This week we are looking back on all the inspiring reads in leadership messages and blogs over the past year

Posted on: 22 December 2022

This week we are looking back on all the inspiring reads in leadership messages and blogs over the past year. We want to thank everyone who took the time during their busy working weeks to share their news, work, and personal stories.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Dear colleagues

As we head towards the festive season, in what has been another challenging year for many, we wanted to say thank you for your hard work in 2022 and for being part of our Partnership.

We are regarded as one of the best partnerships in the country, with distributed and diverse leadership, and a focus on inequalities and collaboration that delivers results. This was recognised nationally by the HSJ last month, who gave us their award for Integrated Care System of the Year for the second year running. This award belongs to you all!

Most importantly we have worked together as a true partnership this year to help meet the mental, physical, and social needs of the people in each of our communities at every life stage in every part of West Yorkshire for everyone, everywhere.

All of this is down to the hard work each one of you does. It is very much appreciated.

We hope you get some ‘down time’ during this month with the people you love and are able to recharge your batteries, ready for the new year and whatever that may bring. If you are working at any point over the Christmas and New Year holidays, thank you.

Councillor Tim Swift Rob Webster and Cathy Elliott We wish you a happy and healthy festive season and new year.

On behalf of West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership,
Rob Webster, CEO Lead for West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership and CEO for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
Cllr Tim Swift, Leader of Calderdale Council and Chair of West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Board
Cathy Elliott, Chair of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

What else has been happening this week?

NHS sets out advice for the public during industrial action

The NHS is asking patients to use services wisely during industrial action and take simple steps to help ensure care is available to patients who need it most.

You can also read more on the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust website.

NHS West Yorkshire Fuller Board

The first NHS West Yorkshire Fuller Board came together on the 13 December 2022. This is based on the recommendations from the Fuller Report. The purpose of the Board is to support delivery of our integrated care board strategic priorities and objectives for primary care and community health services – in a way consistent with the ‘three tests’ for partnership working (for example working together where it makes sense for West Yorkshire). Moving forward the Board’s remit will be guided by the refreshed West Yorkshire Five Year Integrated Care Strategy, the Joint Forward Plan and implementation of recommendations in the national Fuller Stocktake Report.

At the first meeting, discussions took place on the outputs from a roundtable in November on the themes arising from the Fuller Stocktake Report. This covered potential priorities for the first 12 months and beyond. This was viewed alongside a map of the building blocks to support transformation to take place, such as the West Yorkshire operating model, governance arrangement and a draft terms of reference, potential workstreams and sub-groups.

It was recognised that there were many interdependencies with wider West Yorkshire Programme Boards, the arrangements for primary care and community health service transformation and integration across our five places (Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield District), and with the provider collaboratives, for example West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts and the Community Care Collaborative.

Further development work will take place over the next couple of months to continue to work through these interdependencies, develop the Board’s initial priorities and work programme, with the next board meeting due to take place in February 2023.

Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism (MHLDA) Board

Dr Sara Munro The Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Partnership Board (the Board) met on 13 December and heard reports from workstreams in the Programme.

Chair, Dr Sara Munro, CEO lead for the programme and CEO for Leeds and York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust updated colleagues on the development of the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board’s Joint Forward Plan.

NHS England has issued a call for Expressions of Interest for Provider Collaboratives to take part in the new Innovation Front Runners Scheme that will offer an opportunity for NHS England to work out how best to help the system and how we can help them to put in place the support we need. Several expressions of interest have been submitted from West Yorkshire – including the MHLDA collaborative and the Wakefield Mental Health Alliance. Delegated decision-making – discussions are happening at place (Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield District) and progress is being made towards a model that will facilitate efficiencies and collaboration across and between place and system. This process has delivered a decision to agree recurrent support for our West Yorkshire children and young people’s overnight crisis service.

