Posted on: 22 October 2021
Hello everyone,
We are Helen, Mark, and Shak . We are the joint programme directors, with Shak as our strategic comms and engagement lead, for the Act as One system transformation programmes for Bradford District and Craven, which are underpinning the work we are doing across wider health and care partnership at place. Our place-based programmes are contributing to or benefitting from the work we are doing across our wider partnership as an integrated care system.
Our system transformation programmes cover
- Access to care
- Ageing well
- Better births
- Children and young people
- Diabetes
- Healthy Hearts
- Respiratory
- And a number under mental health, learning disabilities and autism.
In addition, we have a number of enablers that help to make transformation and system change happen; sometimes those changes are noticeable, sometimes they are subtle. Our enablers include digital, estates, workforce, population health and healthy lifestyles.
While we may see these developments as new or as being led by the proposals outlined in the Health and Care Bill, that is not the case as we have been working in a collaborative way across our place for a number of years now. Our work has influenced both regional and national policy. From the successful implementation of our healthy hearts programme through to our continued focus on delivering the best outcomes for people with a learning disability.
During the summer, through our access to care programme, we set up our A&E navigator scheme that sees a range of agencies working with victims or perpetrators of crime, aged 16-24. This is to reduce the risk of people either becoming a victim or committing violent crimes in the future. We have also been working with our clinical teams across primary and secondary care to improve and develop new referral pathways for our Assist referral support system to make it easier for clinical teams to access the right service first time.
In September we were proud to welcome Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of NHS England, to find out more about our innovative approach to embedding mental health support teams in schools. Our whole school ethos has seen us develop one of the most wide-reaching programmes to support children and young people.
Also, we were delighted to welcome Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Chief Midwifery Officer at NHS England and Nigel Acheson, Deputy Inspector at the Care Quality Commission to our better births maternity safety event. This gave us the opportunity to demonstrate how we have worked as a partnership to respond to the recommendations set out in the Ockenden Report, and to ensure we provide the best possible care for mothers and babies as well as wider family members. Please do take a look at our video highlighting why this matters.
Our work on deconditioning has seen us take a whole community approach by using small grant funding so that voluntary and community groups can develop activities that get people active. This reduces the risk of deconditioning, while also giving people a chance to socialise in a safe way as we come out of lockdown.
We have been working with the Bangladeshi community in Keighley to find out more about their experiences of managing Type 2 Diabetes, as well as how people are making lifestyle changes to reduce their risk of getting the condition. This has helped us work with our primary care networks and community partnerships to develop an initiative that builds on the lessons learned.
All of us have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in some way. For those who are making a recovery from the disease it can be a challenging time, none more so than for those who are affected by long/post Covid. Learning from the work in Leeds, we have now set up a long/post Covid service across Bradford District and Craven. We also have received funding from NHSx to develop MyCare24, which offers remote support for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
We are proud of being a centre for innovation and were delighted to be selected as one of four Health Foundation innovation hubs. Our focus will be on anticipatory care, enhanced health in care homes, and urgent community response as part of our wider efforts to address health inequalities. We are about to recruit a programme lead which will help us with our vision to adapt and spread the learning from our ageing well programme.
“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)
We talk about programmes, projects and work streams, but ultimately it’s about what matters to our people ;whether that is the appropriately 33,000 strong health and care workforce or the almost 650,000 people we are responsible for at place. So, the biggest enabler for us is engagement with our people, whatever hat they may be wearing.
Act as One is our health and care partnership and it’s also the way we do things around here. While we’re embedding that way of thinking and working, we are also keen to ‘invert the power to act’. In other words, decision making. Change and the power to make a difference is driven by people and communities and not through organisations and large systems. By harnessing the power of our communities and by bringing different voices to the decision making table we can look at delivering sustainable change.
A piece of editorial about new power in the Harvard Business Review really resonates with us and our efforts to get more dissenters or ‘disruptors’ in the room to help make better decisions. One of many quotes that stands out for us is: “participants go beyond supporting or sharing other people’s efforts and contribute their own. YouTube creators, Etsy artisans, and TaskRabbit errand-runners are all examples of people who participate by producing.”
