This week’s leadership blogs are from Dr Sohail Abbas and Kerry Hinsby

Posted on: 20 January 2023

This week’s leadership message comes from Dr Sohail Abbas, Chair - Health Inequalities Network, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, Deputy Medical Director - NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, Director - Reducing Inequalities Alliance, Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership, and GP Partner - Kensington Partnership, Bradford. We also have a blog from Dr Kerry Hinsby, Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub.

Why we all need to need play a part in reducing inequalities

Hello my name is Dr Sohail Abbas and I am passionate about creating a fairer society for all, based on our shared West Yorkshire-wide ambition to tackle inequalities.

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership serves 2.4 million people. It is a region of incredible diversity, both in terms of geography and communities, as well as our own workforce. Our population includes approximately 770,000 children and young people, 400,000 unpaid carers and an estimated 7,000 people from Gypsy and Traveller communities. We also know that 22% of our population live in communities ranked in the most deprived 10% nationally and about 170,000 households in West Yorkshire are estimated to be living in fuel poverty. There is variation across our places that make up our Partnership. A stark example of this is that almost 40% of Bradford’s population is living in the most deprived 10% neighbourhoods.

These are significant challenges that impact on our shared ambition for people to live happy and healthy lives. It is a sad fact that in some areas of our region, lives are being cut short and people in the most deprived areas are living with more ill health and dying earlier than those in the least deprived areas.

This difference can be seen with people living with 20 years less healthy life in some of the poorer parts of Bradford District and Craven compared to our more affluent areas; a similar picture can be seen across all places in West Yorkshire. These inequalities are not new. We’ve known about them for a long time, but the COVID pandemic has now brought them into sharp focus as we can see the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on people’s health and wider lives.

And now we’re faced with a cost of living crisis, with people having to decide between feeding their children or heating their homes. I do want to add that our place-based partnership response, as well as those in other places, has again demonstrated the power of partnership working. Locally we have delivered direct interventions and we have developed a range of nationally recognised resources, including a dedicated online resource, to help people impacted by the cost of living crisis.

But where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. We are striving towards a future where our chances of living a long, happy, and healthy life will be determined by our shared purpose, resilience of our communities and positioning of our collective resources rather than by who we are, where we live or how much we earn. I want to demonstrate how we’re harnessing the power of our partnership with renewed hope and vigour.

Closing the health gap in central Bradford

The beginning of the journey of a thousand miles

In 2019, NHS England increased funding to tackle inequalities in areas with the highest rates of avoidable and preventable early death and greatest need. Central Bradford was one of those areas to receive funding, and it was from here that the Reducing Inequalities in Communities (RIC) programme was born.

RIC is an approach that has helped us test different ways to tackle health inequalities in our area. It is made up of 20 projects that have been designed to help improve people’s health and tackle inequalities at different stages of life. As we move into the final year of funding and the evaluation period for the programme, we acknowledge that the learnings and insight will be invaluable in our ongoing effort to close the life expectancy gap, while acting as a key building block for our Core20plus5 work.

From RIC to the Reducing Inequalities Alliance

I am keen that we don’t lose the momentum of our work on RIC, and that’s why we have developed the whole-life, whole-system approach through the emergent Reducing Inequalities Alliance to embed the RIC approach across our Bradford District and Craven place-based partnership. The Alliance will act as the conscience and the inequalities engine room for our system and galvanise senior leadership commitment (in health and other arenas). It will ensure work to reduce inequalities runs as a golden thread through all that we do and through our recently refreshed and revised five strategic priorities.

It is this vision of working together and providing a system learning space that is embedded in all that we do as the Reducing Inequalities Alliance. We know there is a lot of good work already happening in the district to reduce inequalities. The Alliance wants to play a role in joining up this work by:

Setting the vision to reduce inequalities
Building capacity and empowerment in our workforce to reduce inequalities
Supporting best practice
Facilitating the space and time to evaluate and share learning from our approach

The Caravan of Hope

I am a proud member and chair of the West Yorkshire Health Inequalities network, which is part of the Improving Population Health Programme. We have focused work streams responding to the needs of different population groups including people living in the most deprived decile, people living with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and autism, rough sleepers, young carers and women and children at risk of violent crime.

During the pandemic the network expanded to include populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including minority ethnic communities and staff. We aim to add value by better equipping our people to tackle inequalities, and we do it by increasing the system capacity, capability and by providing intelligence and insight.

