This week’s leadership message comes from Dr Vishal Sharma

Posted on: 28 March 2025

This week’s leadership message comes from Dr Vishal Sharma, Associate Director at the Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment (SDE), Associate Director of the Improvement Academy, and Implementation co-lead for the Yorkshire and Humber NIHR Applied Research Collaboration

Image of Dr Vishal Sharma Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment: Key enabler to healthcare research in the region

The NHS has a huge collection of medical records from more than 65 million patients, going back many years. This has immense potential to be used for life-saving research and innovations. To ensure this data is used transparently, efficiently and securely, the government launched Data Saves Lives: Reshaping Health and Social Care with Data a strategy that sets out a vision on how to make better use of data for research and innovation. At the heart of this strategy is the NHS Research Secure Data Environment network that consists of 11 sub-national SDEs across England.

The Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment (SDE) is a sub-national SDE that acts as a safe and secure ‘one-stop shop’ where researchers can access and analyse healthcare and cross-sector data, such as housing and education records. It operates as a federation of NHS trusts, three integrated care boards (ICBs) across the region and local universities, covering a population of over 5 million people. The Yorkshire and Humber SDE is building on established data infrastructure, products and services, such as the CUREd+ and Connected Bradford research databases, both of which provide linked datasets for research that track the same sample at different points in time.

Why this matters

For researchers, the Yorkshire and Humber SDE makes it easier to identify and access diverse research-ready data through a secure and managed process. The datasets cover the whole region and can be used to support research projects, including clinical trials, real-world studies, epidemiological studies and health systems research.

Below is a diagram of how the SDE works and supports researchers all alongside their research project:

We recognise that holding people’s healthcare records is a huge privilege. That’s why the Yorkshire and Humber SDE uses cutting-edge de-identification techniques to protect people’s privacy. It means the information provided for research will not include identifiers, so individual people cannot be recognised.

Real-life impact

In a recent example demonstrating the potential of SDEs, using Connected Bradford datasets available through Yorkshire and Humber SDE, researchers were able to highlight the impact on health, particularly on children, from exposure to high levels of pollution. This led to the development and rollout of the Bradford Clean Air Zone which, since September 2022, has shown significant improvements in air quality and reductions in GP attendances for patients with respiratory and cardiovascular issues. The BiB Breathes study’s interim report revealed remarkable healthcare improvements:

598 fewer monthly GP visits for respiratory health issues
134 fewer monthly visits for cardiovascular problems
estimated NHS savings of £30,000 per month from fewer GP appointments

Patient and public engagement

The Yorkshire and Humber SDE is shaped by feedback from our communities, patients and healthcare workers. We gather their views through workshops, surveys and public involvement groups. Their insights help us make sure the SDE works well for everyone. Find out more about our public involvement work here.

Get involved

We invite healthcare providers across Yorkshire and Humber to join and help us in making data work for better healthcare. For more information on how to place your datasets into the Yorkshire and Humber SDE or on accessing existing datasets, products and services, please contact the team at YHSDE@bthft.nhs.uk

We always want to hear from patients, carers, members of the public and active trial participants, those taking part in the study in question. Join our public events and surveys to help shape the future of healthcare research.

Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter where you will be the first to receive regular updates about expanding datasets and platform capabilities, insights from our patient and public involvement group and real-world case studies showing our impact in the community.

Thank you for reading. If you’d like to know more, please get in touch.

@v1sharma.bsky.social @drandyclegg.bsky.social

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-waywell-71394961/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/v1sharma/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daria-zakharets/

We also have a blog from Leanne Brown, Head of Health and Wellbeing at Wakefield District Homes, which will become Vico Homes from 1 April 2025

I started my career at Job Centre Plus and quickly found my passion for supporting people and the importance of advocacy. I had assumed my time at the job centre in Harehills, Leeds had given me a good understanding of the deprivation faced by some of our communities and hoped this would support me in my move to becoming a debt officer at Wakefield District Housing (WDH). I cannot believe how wrong I was.