We’ve seen this recently through the Young in Covid project. Courageous young people from our place shared their raw and emotional experiences of how the pandemic has affected them, their friends, their families and their communities. Building on this and other great initiatives across our place, we are working on a systemic and sustainable approach to collecting insight and understanding people’s experiences so we can create a health and care system that works for our communities and our colleagues.
Thank you for reading, we would welcome you getting in touch to find out more. And do give us a follow on Twitter @ActAsOneBDC
Have a good weekend
What else has been happening ths week?
Asking tomorrow’s questions today
The latest in our series of community resilience events took place last Friday, with over 80 people taking part.
The fourth in the ‘Stronger, healthier, better together’ series, once again brought voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners across the area together. The aim was to give colleagues the opportunity to ask questions direct about health and care developments taking place.
The online event hosted by Rob Webster, our Partnership CEO Lead and Hilary Thompson, Lead for the Harnessing the Power of Communities, included a panel of six health and care leaders.
Helen Hirst, Chief Officer for Bradford district and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group and Partnership Lead for the Partnership’s System Leadership and Development Programme- Brendan Brown, CEO for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and Partnership CEO Lead for the Partnership’s Workforce Programme
- Frances Newall, NHS England, Head of Engagement and Communications
- Rachael Loftus, Head of Regional Health Partnerships
- Nahid Rasool, Chief Executive for Shantona Women’s and Family Centre, Leeds
- Fatima Khan-Shah, Partnership Programme Director for Unpaid Carers and Personalised Care.
Having the VCSE as members of our Partnership is critical to our success. Bringing colleagues together in this way gives everyone a chance to have their say on health and care developments across the area as well as the future of our integrated care system. In doing so, we will be able to hear directly about what is important to them and the diverse communities they support. Discussions included ‘never seeing the VCSE as being a cheaper alternative or something that you can’t afford to invest in’ and ‘recognising that by not investing in the VCSE everything becomes more expensive’.
We are grateful to everyone who gave their time to make this an inspiring and exciting question time event, including our speakers, VCSE partners and volunteers.
Partnership supports Let’s Eat: Young Carers Cookbook
Across West Yorkshire over 1500 young carers are registered with young carers services who support them with everyday challenges such as juggling school, friendships, social life and caring for their loved one.
Working together with the Partnership over ten young carers have developed a young carers cookbook aimed at highlighting the incredible work they do alongside support available to them across the area.
Engagement with young carers highlighted a need for co-produced resources for young carers to support their health and well-being, resulting in the launch of the Partnership’s Young Carers Support App, and production of the Let’s Eat: Young Carers Cookbook.
Working in partnership with Verd de Gris arts - an award-winning creative arts company from Hebden Bridge – the cookbook was designed via creative workshops to co-produce the content. The purpose of the workshops was to create a fun environment enabling young people to talk about food and recipes, combining that with their own unique stories. Carers ages ranged from six to fourteen years old. This artistic content and the voice of the young carer has been beautifully and skilfully captured by Ver de Gris arts in the creation of the cookbook. You can read more about the cookbook here.
Root Out Racism/Act as One Black History Month virtual event 28 October from 1-3pm
Who’s got the power? Celebrating Black History Month. Exploring the notion of power and race. Join this virtual event on 28 October from 1-3pm to celebrate Black history, discuss the notion of ‘power’ and how we can change the power dynamic set against the historical context. We will have a panel of local speakers talking about their personal experiences, sharing their insights, and helping lead this important discussion.
This event has been organised by Bradford Council, Race Equality Network and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of the Act as One health and care partnership for Bradford District and Craven. Interested in coming along, please email Diversity
A pioneering licensing initiative
A pioneering licensing initiative to improve the safety and security of bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels has been launched across West Yorkshire.
It follows a recent YouGov poll in which 79% of adults agreed that ‘recent publicity around the safety of women and girls has made it more important for licensed premises to improve their safety procedures’. Funded by the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), it is being delivered in partnership with the West Yorkshire Public Health Reducing Violent Crime Network, which includes Public Health, Police and Council Licensing Teams. A total of 300 specially selected licensed premises across Bradford, Calderdale, Wakefield, and Kirklees are being invited to take part in the scheme, which encourages venues to improve their operational security and management practices year on year.
You can read more about the initiative here and more information for venues is available on the Licensing Savvy website.
#SpreadTheKindness campaign update
Video number five from the #SpreadTheKindness campaign ambassadors arrived this week. The TikTok style video is about self-care and is available to view now.
