Posted on: 25 March 2021
Hello my name is Mel
I am writing this update while experiencing contrasting emotions. First I must start with the national day of reflection marking the anniversary since the first national lockdown. Covid has impacted on all our lives and sadly we have lost so many loved ones, yet at the same time Covid has also seen real transformational change in the way we work together to deliver care. We have seen the NHS at its best and nowhere was that more evident that in the Bradford District and Craven.
I contrast this with the positive energy and emotion I felt after we held an engagement event for our place to consider the next steps in developing our integrated care partnership.
The event was expertly chaired and facilitated by the one and only Roy Lilley. We were delighted to be joined by Rob Webster the Chief Exec Lead for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (fresh from scooping the HSJ Chief Executive of the Year Award – huge congratulations Rob).
It was a really great event – a real buzz of excitement and optimism at the opportunity that the last 12 months have given us to really propel forwards our ambition that our people can remain happy, healthy at home.
To demonstrate our transformational changes, driven by our colleagues on the frontline empowered to ‘Act as One’, our place featured nationally by Channel 4’s Despatches programme for the work we are doing to support people experiencing Long COVID. A real example of multi-disciplinary partnership working that includes our community assets.
It is easy to get lost in the complexity of the challenges we face, yet on reflection we have come a long way in Bradford District and Craven and at the heart of this has been a collective will to do the right thing for our people. The people we work with, our colleagues and the people we work for, our citizens.
We have used the Act as One programme to help pull our partnership work together and I am delighted to confirm that Mark Hindmarsh was appointed as Programme Director last week. This builds on the work of the last four years where we have made key senior leadership appointments.
But we are more than just programmes, we are talking about a way of thinking, working to really live the values of Act as One. As system leaders our job is to do the pre-match talk and the post-match analysis with our opponents being health inequalities and poor outcomes. In essence these are our wicked problems, using a bus journey through our place we see the sharp differences in life expectancy across our district while also recognising the number of years someone can expect to live in good health.
We know reinventing the wheel isn’t what’s needed here. We’re proud to be actively involved in the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership which is our integrated care system. Our work broadly aligns to the proposals set out in the Government’s White Paper on the revised Health and Care Bill. We have benefitted from the successful BAME Fellowship programmed developed by the Partnership, with six of our most talented individuals helping us drive our work forward. And this was another award win for our partnership as we took home the HSJ Award for system leadership initiative of the year for the BAME network.
Going back to our integrated care partnership engagement event, we highlighted how we share a similar philosophy to our integrated care system at a place level. As Rob said ‘strong successful places lead to a strong successful partnership’.
It was Dr Richard Haddad who reminded us of some of the firsts that happened in our place. We were the first place to set up a people’s board, the first place to have citywide coverage for community partnerships and our model of working that actively involves community and voluntary organisations influenced the national primary care network contract. And we were the first place to offer a women’s only Covid vaccination clinic.
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe reflected on how good health contributes to the economic success of our place and how the council is re-doubling its efforts, aided by investment, in neighbourhood schemes.
Local places and local neighbourhoods provide us with our strength and we are lucky that across our place we have around 5,000 active community and voluntary organisations (thanks to Kim Shutler for that stat!) as well as really well engaged faith organisations. By harnessing the power of our communities we can deliver long-term, sustainable change so that we reduce incidences of ill health, contribute to a vibrant local economy and help people live healthy, happy at home.
To remind us how much life has changed over the last year, Roy’s intro to the event didn’t involve the usual house-keeping around fire exits and finding the bathroom – although we all did well not to be reminded that ‘you’re on mute’. However Roy ended the session by giving us a new take on Covid and using the acronym to distil our ambition. So we could see Covid as the horrid virus that has affected us all or we use 'COVID' to outline our future ambition – Change, Opportunity, Value, Integration and Data.
Contrasting emotions indeed. Yes the challenges are many, varied and complex but we really do have great foundations to build from.