As a debt officer, I visited customers in our neighbourhoods and it was only then, when I was stood in the place they called home, that I realised the challenges and barriers that some of our customers were up against. I quickly realised that the threat of legal action wasn’t an effective solution to rent arrears. I had to look at the wider issues they faced to be able to provide a sustainable solution to support them to improve their financial confidence and wellbeing.

I often worked with our wellbeing team, which included clinically trained mental health navigators and wellbeing caseworkers. Their support and advice are invaluable to customers who can benefit from the information and interventions to help them overcome their personal, physical and mental health barriers. I also made many referrals to our cash wise team, who would work more intensely with my customers to carry out full financial health checks, apply for grants and support them to maximise their income and reduce their monthly outgoings and bills.

I created effective local networks by working with our estates team to support customers to manage their homes. I also worked really closely with our community safety team, who supported customers experiencing serious forms of anti-social behaviour or domestic abuse.

These support principles have continued throughout my various roles working with WDH customers. The driver has always been ensuring customers live in healthy and sustainable housing. As WDH goes above and beyond the typical role of a landlord, I was lucky to have the wealth of support options available to me to provide the wrap around holistic support.

From 1 April, WDH is rebranding to become Vico Homes. Our name change reflects our vision to create better futures and vibrant communities, building on the strong partnerships we have created with health partners that play a pivotal role in making our vision a reality.

It’s well known that housing is a wider determinant of health and Vico Homes understands and embraces the advantages of working closely with the NHS to provide meaningful partnerships, working together to provide support to the people who live in our 31,000 homes.

In 2016 Sarah Roxby, our executive director of customers and communities took on a 12-month secondment in what was then Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to understand the challenges facing the NHS and explore how housing could play a key role in mitigating these challenges. Following this secondment, Sarah has worked in partnership to introduce and develop some of the health specific roles for which I now have assumed responsibility. I am now the head of health and wellbeing at Vico and work as the housing and health lead within the improving population health team. I work alongside Sarah to continue the successful partnerships and look for opportunities to expand this further.

There are some exciting times ahead as I work towards introducing trauma-informed practices for customer-facing colleagues and look to embed this within our recruitment processes. I’m also currently working closely with the Wakefield ICB team to support the introduction of integrated neighbourhood teams, to bring wider integrated support networks closer to our communities.

I’m also excited to work with colleagues in primary care with the healthy homes pathway. Housing can so often be part of something bigger and with collaboration and support within the local authority, health systems and Vico Homes we can support GPs to provide housing support and mitigate some of the health issues they are dealing with.

Thank you for reading.

What else has been happening?

ICB organisational change programme update

This week, we have no further clear information from Government or NHS England (NHSE) about the reduction in ICB running and programme costs, along with other areas of reduced spend and growth referenced in the announcement a couple of weeks ago. However, we are expecting further information next week about how the reduction in running and programme costs will be defined, as well as clarity about ICB roles and functions. In the meantime, the ICB continues to work through some immediate priorities

You may have seen that on Tuesday this week, NHS Confederation shared its view on a future vision of ICB strategic commissioning: Pioneers of reform: realising a new vision of ICB strategic commissioning. The report, commissioned by NHS England and developed independently by the NHS Confederation, is based on engagement with ICS leaders and system partners. It seeks further understanding of what strategic commissioning is and proposes six shifts in the approach to commissioning that integrated care systems (ICSs) need to make to drive public service reform and ensure a sustainable health and care system for the future. Much of this is in line with the work that we have been undertaking in West Yorkshire since the establishment of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership in 2017, as well as the direction we are taking around the development of place provider collaboratives. Elements of this may feature in the guidance we are due to receive from NHS England.

On Tuesday, senior leaders from across the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership met to discuss and consider system wide issues, challenges, opportunities and updates on transformation. We spent some time having productive conversations about the planning process for 2025/26 and into the medium term, as well as discussing the recent announcements about organisational change.