Over 31 local organisations working alongside young people across West Yorkshire and Harrogate have signed up to support #SpreadTheKindness campaign. A warm welcome to all the new organisations and support services joining us. These include, Crofton and Sharlston Medical Practice, Children Inspired by Yoga, The Kindness Hub, North Huddersfield Trust School, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, Critical Care Unit (gate 30), The Boys' Brigade 18th Halifax Company, Carlton Bolling, Enabling Youth, Home Bird Property and Upper Batley High School.
Fantastic to see the young people from the youth collective led by the Youth Work Unit (@YouthWorkUnit) that helped to co-create #LookingOutForEachOther on a recent residential trip using the campaign materials. Here they can be seen using the 5 ways to kindness postcards and writing supportive and encouraging messages to each other and as part of the #SpreadTheKindness campaign.
The Youth Association (@YouthAssocUK) also shared images on social media of how young people they work alongside used the 5 ways to spread kindness postcards. The #SpreadTheKindness campaign ambassadors also spoke to BCB radio on Wednesday 13 October to raise awareness of the campaign and you can listen to this here. There’s also a new news story on the website available to read now. All campaign information can be found at https://ourneighbours.org.uk. Thank you very much for helping to #SpreadTheKindness.
Dr Owen Williams, OBE and Wallace Sampson, OBE
This week Owen Williams, CEO from Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust and Wallace Sampson, Chief Executive of Harrogate Borough Council attended the ceremony at Windsor Castle to receive their medals after each being appointed an Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours, in 2019, for services to health and community.
Urgent and Emergency Care Programme Board update
The Urgent and Emergency Care Programme (UEC) Board met on Tuesday. The Board discussed the three delivery programmes, and an agreement was made that the three working groups (i.e., pre-hospital, in-hospital, and safer transfer of care) would review the transformation work areas and focus on a smaller number to maximise outcomes and reduce system pressures this winter. There was a presentation on whole system and UEC programme approach to winter. This highlighted winter planning principles for example, system resilience 365 days of the year, staff support and wellbeing arrangements in place to enable a resilient workforce and health Inequalities as integral to all plans. National funding for urgent and emergency care monies for the second half of the year were also discussed.
Improving Population Health Programme Board
The Improving Population Health Programme Board met on Friday, 15 October. The board reflected on all the latest activities across climate change, diabetes, housing for health, health inequalities, prevention and reducing violent crime.
We had fabulous input from organisations showcasing how they’ve been making a difference through funding. This included:
- GFS Community Enterprise - pop-up meals at various Covid secure sites in the York Road Local Care Partnership area
- Bradford Bulls Foundation – the re-launch of Back Onside, a free health and wellbeing initiative designed to get people back to enjoying exercise
- Cloverleaf Advocacy - the Cook Together, Share Together project in Calderdale and Kirklees helping people with learning disabilities to cook budget friendly healthy, nutritious and tasty meals
- Black Health Forum - establishing a community digital connection project
The board heard about the work being progressed as part of the Health Inequalities Academy. This includes Healthy Hospitals - a framework to guide work on addressing health inequalities in acute and mental health trust settings across the area. We’ve held two recent Healthy Hospital Community of Practice meetings around DNA (did not attend) rates and waiting lists.
It also included an update on the launch of our Health Equity Fellowship where we are looking for 30 fellows to support our work to tackle health inequalities and make West Yorkshire an equity informed system.
Board members were asked to endorse an evaluation framework for assessing the impact on health inequalities and approved plans for the West Yorkshire Alcohol Alliance, which arose from the work to support our night-time economy.
The board is chaired by Dr James Thomas, Chair of Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group and Robin Tuddenham, CEO for Calderdale Council and Chief Officer for Calderdale Commissioning.
West Yorkshire Community Health Services Provider Collaborative
The West Yorkshire Community Health Services Provider Collaborative held its second meeting on Monday. The Collaborative includes Chairs and Chief Executive Officers from community providers, who have come together to share learning on good practice to address common issues within the sector, help provide the views and voice for the sector at a West Yorkshire level and explore areas where it would add value to work together on potential joint solutions.
