality of care. With this firmly in view, our Five Year Strategy, due to be published at the end of the year, will describe how the health and social care workforce of over 100,000 in West Yorkshire and Harrogate is changing to meet the current and future needs of people living across the area. The approach we will take is in line with the NHS Long Term Plan, the recently published ‘Interim NHS People Plan’ and our workforce plan ‘A healthy place to live, a great place to work’.

Julian Hartley, CEO for Leeds NHS Teaching Hospitals worked on the initial development of the NHS Interim People Plan with national colleagues earlier this year. The starting point is how we make the NHS the best place to work for staff and bringing the NHS Constitution to life.

With this firmly in view, we have recently been selected to be involved in the development of the National Full People Plan, which will be published ahead of the Government’s Spending Review later this year. Our involvement is via field testing a workforce development tool which is sponsored by the National People Board.  Their ambition is for the tool to be used by all integrated care system leaderships as an enabler of work for transformation so we deliver better quality of care to people and fully support those who work for the NHS.  The national work is overseen by Prerana Issar, Chief People Officer and our Partnership CEO Lead, Rob Webster, who is chairing the New Operating Model for Workforce Board. The West Yorkshire and Harrogate field testing work will take place over the summer. It is being supported by NHS England / NHS Improvement and KPMG at no cost to the Partnership.  We will keep you updated as the work progresses.

The apprenticeship levy

Our goal is to increase recruitment into health and social care whilst supporting the principle of growing our own workforce, though making the best use of the apprenticeship levy across the Partnership.

The apprenticeship levy was introduced in April 2017, and required organisations with pay bills of over £3 million to pay money into a virtual bank account. This money could only be used to pay for apprenticeship training. Two years after money was paid in, any unspent funds would be lost. So it’s really important we make the most of every opportunity.

We have been funded by Health Education England to facilitate levy transfer between apprenticeship levy paying organisations and organisations that are non-levy paying or have spent their levy. Several of the larger levy paying organisations have committed to transferring over £880,000 to pay for apprenticeship training in other health and social care organisations. This money could pay for at least 108 apprenticeships across the region.  There is lots of help available to support our Partnership.

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Excellence Centre colleagues can:

• Help employers identify roles that would suit apprenticeships, and match a desired role to an available apprenticeship training programme
• Give advice on the structure needed to host an apprentice
• Help non-levy paying employers set up onto the relevant online system (the digital apprenticeship service)
• Match non-levy paying employers to levy paying employers who will give them money to pay for the training.

  If you are interested in employing an apprentice using levy funding contact Callum Bennett at callum.bennett@nhs.net to start the journey.

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts completes cholesterol/statin public engagement 

The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Healthy Hearts programme has now completed its public engagement on its upcoming work to identify and treat - at scale - people whose LDL (low-density lipoproteins) cholesterol levels that may be better controlled through switching to a high intensity statin, and also initiating a statin in those patients at risk of developing CVD. 

More than 200 responses were received, with some completing the online questionnaire and others giving their feedback in focus groups that took place across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

An analysis of the work is now being undertaken with early results showing:

• 95% of respondents understand the aims of phase two of Healthy Hearts
• 88% of respondents think it will be of benefit to local people
• 80% of respondents thought our draft letter to patients, outlining why changes were being made to their prescriptions, were clear    
• nearly a quarter of responses were from black and Asian minority groups.

Programme Manager Pete Waddingham said: ‘We really want to thank all those people who took the time to fill in the questionnaire and all those who came along to our focus groups. A lot of interesting data has been gathered, including valuable information on where patients are most likely to turn to if they had an issue with a prescription for statins, and where they’re most likely to seek advice and guidance on leading a healthier life.   Some comments revealed that some common misconceptions surrounding statins still endure, while others have provided valuable insights into people’s hopes and expectations for phase two, allowing the programme team to better understand what’s important to them as patients.  We also want to thank all our communications and engagement colleagues in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health Care Partnership, and all the CCGs, who’ve been brilliant in their support during this engagement. The findings will be used to shape how the programme communicates with patients and clinicians in phase two of Healthy Hearts, which is due to begin in the autumn’.

Improving planned care

At its meeting on 9 July, the Improving Planned Care Programme’s Board was asked to recommend the West Yorkshire and Harrogate shoulder policy to the Partnership’s Joint Committee of the Clinical Commissioning Group for approval. A really good discussion around the policy followed and this was supported a great deal by the attendance of Phil Wright, a shoulder surgeon from Bradford, who was able to answer any questions from the Board.

As with many other procedures, shoulder procedures provide benefit to only a limited number of patients and there are other intervention including physiotherapy, physical activity and pain management that could offer much better outcomes for patients. Our shoulder policy requires that such options are tried (usually for around three months), and have shown no benefit in the individual’s condition before referral for orthopaedic assessment.

Programme Board agreed the shoulder policy for recommendation to August’s Clinical Forum before going to Joint Committee for approval in October.

One vital aspect of the commissioning policy for shoulders that applies to all our commissioning policies is the inclusion of shared decision making between clinicians and patients. Programme Board agreed this is particularly important if the individual is considering surgery or other invasive procedure. The patient must understand the risks as well as the benefits of a procedure, the timescales for rehabilitation and what they’ll need to do after surgery with regard to a personalised activity plan to support their rehabilitation and improve the outcome.

Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) roles for three of our West Yorkshire and Harrogate programmes

Please see below the new SRO leadership arrangements for the following three of our priority programmes:

• Improving Population Health: Robin Tuddenham (Calderdale Council) and Dr James

  Thomas (Airedale Wharfedale and Craven CCG)

• Children, Young People and Families: Merran McRae (Wakefield Council)
• Unpaid Carers: Richard Parry (Kirklees Council) and Karen Jackson (Locala)
• Jo Webster (Wakefield CCG) has also agreed to be the Commissioner SRO for the Urgent and Emergency Care Programme following Phil Corrigan’s (NHS Leeds) retirement earlier this year.

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Programme Board

Chaired by Dr Sara Munro, CEO for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and CEO Lead for the Partnership’s Programme Board meet today. The meeting includes colleagues from mental health providers, the community sector and councils. There will be an update on programme funding for crisis and liaison bids; 14-25 early intervention; complex rehabilitation and Local Workforce Action Board. The Board will also discuss the NHS Long Term Implementation Framework, and the work of the transforming care partnership (TCP) as well as how we make the most of digital technology.

Children and young people’s emotional wellbeing

Children and young people in Leeds, Bradford and North Kirklees will benefit from being three of 48 new so called ‘Trailblazer’ areas identified by the NHS, with support being given to young people with mild to moderate mental health needs through a total of six mental health support teams. The national mental health programme aims to bridge the gap between schools and colleges and NHS services. Read more here. You can also find out more about how Leeds further education students will benefit from this national mental health funding here and the work Kirklees are doing here.