Professor John Wright updated the Programme about Born in Bradford’s (BiB) research project ‘Age of Wonder’ on mental ill health in children and young people. This is a seven-year project capturing the journey through adolescence and adulthood for the BiB cohort and their peers. From the study so far, it has been discovered that deprivation, fuel poverty and food poverty have been concerning factors for children. An example raised was across the schools featured in the study, 23% of pupils had depression. The findings of this research will be shared to help shape future work across system.

Other areas discussed included that the Learning Disabilities Challenge awareness campaign is underway with communications assets shared with colleagues in Trusts and at place. Perinatal mental health, workforce planning and suicide prevention was also discussed. The Neurodiversity – Autism and ADHD deep dive project has carried out collaborative work to identify needs at place and organisation. The next step is to try to progress the right pieces of work, but we are conscious of the tension between current operational pressures and progressing transformation, and the capacity needed to do both in our places and providers.

Inclusive Innovation Improvement Programme Board

The Inclusive Innovation Improvement Programme Board met on the 16 December, for the final time this year. The meeting was chaired by Amy Lochtie, (previously Amy Overend), the director of the West Yorkshire Innovation Hub. The start of the meeting highlighted a new revised programme from January 2023, including in-person events.

Members watched a video from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust with people who access care who have taken part in research and the impact this has had on their lives.

Amy Lochtie presented an update on a Northeast and Yorkshire Innovation Alliance hosted by the West Yorkshire Innovation Hub with support from Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network. This will help to develop early innovation ideas, strategies, best practice recognition to develop a peer-to-peer support network for innovation and improvement leads. The Network will act as a support platform for innovation directors. The group will also have representation from the research community, academic partners, economic partners, local authority and voluntary community social enterprise sector.

The peer leadership programme managers, Kirsty Jowett and Tracey Lowe introduced the scope of the Lived Experience Programme which says: ‘Our purpose is to ensure that the voices of people with lived experience are central to the development of strategy, policy, good practice, quality improvement and system transformation This is done by:

Recruiting, training and supporting people with lived experience of long-term health conditions, to become peer leaders
Providing a coordinated, streamlined service to connect and facilitate strategic coproduction activities between Peer Leaders and those working within the healthcare systems at a national, regional, and local level.

Catherine, who has Down syndrome, presented to the group her experience of the peer leadership programme and the confidence she has gained from being involved.

Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has a shared referral pathway which includes the quicker access to secondary care at home, and personalised care.

Health equity fellows graduation 2022 collage

Congratulations to our first Health Equity Fellow graduates

The first cohort of Health Equity Fellows have successfully graduated from the nine month long Improving Population Health Fellowship. To celebrate we held a ceremony on 15 December to award the 32 fellows with their certificates and give them an opportunity to present their project findings. Those projects are now being adapted and making a difference across other areas of West Yorkshire and beyond.

Fellows worked on a range of projects helping to build more equitable systems covering everything from maternity, faith, mental health, oral cancer and heart failure to learning disabilities, lung checks, paediatrics, breast cancer, kidney health and cervical cancer.

Following the success of this first year we have been recruiting fellows to a new and expanded scheme covering health equity, adversity, trauma and resilience, climate change and suicide prevention. We’ll be making those appointments in January 2023. We are also on the lookout for mentors and project ideas for the next cohort of fellows.

If you have a project idea for a fellow, please download and fill in the project proposal template and return it to caroline.andrews16@nhs.net or verity.phillips3@nhs.net.

Hewitt Review

Integrated Care Systems, like our West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, have been designed to bring partners together to better join up services. To help inform this way of working, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has appointed the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt who is currently chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board to consider how the oversight and governance of integrated care systems can best enable them to succeed. More information about the objectives and scope of the review can be found in the Hewitt review terms of reference. A co-ordinated response will be submitted on behalf of our West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.