I like a good analogy but if I’m honest I try and avoid a sporting one – football most especially – but you might have to indulge me here. Team Bradford District and Craven is an enthusiastic team – what we lack in skill, we make up for in sheer determination and a passion for our people – but we’re up against a formidable opponent health inequalities and poor health outcomes. We are not dissuaded, we have our boots on and we are on the pitch and we are playing to win.
Thanks for reading and have a good weekend.
Mel
What else has been happening this week?
12 months of lockdown
Tuesday marked a year of working differently and helping colleagues and communities respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. On 23 March 2020, the Government told people in England to ‘stay at home, protect our NHS and save lives.’ We had to change immediately how we live and work in so many ways, and we continue to live with these changes. As we mark this anniversary, we would like to say thank you to all our colleagues, whatever you do, and to all communities for working together during this most strange and difficult year. Since the first lockdown was announced 12 months ago, we've had two further national lockdowns, and more than 120,000 people have sadly died after testing positive for Covid-19.
2020 will be a year forever remembered for a Pandemic that changed the world that challenged the mental health and wellbeing of us all. The Discover 2020 project has recorded personal stories of those who experience mental health distress, living in lockdown to create an archive of experience for future generations. With funding from the Lottery Heritage Fund, Calderdale and Kirklees Recovery and Wellbeing College teamed up with the Mental Health Museum at Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield to interview and record the voices of people who have suffered mental health distress. These stories will create an archive of experience, hosted by the Mental Health Museum available for future generations. You can read more here.
The Prime Minister gave a statement on coronavirus on Tuesday, reflected on one year since the first lockdown and confirmed a permanent memorial will be built to commemorate this whole period.
Sunday 21 March was Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Lots of our local places shone a light on racial discrimination across our area last Sunday, lighting up key landmarks to help raise awareness.
We will continue to work together with colleagues and communities to deliver our commitments including eliminating racism and inequality and acting on the findings from our tackling health inequalities review.
Boost for cancer patient support as a new 'Train The Trainer' Event is launched
New training designed to help improve the way in which education and support is delivered to people affected by cancer has been launched, with help from funding by West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance. Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has launched 'Train The Trainer', designed to help those with experience in delivering cancer patient training and education who are looking to improve and extend their skills. 'Train The 'Trainer' is also designed to help those not currently involved but who are keen to develop the competence and confidence to do so.
Among those being targeted to take part in the free training – funded through the Cancer Alliance patient education bursary - are volunteers, hospice staff and hospital-based cancer care co-ordinator, who may benefit from additional training to help with locally-delivered patient health and wellbeing support. More information here.
Laughter really is the best medicine as Donna recovers from mouth cancer
Donna Hamer has more reason than most to keep a smile on her face during these difficult times. Donna was diagnosed with oral (mouth) cancer a year ago and is now completely disease free. Smiles and laughter have formed an important part of her exercise recovery plan after a seven-hour operation to remove the tumour left her unable to open her mouth more than a centimetre.
Talking was also recommended as therapy as Donna learned how to manage some of the everyday tasks that most of us take for granted. She’s now back to normal and busy at work after landing a job as Communications and Engagement Manager with the Partnership just months after her surgery.
You can read her story here.
Urgent and Emergency Care Programme Board
The Urgent and Emergency Care Programme Board met on Tuesday 16 March and the board endorsed the pre-hospital working groups priority areas for 2021/22, this is one of three newly established working groups to take forward the new priorities and achieve the strategic aims of the board. The more recently established in-hospital and safer transfer of care working groups also provided brief updates and outlined their next steps. The discussions and challenges posed by partners and providers reassure us that the programme is building momentum as we agree the priorities that we will focus on together on over the next 12 months. Ensuring our approach is collaborative and remains focused on place is important to both transformation and operational work.