The focus of October’s meeting was to review and discuss three proposals for joint working that were discussed at the Collaborative’s first meeting in June. These proposals covered areas for potential collective working that could improve issues relating to workforce supply and training, development of a strategy for community rehabilitation services that builds on the learning and innovations models to support people with long-Covid. The third one is to consider a methodology and evidence base that could demonstrate impact and benefits for providers and ultimately people receiving support. The Collaborative agreed that further development work in these areas would add value, and this will be taken forward over the coming months and be further reviewed at the Collaborative’s next meeting in February.
Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme Board
The Programme Board met on Tuesday 12 October and considered a varied agenda covering topics including Learning Disabilities, Workforce diversity, Children and Young People, Autism and more. Highlights of the discussions are that:
- The Adult Secure and Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service Lead Provider Collaboratives both went live on 1 October. More communications about this important step forward will follow shortly. You can read more about Lead Provider Collaboratives on the NHS England website and on the Partnership website.
- The Programme is finalising the West Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Mental Health plan with a focus on crisis, eating disorders, neurodiversity and transition.
- Our inpatient oversight lead has started working across the three Mental Health Trusts to support patient flow and inpatient pressure collaboration, particularly with regard to understanding and supporting ways of working around PICU and relationships with the Independent Sector.
- The staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub therapeutic capacity is now seeing increased demand during September and October. We are exploring options to bring in more immediate psychological support and promoting the range of self-help resources available across our places and organisations.
- We have hosted well attended events under our Workforce programme, including our first virtual recruitment fair and future workforce solutions event which gave colleagues the opportunity to find out more about some of the new emerging professional roles in Mental Health and Learning Disability Services, focusing on how these roles can offer valuable future workforce solutions to enhance our workforce models and improve our services.
- We’ve worked collectively to produce our proposed operating model for the Programme with a focus on sustaining existing resource at place and system, and evolving our ways of working but grounded in existing structures and relationships.
'We Work Together' podcast back for a new series
We Work Together, our podcast about people who work together to improve health and care in West Yorkshire, is back for a second series.
In this first episode of the new series, colleagues from the Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, together with people working in the care sector, have recorded a special episode of the We Work Together podcast to discussing issues facing the care home sector during the pandemic.
Consultant Clinical Psychologist Nigel Wainwright talked to care home Registered Manager Mark Fry-Jones and Juliet Green from Skills for Care and learned more about their own feelings and how they have approached managing the challenges they have faced since March 2020.
You can find out more about the Hub at workforce.wyhpartnership.co.uk and more about the services and support available for wellbeing from Skills for Care.
Leeds Hospitals awarded NMC nurse testing centre status
A contract to test the skills and knowledge of nurses trained overseas and those returning to practice after a significant time away has been awarded to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – and it will be the only test centre in the country based in an NHS trust.
The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) part of the Test of Competence (ToC) is a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirement and helps to ensure nurses are able to care for people safely and effectively.
The state-of-the-art testing facility, which will be based at Leeds General Infirmary from February 2022, will be able to deliver up to 7,000 tests per year. The facility will be accessible to nurses from across the country – it’s not limited to people in Leeds.
The OSCE is designed to enable nurses and midwives to demonstrate their ability to apply their professional knowledge and skills against the NMC standards of proficiency. It is designed to test practical clinical skills as well as the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of patient care.
You can read more about Leeds Hospitals being awarded NMC nurse testing centre status here.
Health Equity Fellowship Programme
We are launching the Health Equity Fellowship Programme for our Partnership and are looking for 30 fellows to join us. Their role will be to support our work to tackle health inequalities and make West Yorkshire an equity informed system.
The selection process starts from 1 November with a lunch and learn session and expected to close interested colleagues by 6 December ready to join the programme in March 2022. More information is available here. You can also contact Sarah Smith, Consultant in Public Health, Programme Director, Improving Population Health sarah.smith23@nhs.net or Emm Irving, Public Health Specialist, Senior Manager Improving Population Health emmerline.
Celebrating the University of Bradford's Summer Experience programme
Local employers including health and care partners came together with University of Bradford students and staff last week to celebrate the university's 'Summer Experience' student placement scheme. The event, which was held online, was an opportunity for employers to thank students for their work and for students to share and reflect upon their experiences.
Among the speakers was scheme participant Numan Arain, who spent six weeks with West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership this August and September. To find out more about Summer Experience and sign up to the programme, visit https://