The network is providing system leadership to support our places to implement the national Core20plus5 programme. Core20plus5 provides a good framework to concentrate our efforts to the 20% most deprived population and recently there has been a Core20plus5 approach developed focusing on the needs of children and young people.

Don’t go with the flow. Be the flow

Health Inequalities Academy logo Finally I want to draw attention to our West Yorkshire Health Inequalities Academy that’s recognised as an example of best practice across England. The Academy’s Improving Population Health Fellowship was launched in September 2021 with health equity fellowships. 32 people were recruited from across West Yorkshire, representing diverse organisations, sectors, and roles proving that our vision of whole-system, whole-life approach is one that’s shared by people across our partnership – people with passion, enthusiasm and drive to make a sustainable change that benefits us now and for future generations to come.

This year we have expanded the fellowship to include adversity trauma and resilience, suicide prevention and climate change fellowships alongside health equity fellows.

You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?

Inequalities, health inequalities and healthcare inequalities are complex and inter-connected and need partnership working across civic, service and community levels. We need to work together to create a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. We cannot keep on doing the same things and hope for different results. In the words of Albert Einstein, the problems we are facing today cannot be solved by the same level of thinking with which we created them.

We need to get right the things we are responsible for as individuals. We need to influence what we can by working together, as one, and understand that everyone of us has a role to play in reducing inequalities.

Before I summarise my blog, I want to appeal to you directly and say that you can make a difference by:

Having awareness: What inequalities do you see or experience?
Taking action: What can you do and influence as an individual in your community or workplace?
Being an advocate for inequalities: How can you encourage and support others to take action too?

Leadership is not about who we are or where we come from. Leadership is about what we do. Every one of us can make a positive impact on the lives of our communities. West Yorkshire is a wonderful place. Together we can make it an even better place to live, based on the principles of fairness. In the words of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, a 13th century Sufi mystic and poet, “You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”

The path of equity and social justice isn’t an ordinary path. It’s the path of prophets and revolutionaries. I feel happy when I know that, somewhere, our work is putting a smile on a child’s face, an elderly person is no longer sad, lonely, hungry, or cold, a dying person has the support to spend their last days of life in comfort with their loved ones and a homeless person has shelter. Somewhere this work is changing a life. That keeps me energised and I shall continue to walk on this path with the amazing colleagues I have and continue to inspire everyone to walk with us.

Have a good weekend,
Sohail

Staff mental health and wellbeing hub logo and contact details. Call 0808 1963833 or visit wystaffwellbeinghub.co.uk

Dr Kerry Hinsby, Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, works with teams and individuals across the Partnership and here describes some of the support that is available for you, now.

Dr Kerry Hinsby Hello, my name is Kerry.

Last week our senior leaders published a letter that recognises the work that is going on and the pressures that everyone working in our health and care system is facing this winter. We know that in the coming weeks, things will continue to be difficult.

In circumstances such as the current operating environment, volunteers and staff may encounter a full range of emotionally challenging and potentially traumatic events as part of their work. The Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub has developed a programme of support, training and networking opportunities for everyone working in the NHS, VCSE or social care, including volunteers.

People working in caring professions are often expected and expect of themselves to be self-reliant and just get on with it, to cope, and to focus on caring for others not themselves. It is sometimes assumed those working in caring and related roles are less susceptible to trauma and are somehow immune or desensitised to the difficult work they carry out. But staff and volunteers are human first and if the impact of this work is left unattended, it can have a significant impact on the individual person, their team, their home life and ultimately the care and support they provide.

Critical Incident Staff Support for groups or teams

The Critical Incident Staff Support Pathway (CrISSP) is a free and confidential range of services that offers you and your team support in preparation for and following traumatic or critical incidents. It is co-ordinated by the Hub and delivered by colleagues who offer this service in addition to their normal ‘day jobs’. They have undergone specific and intensive training, and receive ongoing supervision and training, to enable them to offer a specific model of support to colleagues. You can find out more about how to access the training from this flyer.

Group meetings can be used following potentially traumatic incidents as a means of supporting staff. These peer support meetings are voluntary, confidential, structured and time-limited. They bring together the whole team to create a safe space to explore what you have been through and give you a chance to reflect on skills you are using to cope and understand other support options that are available. The session will help you as individuals and as a team to recognise normal reactions to traumatic or extremely stressful events and help you understand when it is appropriate to seek further support (if necessary) in the future. It also encourages the natural support that exists within teams that work together.