Presentations were also given on the West Yorkshire Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) with initial outcomes looking really encouraging and backed up through clinical audit. The local CAS is built upon the UEC programme’s vision to ensure we provide a highly responsive service that delivers care as close to home as possible, minimising disruption and inconvenience for people. The board also heard more about the Children’s Healthcare in the Community (CHiC) Project which has clear alignment to UEC transformation. A more detailed update from the meeting/programme can be viewed here.
West Yorkshire Joint Health Scrutiny Committee (WY JHOSC)
There was a meeting on Monday with WY JHOSC members. Members are local place overview and scrutiny committee chairs. The meeting focused on the White Paper, Integration and Innovation: Working Together to Improve Health and Social Care for All. You can view the agenda and papers here.
Health and Care Champions
Our partner BTM has welcomed Kelly Hartley as a new project worker, funded by the Partnership, for our Health and Care Champions project. Kelly has shared her profile with the programme:
My name is Kelly Hartley, and I am 21 years old. My job role is a Learning Disability and Autism Health and Care Champions Development Coordinator. I started in February 2021 and I am here to help advocate for people with disabilities by teaming up with other people with disabilities to help change and adapt hospitals to their needs.
I work with my colleague Hara to find different ways to communicate with people with disabilities and help build and deliver training for people that work within hospital trusts. The part of the job that I enjoy most is research and sharing what I learned; by talking to people I can show understanding in different conditions and I also enjoy the responsibility.
The most recent projects I have been asked to do is to do presentations and interactive activities about Coronavirus, Vaccines and Diabetes. I was most nervous about how to talk to people with disabilities to be able to show understanding and adapt to others needs. However I am doing my best and have even come up with ideas like a quiz on Diabetes which all the members enjoyed.
The way I work with Hara is to update and speak with her every day to discuss feedback and future adaptation for future projects. You can read more here.
Autism
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership aims to achieve a 10% reduction in the gap in life expectancy between people with mental ill-health, learning disabilities and autism, and the general population by 2024. Autism Awareness Week (29 March – 4 April) provides the Partnership with an opportunity to showcase the work we are doing to help reduce inequalities for autistic people.
Our #AutismAllies project will publish a report bringing together case studies of the very best of the work that is going on across West Yorkshire and Harrogate to support autistic people, sharing good practice and case studies across the whole system, prepared for the Partnership by the Academic Health Science Network. You can read the report here.
Big line up to combat impact of trauma and adversity across West Yorkshire and Harrogate
Our Partnership launched the Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Knowledge Exchange in partnership with West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit from Monday to Wednesday this week, with over 1500 people from across the area, country and even India attending.
With a focus on adversity, trauma and the importance of protective factors, the event covered the growing evidence of the impacts of adverse and traumatic experiences and toxic stress throughout life. Traumatic and adverse experiences increase the risk of later development of poor mental health, adverse behavioural responses, and increased risk of physical illnesses.
The event highlighted how joined up working and the development of trusted compassionate services from preconception through to adult life can support the development of protective factors and improve resilience. It will emphasise the importance of organisations working better together to prevent negative life experiences whilst creating a society that is more connected and healthy.
Event attendees were tasked over the three days to listen, respond and share evidence, knowledge and practice. There was an emphasis on how grassroots expertise can underpin the shifts in culture and practice needed to achieve the Partnership’s vision of ensuring the area is trauma informed and responsive to people’s needs. The event workshops, led by specialists in the field including those with experience of trauma, highlighted how when organisations come together to support people at the right time in their life they can support them better to lead a long, healthy life where possible free from the impact of trauma.
You can find out more about the event here, including an amazing illustration that captures all the key themes, ambitions and action points from Day 1 of the event.
