Posted on: 22 November 2018
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership were highly commended in a prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) award in the System Led Support for Carers category on Wednesday 21 November.
A Partnership formed from the NHS, councils, independent care providers, Healthwatch and hundreds of carer and community organisations; the Partnership is working together across Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield to further support 260,000 unpaid carers, including young people who care for parents and siblings.
Fatima Khan-Shah, Partnership lead for unpaid carers said: ‘We are delighted to have been highly commended for the Partnership’s work across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. Receiving this prestigious award is great. However, it most importantly highlights the role of unpaid carers everywhere and gives them the identification, value and recognition they deserve. There is a lot of great work taking place across our area, including that of community partners and charities – who also make a positive difference to carers lives on the ground’.
Rob Webster, CEO Lead for the Partnership said: ‘It’s good news the work we are doing has been recognised nationally. We’re at the start of our journey and more must be done to support carers who work tirelessly 24/7 to care for family, friends and neighbours. We have some great work going on in each of our six local places which ultimately means better support for carers across our area. We’re doing all we can to share this good practice and improve the wellbeing of each and every carer – this is a priority for us’.
The value of the contribution delivered by carers across West Yorkshire and Harrogate is approx. £4.5 billion per year. For example this would mean the cost of care provided by one carer in Wakefield to the state would be approximately £19,000 per year. The Partnership’s programme of work includes identifying hidden carers – those who don’t see themselves as such - and improving support across the whole health care system whilst sharing the great work happening in local places.
Other winners across West Yorkshire and Harrogate include Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for Improvement in Emergency and Urgent Care category for a virtual ward (ACE project) which brings care to children and young people in the comfort of their home, preventing unnecessary admissions to hospital; and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for best staff engagement. Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, mHabitat and Advanced Digital Innovation were also highly commended for their work on the 'Let Me Show You app' in the Patient Digital Participation category. Wakefield GP confederation, Conexus Healthcare won the 'Community or Primary Care Services Redesign (North/Midlands/East)' category, at the 2018 HSJ Awards for its national consultancy and training programme on care navigation. Care navigation is a pioneering training programme developed in Wakefield that gives GP practice receptionists the skills to advise on local health and social care services that could help patients faster.
‘The value of the integrated care system is that we can share the good work, spread the learning and get improved services adopted everywhere. Huge congratulations to all winners and those who have been recognised for their hard work and commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of everyone living across our area. This is after all what we are all about’ said Rob.
You can find out more about the Partnership’s work to support carers at https://
ENDS