Critical Incident Staff Support meetings are not counselling or therapy. They are not part of any investigation process. No notes are taken or information reported back to managers. You will not be forced to say anything if you just prefer to listen and take the time to reflect.

Schwartz Rounds

You may be familiar with Schwartz Rounds in your place or organisations, or they may be something entirely new to you. The purpose of Rounds is to understand the challenges and rewards that come with providing care; it is not to solve problems or to focus on the clinical aspects of patient care. Rounds can help people feel more supported in their jobs, allowing them the time and space to reflect on their roles. Evidence shows that staff who attend Rounds feel less stressed and isolated, with increased insight and appreciation for each other’s roles. Schwartz Rounds are for everyone – if you work in a care home, a voluntary organisation in your community, a GP practice, a hospital or any other organisation that provides health or social care, you can start or take part in a Schwartz Round.

We have a central team in each place that co-ordinates rounds across the organisations within each place and across West Yorkshire. If you would like to find out more about when the next one is happening in your area get in touch. If you or colleagues would like to get involved in the organising and delivery of rounds we are always looking for new people. Watch this film to find out more.

You can contact the Hub to talk to us about setting up or taking part in a Schwartz Round, to organise a CrISSP session for your team, join our training sessions and to express interest in becoming a CrISSP trainer on email wyicb-bdc.wyh.mentalwellbeinghub@nhs.net. Staff who feel they may need one-to-one therapy can self-refer via a form on our website.

24 hour mental health crisis support is available by telephone:

Bradford call 0800 952 1181
Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield call 0800 183 0558

What else has been happening this week?

A BIG thank you to all health and care workers, including volunteers

Please read this thank you letter to all health and care workers, voluntary community social enterprise sector colleagues, and volunteers, shared on behalf of Rob Webster, CEO Lead for West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership / CEO for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board; Cathy Elliott, Chair of the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board; and Cllr Tim Swift, Leader of Calderdale Council and Chair of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Board.

Rob Webster and Cathy Elliott Cllr Tim Swift

NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Our Integrated Care Board met on Tuesday. The meeting was held in public and chaired by Cathy Elliott. Before the meeting in public there was an informal engagement session with colleagues from across health and care, including the NHS, social care and voluntary community organisations. The conversation included recruitment, retention of staff as well as wellbeing support and development of skills. This was also covered in the Board meeting as part of our People Plan update – parts of which are still being developed. You can read the Board papers and watch the film on our website.

Partnership colleagues receiving the 'Promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ Partnership of the year award from the Asian Professionals National Allianc

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership wins two more national awards for equality, diversity, and inclusion

Our Partnership won two national awards at the prestigious Asian Professionals National Alliance (APNA) NHS Conference on Friday 13 January. The APNA Awards provide an opportunity to shine a light on the outstanding efforts and achievements from Asian colleagues and teams across the NHS. Winning the ‘Promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ Partnership of the year category, the judges recognised our Partnership’s strength in collaborating and working together to deliver recommendations from its race review, published in 2020. This includes the importance of diverse leadership to improve access to health and care services for all. The citation also recognised the national award-winning movement ‘Root Out Racism’, part of the Partnership’s ongoing commitment to tackle structural and institutionalised racism.

Pam Bhupal, who works for the Partnership’s organisational development team, took home the second winning entry for APNA ‘Super Star’ Award.

Pam said: “I’m truly humbled. I genuinely believe we need to be part of the change we want to see – and we are! Winning this award is only possible because of the wider team effort, which I am proud to be part of and the ethos of the Partnership, where every voice matters.”

All in all, it was a good evening of recognition for all working in West Yorkshire health and care services, none of which would have been possible without the incredible work of all staff.

You can read more on our website.

Have your say on how health services are delivered across West Yorkshire

Joint Forward Plan - have your say NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board is asking people and communities to share their views on how health services should be delivered to them locally, and across West Yorkshire. With the passing of the Health and Care Act 2022, there is a requirement for integrated care systems like the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership to develop a five-year integrated health and social care strategy and for integrated care boards to develop a joint forward plan to deliver the NHS components.