NHS Digital Academy’s Digital Health Leadership Programme
Applications for Cohort 4 of the Digital Health Leadership Programme (NHS Digital Academy) will open on Thursday, 1 April 2021 and close on Friday, 30 April. New cohorts will start in September 2021. All the latest updates are on the NHS Digital Academy website and the Digital Readiness Twitter account @HEE_DigiReady. This includes support throughout the application process, top tips, case studies and access to webinars. The website also includes the future vision for increasing access for more people. Establishing the NHS Digital Academy is a workstream within the HEE Digital Readiness Programme. This programme is commissioned by NHSX.
Digital aspirants
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust are part of the second wave of NHS trusts to receive NHS Digital Aspirant programme funding. The trusts will use the £250,000 funding to develop their digital strategy and business case. Through the Digital Aspirant programme nearly 60 trusts are now receiving funding and support for their digital transformation journey. The Digital Aspirant programme helps NHS trusts raise their digital maturity by supporting organisations to deliver a set of core capabilities, reducing the gap between the levels of digitisation across the NHS. See the NHSX website and the HTN news pages for more information.
Innovation and Improvement Board
The Innovation and Improvement Programme Board, which provides strategic direction and expert input into the Partnership’s innovation and improvement activity, met on Tuesday. The Board has recently been expanded and considered how innovation and improvement activity can support achievement our 10 big ambitions, as well as proposals to map the innovation and improvement assets in West Yorkshire and Harrogate to promote partnership working. The Board also heard from the Yorkshire and The Humber Academic Health Science Network on the upcoming MedTech Funding Mandate, which requires hospital trusts to use named devices, diagnostics or digital products that offer savings to the NHS and, through NICE guidance, are proven to be effective, and expressed interest in the proposed Born and Bred in West Yorkshire initiative, modelled on the very successful Born in Bradford study.
Insulin safety e-learning module – free to NHS trusts
A new e-learning module and resource is being made available free of charge to NHS trusts, to support better management of inpatients who are on insulin. NHS trusts can access the resource and make this available to all inpatient health care professionals. See a demo of the e-learning module for more information. If you or your team are interested in using this e-learning in your trust please email the ITS Diabetes team: ITSdiabetes
Green social prescribing grants
We have received 204 applicants for our green social prescribing grants. These are grants to demonstrate the value of green space and not to fund business as usual in projects that are already running. We’ll announce winners in the next couple of weeks. We’ve also agreed to fund some mentoring through the AHSN to help green health tech innovations make it to market, further enhanced our relationships with WYCA via a health and travel board and have had preliminary responses to our staff and citizen engagement work.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Chairs and Leaders Reference Group
We have established a Chairs and Leaders Reference Group as part of our work to implement any changes from the NHS Legislation White Paper for Integrated Care Systems proposals. The group is made up of Leaders of Local Authorities in West Yorkshire and Harrogate; Clinical Chairs of Clinical Commissioning Groups and Chairs of NHS Trusts and the Chair of Locala. The group will meet monthly. In this long read, The Kings Fund describes the main proposals of the NHS legislation.
World Down Syndrome Day (Sunday 21 March)
Down syndrome (or Trisomy 21) is a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement that has always been a part of the human condition. The best people to answer many questions about Down syndrome are people with Down syndrome.
In this short film for the BBC, actor and Mencap ambassador George Webster dispels five myths about Down Syndrome.
Understanding how Covid-19 has changed our health and care system:
impacts, innovations and learning
Since the onset of the pandemic, we have been working in collaboration with Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) to evaluate the impact of the rapid innovations adopted in response to the challenges posed by Covid-19. This work resulted in the publication of a research-led Rapid Insights report that was published last September to capture these significant changes that were possible through digital innovation, reconfiguring services and enhanced partnership collaboration.
This week Richard Stubbs, CEO of the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN, has published his reflections on the main findings emerged from this work looking at significant lessons learnt across the whole North East and Yorkshire healthcare systems. This article highlights some of the main enablers that helped the rapid implementation of considerable service transformations and looks at the future, at what changes should be retained and what it is needed to sustain those beneficial changes in a continuing evolving landscape. More here.