We recognise that this is a challenging time for many organisations across our partnership, with the financial reset affecting many of us. Despite this, it is important we all continue to work at pace on provider collaboration in place and continue with our priorities as a partnership. This week, the Board of the ICB met and approved the operational and financial plans for 2025/26, which have now been submitted to NHSE. Our overall system plan will deliver financial balance and deliver strong performance on access and quality standards; it does however come with risk which we will manage through organisation, place and system. There is also recognition that this risk is exacerbated by the recent announcements on ICB running and programme cost reductions.

Here and now, it is important we all continue to work at pace on provider collaboration in place. The recommendations from the review of place partnerships will continue to be a priority and will be considered alongside our work to develop a new organisational model for the ICB. Working with you in relation to the above will be crucial and your continued support, focus and efforts are, as always, appreciated.

Ian Holmes – Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy and Partnerships, NHS West Yorkshire ICB

Jonathan Webb – Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Finance, NHS West Yorkshire ICB

Bradford initiatives showcased to Children’s Commissioner for England

This week, Bradford has hosted Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, who found out how community insights, world-leading research and people’s experiences are shaping services in Bradford District and Craven and across West Yorkshire. Dame Rachel visited Miriam Lord Primary School and Farcliffe Family Hub in Manningham before meeting researchers from the Bradford Institute for Healthcare based at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

During her visit to Miriam Lord Primary School, Dame Rachel found out how we are implementing a new pilot service called Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) that is available to children aged two-and-a-half to seven years old at nine participating nurseries and primary schools across Bradford District. The pilot is one of nine running nationally funded by the Department for Education and NHS England. The Bradford district’s approach to ELSEC is very targeted and our delivery model has been co-produced with parents and carers as well as frontline practitioners.

The visit to Farcliffe Family Hub gave Dame Rachel a chance to find out about the general progress of the Bradford Children and Families Trust and especially the rapid development of early help support in the hubs and through partnership systems leadership. She also heard from Julie Bruce, the chair of our parent forum for Bradford and Airedale, that helps us work with families to understand more about their experiences to influence positive changes in health, education and social care. During the visit to the hub, we showcased Bradford Children’s and Families Trust’s ‘integrated front door’ to help people access early help.

Colleagues from NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) shared an update on a change programme taking place across the region that builds on local and regional insight. ELSEC is one example of work being carried out as part of a wider change programme for SEND across the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership led by Wakefield Council.

The final stop of the tour was at Bradford Royal Infirmary, where Dame Rachel met with researchers from the Born in Bradford project – the world's largest detailed study of birth to adolescence - Education Alliance for Life Chances and the Centre for Applied Education Research. This showed how across Bradford District and Craven we are connecting datasets to identify opportunities to improve outcomes for children.

This work is also supporting activity across the ICB including the network of Born and Bred In (BaBi) research studies, child health outcome research at the University of Leeds and Connected West Yorkshire. Work carried out by research teams from our region is informing national policy documents and reports including Child of the North, designed to improve lives of children in the north of England.

Dame Rachel recognised the scale of the partnership work in progress, the impact already, and the potential for the future.

HSJ award winners and runners up

Congratulation to all our West Yorkshire colleagues shortlisted shortlisted for this year’s HSJ Partnership Awards, which were held last week. The awards celebrate outstanding collaborations between the NHS and external organisations, recognising innovations that improve patient care and system efficiency.

There were two West Yorkshire winners:

Best contribution to improving the efficiency of the NHS: DrDoctor and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – rheumatology nurse advice line.

Best provider of digital healthcare services: Inhealthcare and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust - reducing bed days through virtual wards.

There were 14 finalists from our region this year, well done to everyone involved in these projects. Find out the full list of winners and finalists on the HSJ Partnership Awards website.

