This week’s leadership message comes from Jo Webster, Chief Officer for NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group and Corporate Director for Adults and Health at Wakefield Council

Hello, my name is Jo

I’m very proud to work in Wakefield and to be part of a team that puts people and communities at the heart of all it does. The benefits of joined up care and team effort consistently shine through and I believe this makes a real positive difference to peoples’ health and wellbeing – which is after all what we are all about.

Working together in collaboration is well established in Wakefield. It’s in our DNA. And we have the evidence to prove the value of this through initiatives such as Mental Health, Planned Care Alliances. 

I’ve worked in healthcare for 25 years in various roles, including Chief Officer of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) since it was established in 2013. A role which will forever make me feel proud.

When the position of Corporate Director for Adults and Health at Wakefield Council became vacant, a decision was made to pioneer an innovative approach which would take our partnership working to another level. Introducing a senior position spanning two different organisations, who already worked hand in glove, gave us the opportunity to test what we already know, that only by working together can we really prevent ill health, improve care and tackle health inequalities. 

I saw this fantastic opportunity as a chance to build on the firm foundations already in place. With the changes of the Health and Care Bill on the horizon, the time felt right to explore new ways of working together so we could fulfil our shared ambitions and responsibilities. And as I also wear the hat as a leader in the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. 

Adult social care and public health is wide-ranging – there is much more to it than what many of us think. The breadth of care and support spans from preventing ill health, supporting people to live independently, right through to community outreach and safeguarding people, including those who are living with a physical or learning disability, mental illness, or age-related disability. 

To me, it is all about tackling and preventing health inequalities, supporting people to maintain, retain and increase their independence, so they can live their best life possible, every hour and every day of the year. An important element of this is embedding the value of people remaining in their own home whilst doing this. 

It also includes assessing the needs of unpaid carers for loved ones and family members. It’s never been more important to make sure they have the support they need to protect their own wellbeing, because surely, they deserve to live their best life too!

I know my NHS colleagues so well. I understand the daily challenges we face and the extraordinary dedication of the workforce. I have always appreciated the importance of good public health, the role of social care, with its many facets and its compassionate workforce. However, I don’t mind admitting that working more closely alongside my public health and social care colleagues has really opened my eyes to the complexity and challenges this brings to all involved. 

I’m now truly starting to get to grips with what is meant by population health, adult social care needs assessments, personal care budgets, home adaptations and safeguarding issues. And unlike most of the NHS, access to services is not routinely free. There are complicated eligibility thresholds to consider for publicly funded services. This includes financial assessments, affordability and who is eligible to receive certain levels of care, and how much can they afford to pay. It’s complex.

It’s important to take the time to gain an understanding of other roles. Until you do, it’s hard to imagine what it feels like to make informed decisions, with people who access care and their families, and to fully appreciate how difficult this can be. My understanding is improving.

But this approach isn’t just about my position, it is about further developing our culture and bringing together different parts of the same system to fully understand the importance of one another and to appreciate how we all fit together. 

My most immediate challenge was diary management. My calendar looked … interesting! But it quickly became apparent there were areas of commonality where meetings and processes could and should be streamlined. Not only did this save me and others time, but it also helped us to start looking at things differently. We now hold a fortnightly senior meeting across the two organisations and wider system partners where we review our performance, workforce pressures and financial challenges, to see where we can work together and identify shared solutions. Our ambition is to create a culture that values all our capacity across the system, continues to encourage collaboration, trust, positive risk taking and a strength-based approach.

We have a shared responsibility to shape a provider market that delivers high-quality services, whilst focusing also on our poorer communities. There is also the need to give people greater choice and control over how they manage their support – so they genuinely feel they are getting value for money and genuinely feel more empowered to make their life choices through an informed position. 

To do this, we are seeking the support of voluntary community social enterprise sector. Wakefield’s new provider collaborative is making progress in ensuring a coordinated approach between care providers to support service improvements. 

Working in a dual role has helped to develop a twin perspective on several issues. For example, as we plan for a challenging winter ahead, it’s important we understand the impact on both the health and care sector, and how, if we get it right, social care can play a key role on alleviating the pressures in the NHS and elsewhere. This is about understanding the collective pressures and delivering a plan which meets all our needs and ultimately improves people’s lives, whilst supporting our well-loved workforces. We need to use our workforce and resources flexibly as a whole system approach, to be able to support the areas of greatest need. Planning for ‘Wakefield Place’ through the eyes of one workforce will help.

This winter is predicted to be very challenging. We therefore need to maximise opportunities across the health and care system to not only support our recovery programme, against the backdrop of the ongoing pressures of the pandemic and health inequalities, but to also make sure people get the care they need from the right service, in the right place and time. Together, we are thinking creatively about solutions to support our workforce and manage the impact on everyone, including importantly residents.  

Wakefield is expected to encounter a significant demographic change over the next five years, in particular a sustained growth in our older population, and this will impact on both health and social care. Don’t get me wrong, its wonderful people are living longer, we just want to help ensure they live a long happy, healthy life, where they are independent and can live life to the full. Don’t we all want that! Our place-based system is about delivery of outcomes that genuinely matter - standing in the shoes of those who need enablement and support and consistently reminding ourselves to make sure that we are looking through their lens. What would they value, how would that be best delivered and how do we track, monitor, and learn from their experiences?  

Like many other areas, we face challenges including financial and workforce resources, alongside the impact of the pandemic. Here in Wakefield, we are trying to get a tight grip on it so that we plan and make things better now, not much further down the line. An important factor in this is how we value our workforce. As I work to bring the workforce in our system together, I continue to do this through compassionate leadership. At the same time as encouraging our teams to be inquisitive, to learn from each other and understand each other, I am working with our senior leaders to build an environment and a culture where we can also support everyone with their wellbeing. Our public health colleagues are vital here. This for me is so important as we not only continue our journey of recovery, but as we also transform the way we work together.

Six months on, I like to think we are making good progress. We’re identifying opportunities, increasing our shared knowledge and insight, whilst understanding more about the importance of one another’s roles. These connections and insights have helped to aid discussion by anticipating the impact of a decision or action across the system and treating each other with the respect each deserves. 

In a development session with the Canterbury system in New Zealand, we explored the importance of trying solutions which will help us as we continue to feel the pressure that COVID presents to our system. Creating a new system takes time, we have made so much progress since the Vanguard days in Wakefield, but our journey is not complete. Deepening our approach to integration, engaging all our staff, our communities and people is at the heart of the next chapter and I remain very positive about the future.  As we continue our journey together as a fully integrated system, what I hope everyone will see are the benefits and results for Wakefield people. I will therefore end as I started – this is after all what we are all about – no matter what important role you play.

Have a lovely weekend

Jo