Have your say on the delivery of our refreshed five-year integrated care strategy from the 10 January 2023

Joint Forward Plan - your views Ahead of the NHS West Yorkshire ICB Board papers being published on our website for the 10 January, which includes an update on the Partnership’s Five-year Integrated Care Strategy and delivery through the Joint Forward Plan, we will be launching our public facing consultation on the 10 January.

With the passing of the Health and Care Act 2022, there is a requirement for integrated care systems like ours to develop a five-year strategy and for integrated care boards to develop a joint forward plan to deliver the NHS components.

The draft five-year strategy has been developed from what people, communities and staff have told us about health and care services in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield District. Coproduced in partnership with colleagues from across all health and care sectors, it has been developed from Healthwatch engagement, local involvement activities, views from meetings held in public via the local health and wellbeing boards, the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and our Partnership Board.

People will be able to have their say by completing a short survey online or by contacting their local Healthwatch by Monday 20 February 2023 to answer a few questions. More information will be available on our website from the 10 January

Further information on the development of the strategy and plan is available on our website.

West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub - call 0808 196 3833

Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub

West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub recognises the significant and unique pressures facing the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

The Hub is available to anyone working in the health and wellbeing sector, including VCSE organisations - whether you are staff or a volunteer. The ‘support for VCSE’ page includes relevant information for the sector including a self-referral service to find the appropriate care for you and details on the upcoming VCSE Power event.

As part of West Yorkshire's #VCSEPower event, Harnessing the Power of Communities (HPoC) are working with the Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub to offer two live wellbeing sessions:

WY VCSE Schwartz Round: You can't pour from an empty cup - 18 January, 1pm - 2.15pm.
Get to know the Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub - 17 January, 1.15pm - 2pm.

Free ShinyMind app for nurses

The Nursing Advisory Board of ShinyMind, an evidence based mental health and wellbeing resource, has been co-created with the NHS and the nursing workforce. The app is currently free to all NHS nurses, midwives, HCSWs and NAs, individual licences can be purchased for all other staff and volunteers for £1 per head admin fee for 1 year. The aim is to offer the app free to all NHS staff by 2024. West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership has been offered 20 trial licences for staff and volunteers to trial the app for 1 month and then feedback into the working group in order to decide whether or not purchasing extra app licences would be beneficial to your team. If you are interested in joining this working group, then please email lisa.hadley1@nhs.net, please also forward to anyone within our partnership that may be interested.

Health and wellbeing webinars for staff

Thanks to vital funding from the staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, The Cellar Trust will host a series of webinars to promote mental health and wellbeing. This two-hour interactive facilitated webinar explores the concept of mental wellbeing and leadership with the ongoing response to the pandemic. These sessions take place on Thursday 5 January, Tuesday 10 January, Tuesday 17 January and Thursday 26 January. To book onto the Webinar, email wyicb-bdc.wyh.mentalwellbeinghub@nhs.net or for more information, visit Living Well Training – Training for a healthy mind. There are 20 places per session.

Upcoming Schwartz Rounds

Wakefield Schwartz Round – ‘Care For Me’

This is an opportunity for colleagues working and volunteering in health and social care across Wakefield, to take time out to reflect on what 'Care for Me' means to them while they are at work.

Schwartz Rounds provide a confidential and structured space where staff and volunteers, clinical and non-clinical, can come together to reflect on the emotional impact of working in health and social care. Evidence shows that people who attend Rounds may feel less stressed and isolated, with increased insight and appreciation for each other’s roles. The Round takes place on Wednesday 11 January 2023, 12.15pm – 1.30pm. Book your place on the Round.

Leeds Schwartz Round - 'Let it be'

This is an opportunity for colleagues working in Leeds to take time to reflect on their experiences around the theme ‘Let It Be’. The purpose of Rounds is to understand the challenges and rewards that come from working within health and care, it is not to solve problems or to focus on the clinical aspects of patient care. The Round takes place on Thursday 23 February, 12:15-13:30. Book your place on the Round.