West Yorkshire team joins government summit to tackle obesity crisis

Members of the West Yorkshire Improving Population Health Programme team took part in a major obesity summit at the House of Lords on 18 March. They showcased the region’s new Obesity Strategy and highlighted the importance of a compassionate, trauma-informed approach to treatment and care. The team included Emm Irving, Head of Improving Population Health, Lisa Buchanan, Senior Project Manager for Obesity, and Programme Managers Paula Sherriff and Sally Lee. Read more on the West Yorkshire Partnership news pages.

Singing group improves breathing and lowers stress in Bradford

A singing group is helping people with respiratory conditions improve their breathing.

Singing For Lung Health supports patients who live with chronic conditions such as emphysema, long COVID and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

During the sessions at St John's Church in Ben Rhydding, Ilkley, respiratory nurse Sophie Wallace teaches deep-breathing techniques and muscle control, as well as offering clinical advice. Read more on the BBC News website.

New initiative transforms care for people with complex learning disabilities and autism in Leeds

An innovative pilot project has transformed care for people with complex learning disabilities and autism in Leeds. The Leeds Small Supports Project has helped support and develop two small social care enterprises, Mae & Mitchell and Unique Support Solutions.

Together they have established and provided specialised and tailor-made local care for people with complex needs, enabling them to come out of hospital and, with support provided by the two small support enterprises, live safely within their local community. Read more on the Leeds City Council website.

Children’s emergency medics team up with police to deliver knife-crime prevention workshops in Leeds schools

Clinical staff from the Children’s Emergency Department (ED) at Leeds Teaching Hospitals have joined forces with specialist officers from West Yorkshire Police to deliver a series of knife crime prevention workshops in seven secondary schools across Leeds.

The pilot project targets pupils in years eight and nine as part of ongoing partnership efforts to deter young people from carrying knives. It includes sessions with Leeds Children’s Hospital ED consultants who highlight the severity of stab wounds seen in children’s ED as well as a fictional murder investigation scenario run by police officers. Read more on the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust website.

West Yorkshire Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Knowledge Exchange 2025 – defining our journey

West Yorkshire’s annual Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Knowledge Exchange took place this week, marking the halfway point in our goal to be trauma-informed by 2030. The event highlighted significant progress since 2020, transforming early ideas into systemic change.

Key milestones include:

over 3,000 professionals trained across sectors
implementation of the West Yorkshire navigator programmes
expansion of the Digital Hub to over 1,100 users
launch of the ‘train the trainer’ model to embed sustainable learning
national and international collaboration to influence policy and practice

Discussions covered the links between trauma and serious violence, inclusion health, and racism, with personal stories showing real impact. As we look ahead to 2030, the call to action remains clear: deepen collaboration, strengthen evaluation and ensure lived experience is at the heart of our approach. Together, we are turning understanding into action and action into lasting change. More in next week’s edition. All the presentations will be available on the Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Knowledge Exchange site.

New video explains how Wakefield District is tackling healthcare inequalities

Wakefield District’s innovative work to reduce healthcare inequalities locally is the subject of a new video.

The Reducing Healthcare Inequalities Community of Practice shares good practice from across the district and stimulates opportunities for collaboration among partners.

One of the schemes funded locally is Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust’s Maternity Befrienders, who are trained support workers offering time to women new to the country to help them navigate local maternity services. They also run groups to provide antenatal education and prevent isolation, offering a supportive network alongside vital support and advice.

The befrienders were recently recognised with the Maternity Stream of Sanctuary award for their excellent work in support of migrant women in the perinatal period. You can find out more about reducing healthcare inequalities and the maternity befriending scheme by watching the video on the Wakefield District Health & Care Partnership’s YouTube channel.

Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust awarded solar panel funding

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced a package of £100 million from Great British Energy for the NHS to install solar power and battery storage solutions to help drive down energy bills, offering better value for the taxpayer. As part of this groundbreaking new funding, the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust has been awarded £2.7 million to install solar panels at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. Find out more on the Trust website.

All things Stroke website launches for local stroke patients, families and carers

The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT) launched the new ‘All Things Stroke’ website to support local patients, their families and carers with resources and support relating to stroke.