Building on the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Five-Year Strategy ‘Better health and wellbeing for everyone’ published in 2020, the Partnership has coproduced a refreshed draft Integrated Care Strategy. The Partnership is now seeking people’s views on how its ambitions for the NHS will be achieved in a new Joint Forward Plan for the area. The plan is expected to be published by the 30 June 2023. People can have their say by completing a short survey online at https://bit.ly/wyviews or by contacting their local Healthwatch by Monday 20 February 2023 to answer a few questions. More information is available on the Partnership’s website at wypartnership.co.uk/your-views

Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism programme updates

The National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine (NICPM) has made the difficult decision to close to new referrals for patients who are not registered with a Leeds GP. The demands of delivering care during the pandemic has led to significant backlogs for patients referred to NICPM, with the average wait for admission recently peaking at 2 -3 years from the point of funding being agreed. The centre has not closed to Leeds referrals due to commissioning arrangements that it has with the ICB in Leeds. NICPM recognises that this will be disappointing for patients wanting to be referred to the service, but it does not believe that it is clinically appropriate to accept someone onto a waiting list when it does not have a satisfactory timescale in which to offer treatment. A review of this position will take place in 12 months’ time.

From Harm to Hope: Self Harm and Suicide Prevention Conference

On Wednesday 1 March 2023, The National Centre of Excellence for Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention will be leading Self Harm Awareness Day on the theme of 'suicide prevention starts here'. In line with this day of significance, the organisation will also host their eighth national conference with a range of expert speakers on a variety of topics pertinent to the field of self-harm and suicide prevention. Book your place.

Improving our Psychological Wellbeing Therapy Group

The ‘Improving our Psychological Wellbeing’ therapy group is aimed at creating a space that will allow group members to talk about and reflect on their own experiences related to psychological wellbeing.

These sessions will start on Friday 10 February 2023 and will take place weekly every Friday at 2pm (excluding bank/school holidays).

You can read more about this group on our Hub website at https://workforce.wypartnership.co.uk/news/improving-our-psychological-wellbeing-therapy-group.

Kirklees and Calderdale Schwartz Round – ‘Fake it until you make it’

This is an opportunity for colleagues working in Leeds to take time to reflect on their experiences around the theme imposter syndrome. The purpose of Rounds is to understand the challenges and reward that come from working within health and care, it is not to solve problems or to focus on the clinical aspects of patient care.

This Schwartz Round is open to all organisations working in Kirklees and Calderdale. The Round takes place on Wednesday 8 February 2023, 12:15-13:30. Book your place on the Round.

Do you have a personal story around imposter syndrome? If so, please email michelle.dooling@locala.org.uk to be a storyteller at this Round. You can also check out the flyer.

Check in with your mate

Suicide Prevention programme updates

Suicide Prevention Oversight Group – looking for a Leeds VCS representative

We are looking for a new representative from the VCS sector in Leeds to join the Suicide Prevention Programme Oversight Group (SPOG) and be part of the decision-making and accountability processes of suicide prevention work across West Yorkshire. The commitment would be six meetings per year and engagement in-between. Anyone interested should send a very brief email, by the end of January, to Joanna.wardill@nhs.net outlining:

Why you are interested in the post;
Job role and organisation;
Suicide prevention work currently undertaken.

The Suicide Prevention Programme’s Senior Responsible Officers (SROs) will then aim to assess applicants and make a decision week commencing 6 February. If you’d like more information, please get in touch with Jess Parker.

Suicide Prevention Newsletter

The West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention Network has just published its January newsletter, which covers gambling harm and suicide, self-harm and suicide, the launch of a new playgroup and more. You’ll also find more information and news on the West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention website.

Suicide prevention talks

The British Medical Association (BMA) is hosting a live webinar, hosted by psychiatrist Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, on Monday 30 January from 6-7pm, exploring the links between gambling harm and suicide. Anyone interested can join. Click here to register. Yorkshire and the Humber Clinical Networks are hosting a one-hour online conversation session focusing on ‘Self-harm and suicide in older adults’ on Thursday 23 February 12-1pm.

The talk will feature keynote speakers Dr Cathy Morgan, a research fellow at The University of Manchester, and Dr Isabela Troya, a Government of Ireland Fellow at the School of Public Health, University College Cork and the National Suicide Research Foundation. See this flyer for the Teams link or email colinsloane@nhs.net for more information.

The latest West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention Network newsletter can be found here. To join the network, please email Joanna.wardill@nhs.net.

