Why do we need a West Yorkshire and Harrogate Five Year Plan?
In 2018 the government announced that the NHS budget would be increased by £20 billion a year. In January 2019, the NHS in England published a Long Term Plan for spending this extra money, covering everything from making care better to investing more money in technology and helping more people stay well.
Alongside other Partnerships like ours (also known as integrated care systems and sustainability transformation partnerships) we were asked to develop a Five Year Plan (2019-2024) which will set out how we will achieve the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan for the 2.7million people living across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
Does my local area have a plan?
This Plan covers a large geographical area including the following local authorities: Bradford district and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield. These are the areas covered by the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership. You see a list of our partners here.
All local areas have their own plans and they can be found on your local council Health and Wellbeing Board website.
This important Plan spells out our collective ambitions for the people of West Yorkshire and Harrogate. It remains true to our model of distributed leadership where the majority of work takes place in our six local places. By focusing on collaboration we are improving outcomes locally. We know that by working better together at every level and listening to people, we can improve services, health and life chances.
The Partnership’s priorities have been agreed by all partners.
Who decided what went in the Plan?
The refreshed Plan builds on ‘Our Next Steps to Better Health and Care for Everyone’ published in February 2018. It details how the Partnership works on priority programmes; including cancer, urgent care, mental health, and support for people with learning disabilities, maternity care and children and young people, to name a few.
Partners, stakeholders and the public were all involved in the planning, design and delivery of this refreshed plan. NHS England and NHS Improvement funded Healthwatch England to support integrated care systems like ours to engage with their communities and patient groups via their local Healthwatch. We have worked with local Healthwatch groups who have conducted surveys and over 15 focus group sessions across the area with easily overlooked people from different equality groups such as those with mental health conditions; dementia and carers, LGBTQ, disability, faith groups and young people. We have worked as a Partnership to produce this plan and looked at engagement activities which have taken place across the area to inform our thinking. You can read the Healthwatch report and the Partnership’s response here.
How will you know you are making a difference?
We are committed to meaningful conversations with people (including staff) and we believe that this approach informs the ambitions of our Partnership - to work in an open and transparent way with communities. Effective public involvement particularly those who are overlooked, will ensure that we are truly making the right decisions about our health and care services and listening to local voices. We publish a weekly update, engagement plans and reports. This and other ways of communicating have been put in place to include the public, including carers, and community organisations in the work of our West Yorkshire and Harrogate programmes. Our principles for communications, engagement and consultation, and our approach to working with local people are set out in our Communications and Engagement Plan 2018.
Our programmes regularly update our System Oversight Assurance Group and other leadership groups on the progress they are making as well as any challenges they face. This group takes an overview of progress on our shared priority programmes, and seeks to agree collective action to help tackle shared challenges. Workforce, capacity, innovation and the power of working as a Partnership are all discussed.
We also hold check and confirm sessions every year to look at how the work programmes are doing to reach their ambitions. Some of our programmes also report into NHS England and NHS Improvement on the work they are doing.
What happens if you don’t deliver on your ambitions?
We have developed corporate governance and accountability arrangements. [LINK]
Is this about privatisation of the NHS?
There is absolutely no intention to move healthcare away from being entirely publically funded. What we really want is to make ways of working for staff much easier – something that we have heard loud and clear, more local control and freedom to make decisions for people and additional funding to support our plans, at both a local place level and across our West Yorkshire and Harrogate priorities. So we have the whole system working for the whole system with one budget and so people don’t have to repeat their story over and over again. The main participants involved in developing integrated care are NHS organisations, councils and other public sector partners and they are making progress by collaborating not competing.
What role do councils, Healthwatch and voluntary / community organisations have in delivering our Plan?
We work closely with eight local councils, six Healthwatches and many community organisations. We aim to achieve closer partnership working with shared priorities in each of the six local places (Bradford district and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield) and across the West Yorkshire and Harrogate programme priorities. This includes health and care partners, local councils, community organisations, housing and employment services.
Do you have the money to deliver your plan?
The plan is based on the five year financial settlement announced alongside the NHS Long Term Plan. As a partnership we are working together to ensure we can deliver our plan within the resources we have available to us. We continue to make the case for a sustainable approach to social care funding.
How can I get involved in the Partnership?
Engagement gives people an opportunity to have their say on services. And by gathering people’s views it helps us understand what matters to communities. It is really important for us to hear people’s comments, ideas and suggestions about ways in which we can make services better. Engagement is also about developing relationships and partnerships, we want to make sure that the voice of local people and partners are heard. We are also committed to ensuring that our delivery of engagement and consultation meets the needs of people living in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
No decision will be made about changes to health care services that you receive without us asking you about it first. It's important that you have your say to shape and improve local services. We want you to help us to plan, develop and improve services by sharing your views and experiences. You can get involved by becoming a representative on one of the priority work areas.
If you would like to know more, have your say about any proposals or find out about our upcoming engagement and consultation activity, please contact us by emailing westyorkshire.
Are you going to ask the public about your Plan’s ambitions?
Our communications and engagement plan sets out our principles for communications, engagement and consultation and our approach to working with local people. You can also view our easy read version here. Engaging and communicating with partners, stakeholders and the public in the planning, design and delivery is essential if we are to get this right. We are committed to transparency and meaningful engagement in our work. We have also developed an involvement framework which builds on the communications and engagement plan to describe at a West Yorkshire and Harrogate level our approach to involvement.
It’s important to note we are not starting from scratch. West Yorkshire and Harrogate engagement and consultation mapping documents and timelines have been updated and there is a wealth of other expertise via our West Yorkshire and Harrogate priority programmes and local place engagement networks, for example public assurance groups, patient reference groups, and community champions - an asset based approach. We need to make sure we maximise all existing engagement mechanisms without duplication of effort and cost, whilst making the very most of this important Healthwatch engagement report.
All of this will stand us in good stead as we implement the ambitions of our Five Year Plan.
What if I don’t agree with what is in the Plan?
We want you to help us to plan, develop and improve services by sharing your views and experiences. If you would like to know more, have your say about any proposals or find out about our upcoming engagement and consultation activity, please contact us by emailing westyorkshire.
There are some things missing from the Plan, does that mean they aren’t important to the Partnership?
Transforming healthcare and improving health across the board is important to us. We continue to focus on collaboration to improve outcomes locally – working better together at every level and putting the person at the centre of all we do. We have established a set of West Yorkshire and Harrogate programmes which have been agreed by partners and align to our local priorities and the NHS Long Term Plan. The majority of care and support is delivered locally and this work will be highlighted in our six local place plans.
Will this Plan change or be updated because five years seems like a long time?
All West Yorkshire and Harrogate priority programmes have reviewed their objectives against the NHS Long Term Plan to identify whether new objectives should be added, whether any work should be de-prioritised, and whether there are any additional capacity requirements. The ambitions set out in the Plan are also aligned to the Partnership Board priorities. For example tackling health inequalities and improving the lives of the poorest, the fastest is big in the Plan as is the importance of local decision making. Joining up services for people at a local level remains at the heart of the Partnership. We will continue to review our plan, making sure we deliver the best health and wellbeing for everyone living across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
What will be the impact of the EU exit on the Plan?
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is leading the response to EU Exit across the health and care sector. DHSC is also the key contact for the sector with the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) and the Cabinet Office. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with DHSC to best prepare the NHS.
DHSC has produced EU Exit Operational Guidance which outlines the actions that providers and commissioners of health and social care services should take to prepare for, and manage, the risks of a no-deal exit scenario.