This week’s leadership message comes from Wasim Feroze and Cherill Watterston

‘Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable’

Hello.

It is hard to articulate the profound impact of the video of the horrific death of George Floyd on BAME communities across the world including here in the UK. The video of a black man pinned down to the ground, pleading for air – for his life. The reality is that this video prompted a range of emotions from anger, upset and exhaustion which has led many of us to relive the trauma of our own experiences of racism and yet again ask ourselves the questions of how many lives have to be lost until people see the need for change and the need to address structural racism? Of course this structural racism is nothing new, its centuries old and rooted in our history, bringing with it inherent complexity. But this does not mean we can afford to shy away from the challenging and uncomfortable conversations that need to happen as we all work to make the positive changes in our society and workplaces for our BAME communities.

The death of George Floyd and the international attention on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has bought into sharp focus the ongoing racial injustice, inequity and everyday discrimination faced by BAME communities. Indeed, this has all happened in the midst of a global pandemic which has only further highlighted that the experiences of discrimination that BAME communities face is as entrenched now as it was before COVID-19.

The scale of this challenge is extremely significant. We won’t undo decades of systemic racism overnight but what we can do is respond to the events of this year with a renewed focus, with a commitment to start the journey and deliver the positive shift necessary. This is the objective across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, and with the BAME Network driving this agenda we wanted to share with you a key part of the work we are progressing as we begin our own journey in response to BLM and becoming an anti-racist system.

On 8 October 2020, the BAME Network built on the strength of the work being progressed in relation to the diversity of leadership such as the development of the BAME Fellowship programme, and engaged our senior leaders across the system by hosting a virtual workshop, recognising their position to drive changes across key programmes.

A key element of our approach was to support senior leaders and further raise awareness in the current context to some of the key issues which impact BAME communities in the workplace such as unconscious bias, racial microagressions and white privilege. Each breakout session was led by BAME Network members, where we also shared our own lived experiences. This brings us to a central part of what we seek to achieve across the system and like everything else, it starts with education. The truth is that many of us have been ignorant to our own role in adding to the weight of discrimination that our BAME communities face. No amount of learning or training about racial discrimination will ever compare with the learning we can get from hearing the lived experience of BAME colleagues.

We also know that these are challenging issues and yes it is sometimes uncomfortable.  We realise that hearing you have ‘white privilege’ might be hard to accept, and is too often misunderstood to be weighted to your position of wealth. This misunderstanding in itself highlights the importance of why we must start engaging on this agenda. The concept of ‘white privilege’ does not seek to minimise the personal struggles of white communities, it simply seeks to acknowledge a painful reality that for many of us, our struggle both in society and the workplace is defined by ethnicity or the colour of our skin.

Our approach to this workshop is another example of how co-production has become a core part of how the system seeks to stimulate change on this agenda. BAME voices have led the development of this workshop from the start supported by our dedicated organisation development colleagues.  This seeks to achieve exactly what we are advocating, that the lived experiences of BAME communities must be at the heart of everything we do – both when we listen and in the very plans we formulate to deliver change.

We feel strongly that we cannot continue to ask our BAME communities to continue to relive their experiences of trauma and fail to do nothing in response. We all have the ability to influence and lead change within organisations, but we also believe the key drivers of this agenda must be led by those at the top of our organisations with our senior leaders.

This work can’t simply be an appraisal objective, this is a moral objective. This is why, along with programme pledges we asked all senior leaders who participated in the workshop to also share a personal pledge. This is not a programme that can be driven at the institutional level alone; it requires a personal investment and commitment to learn, to be better, to do better.

Video playlist: personal pledges from senior leaders

With this comes incredible responsibility but also an incredible opportunity to lead and support change that is profound and is firmly embedded in the culture of all organisations across the system, where diversity and inclusion is not simply an afterthought, but is part of the values we advocate and evident in every decision we make.

Our work continues as we engage with senior leaders and take the next steps in our journey as a system to make a real difference to the experience of BAME communities across the diverse range of organisations from local authorities to the NHS.

We really need to work together on this, which is why we want to give all colleagues working across the Partnership the opportunity to join the conversation, educate themselves, educate each other and seek to end systematic racism once and for all. The Black Lives Matter workshop is to be rolled out across the Partnership and a suite of training along with a number of additional modules that cover the wider BAME racial inequalities, inclusion and anti-racism agenda will be made available from January 2021.

We are on a journey, this won’t be easy and we have to confront some very challenging issues but fundamentally the time for change is now.

Have a good and safe weekend,
Wasim and Cherill

New funding opportunity: Responding to causes of serious violence and exploitation for women and girls

Our Partnership is working with West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit to understand and respond to the causes of the causes for women and girls involved in serious violence and exploitation. A long-term public health approach, which tackles the deep rooted and engrained social, health and economic problems facing women and girls, is our best chance to address this issue. Through this work we aim to improve the health and well-being of women and girls, including health life expectancy and understand the risk factors of young women before they reach the criminal justice system. 

We are commissioning some help to co-produce insight work with women and girls (including those with lived experience in or out of the criminal justice system) to: understand the root causes that influence women and girls involvement in different types of serious violent crime and exploitation, identify protective factors to support women and girls and build resilience and reduce health Inequalities for women and girls.

Please note the deadline date of Friday 11 December at 5pm and budget. This is a competitive bid. You can find out more in this project brief from the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction unit.

Looking out for our neighbours supporter update

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone that has so far shown their support following the launch of the ‘Looking out for our neighbours’ campaign. Episode 1 of ‘Our Neighbours’ went live on 16 November and has really gained momentum  since then.

Our adverts on YouTube and Facebook have reached over 20, 000 people across West Yorkshire and Harrogate and there’s been over 1,055 website visits since the teaser campaign launched and 846 website visits in the first week , which is great news for the communities.

We are excited to announce that episode 2 launches on Monday 30 November.  Aside from tuning into the fantastic 'Looking out for our neighbours' mini series featuring neighbours from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate you can also can find a range of different support and services available to you and your neighbours from mental wellbeing to finance. No one should feel alone this winter.

Thank you for all your support. Please continue to share and amplify our messages and let’s keep spreading the kindness.

One-year Spending Review

The Chancellor laid out his much-anticipated one-year Spending Review, in place of the Comprehensive Spending Review and three-year plan he had hoped to produce before the pandemic. This includes a focus on supporting jobs; £4bn Levelling Up Fund, to which local authorities will be able to bid for cash for high impact projects; £300 million of new grant funding for adult and children’s social care; £52 billion for frontline health services to tackle the pandemic including £22 billion for the Test and Trace programme, over £15 billion for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and £2.7 billion to support the development and procurement of vaccines. You can read more read more about the Spending Review on the gov.uk website.

You can also read the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's response to the outcome of the Government’s Spending Review the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's response to the outcome of the Government’s Spending Review and The Kings Fund's response.