News from Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network

Nordic health innovators introduced to the Leeds City Region

Propel at YH partner logos Eight innovators from the Nordic region have been selected to bring health innovations to the Yorkshire and Humber region in the second international Propel@YH Boot Camp. Run by the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (Yorkshire & Humber AHSN), the boot camp seeks to bring the best health innovations from around the world into the UK, with the Yorkshire and Humber region being the first to make use of them.

The AHSNs are increasingly operating on a global scale – building strategic partnerships with international bodies to stimulate inward investment and export growth opportunities. The Propel@YH Boot Camp is hugely promising for the people of Yorkshire and Humber, as they will benefit from the best technology first. The region also benefits from the inward investment that the programme secures: following the success of the inaugural Boot Camp in 2022, three of the five US companies who took part in the programme have since established their UK headquarters in Leeds.

Find out more about the Nordic innovators joining the programme and their ideas

PinPoint Data Science

Pinpoint logo PinPoint Data Science are a Leeds-based SME who have developed a game-changing AI-driven blood test for cancer, designed to optimise NHS ‘two week wait’ urgent referral pathways. Professor Peter Johnson, National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England, recently identified PinPoint as a pipeline innovation that supports the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambitions in primary care. The concept for the test was developed in collaboration with academics at the University of Leeds and clinicians at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust with support from Yorkshire & Humber AHSN, who also supported the scoping of an implementation trial with the West Yorkshire Cancer Alliance.

The test is designed as a decision support tool to provide doctors with the information they need to more effectively triage patients when they first present with symptoms. By flagging patients at either end of the scale, the PinPoint Test will allow those at highest risk to be prioritised for faster access to hospital care and those at minimal risk to be ruled out of urgent referral pathways altogether. At present, PinPoint is in an evaluation stage, having received NHS England investment of £1m to accelerate progress.

The test is now fully-regulated and CE marked for use in the NHS in the nine main cancer groups: breast, gynaecological, haematological, head & neck, lower GI, lung, skin, upper GI & urological. These nine pathways cover over 98% of all ‘two week wait’ referrals.

Yorkshire & Humber AHSN is working with Pinpoint and the Cancer Alliance to onboard as many surgeries across West Yorkshire as possible with the objective to offer the Pinpoint test to all patients referred on to a ‘two week wait’ pathway. In the last eight weeks the number of GPs taking part in West Yorkshire has tripled, and the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN is supporting this activity to help maintain momentum. Once the evaluation is completed and data is available to demonstrate the effectiveness of the test, this innovation will be strongly placed to spread into other parts of the NHS. If you would like more information on this initiative, please email info@yhahsn.com

Harnessing the power of communities - animated collage

A big thank you from the Partnership’s Harnessing the Power of Communities team

In 2022 it was great to see a growing understanding of, and commitment to, collaborating with the VCSE (voluntary community social enterprise) sector and strengthening their position within our health and care system in West Yorkshire.

We recruited our VCSE member to the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and made great progress in embedding the VCSE at a strategic level across the new ICB: the sector is recognised and included in the draft ICB strategy, the West Yorkshire People Plan and referenced in the ICB Finance Strategy. There has been lots of collaboration with our partners in the VCSE at place, including work on coproduction, alternative health and care pathways, collaboration with community pharmacy and primary care networks, and working together to share good practice and offer mutual support through often challenging times.

As we move into 2023, the team has an ambitious programme of work focused on working together to tackle some of the challenges facing health and care; to continue advocating for a sustainable VCSE sector through long term investment; and simpler, joined up commissioning processes to strengthen the work around reducing health inequalities; and influencing a shift towards prevention, enabling people to stay well and maintain their health and well-being.

The team would like to say a big thank you to all colleagues across the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership - and beyond - for their help and support, without which they could not have achieved so much. Please get in touch if you would like to know more about the team’s work: wyicb-wak.hpoc.program@nhs.net

Screenshot of special guest Caroline Le Fevre presenting to the Communications and Involvement Network via Microsoft Teams

West Yorkshire Communication and Engagement Network

Over 60 communication and engagement colleagues came together via digital technology on Thursday. Colleagues receive tips for working with the media, an update from Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust on community engagement, as well as a presentation from Leeds Health and Care Partnership on the work taking place across the city. There was also discussion about suicide prevention communications. Thank you to all guest speakers and everyone who took the time to attend.