Posted on: 21 February 2020
Hello, my name is Mel.
Be kinder than is necessary - everyone is fighting some kind of battle
Events of last weekend brought the shocking and deeply saddening news that Caroline Flack, the beautiful, vital, talented young woman familiar to many of us through her work as a television and radio presenter had taken her own life.
Lives like hers, lived in the fast lane in the full, on glare of publicity and celebrity are often dissected at every opportunity with the same intense scrutiny, but never more so than when their untimely and tragic demise is the primary subject matter.
There is speculation upon speculation about the whys and how – with much searching of souls and consciences, guilt and denial.
Maybe it will all become clearer at some point in the future, maybe it never will and whose business is it anyway? My heartfelt sympathy goes out to her family and friends, the ones she loved and left behind in such a final, brutal, unexpected and enduring way. Gone forever.
In the immediate aftermath, even before the red tops and the news bulletins had gotten hold of the story, social media as it does on such occasions, had exploded into life. I do twitter, primarily in a work capacity. I don’t tweet pictures of my dinner although I will confess that from time to time the dogs make it in there.
Social media has the equal capacity to divide or galvanise opinion. At its worst it has the power to amplify difference and conflicts and gives seemingly legitimate platform for the transmission of opinion however extreme, irrational, unreasonable and unkind, but it can be good too. I personally think it’s quite a nice way to connect my organisation to the wider world and for those other tweeters in my own organisation and wider, to connect with me. I try to use it as a force for good.
I watched on Saturday as the news spread and I noted the responses it evoked. Mostly sadness, some disbelief, but a lot of blame, too much blame. Then very quickly alongside the accusations of responsibility and vitriol, something else, that rebound effect. There’s probably a social science term for it that I don’t know – but I’m sure you know the one I mean. It’s that one that makes you instinctively become more acutely aware of your own and your loved ones, fragility, vulnerability and mortality. It’s the one that causes us to say things we may not ordinarily say to them often enough, ‘I love you’, and hold them that little bit nearer, hug them that little bit tighter, for fear I guess that one day they (or you) will be gone too.
So I watched the various reactions via twitter, and took comfort in the emergence of a recurrent theme. The importance of kindness – a ground swell of public opinion, practically an outpouring of love and kindness that has endured even in the all too fickle world of social media, well into this week.
In my own organisation random acts of kindness have become far more common place. So technically not random at all I guess! Throughout this week I’ve observed many more people across the country talking about the need to be nicer to one another. It may not have been the initial trigger but in no small part a tweet of Caroline’s about being kind, had provided a stimulus that took many (not all I grant you) away from the sadness and negativity in a new more positive direction; to advocate for a kinder society, a more tolerant more understanding and supportive one.
Too many people lose their lives to suicide, and suicide is preventable (a difficult word for many I know, when many loved ones may feel helpless and sometimes to blame for what others perceive could have been ‘preventable’).
This is just one of many reasons why across West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health Partnership we have set as one of our major ambitions an objective to reduce suicide by 10% by 2020/21 and to achieve a 75% reduction in targeted areas by 2022. We, all of us, have a part to play in the achievement of that not just as organisations buts as individual people.
So with this firmly in mind, today I did my basic suicide awareness training and you can too. It’s here, it’s free and it’s easy. It doesn’t take long and whilst it can’t save Caroline, it just might save the very next person in the UK, one of almost six thousand people each year who truly believe that the permanent solution to whatever their temporary problem is to end their life.
I’m going to pause here, and go into rewind, to a full seven days before the events of last weekend so bear with. It’s Saturday and I’m sat on the sofa, I pick up my phone, have a quick look at Twitter and find a tweet from one of our consultant paediatricians, whom I’d met with earlier in the week that contained this link; Watch it, it may affirm what you think or it may change what you think, either is good, because this is powerful and I believe so accurate, timely and if you are in the business of ‘caring’ which all of us are in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, in whatever location, sector, or organisation or role, then it’s totally relevant.
Rudeness and incivility doesn’t just impact on us as individuals or even as teams, it actually harms the very people we providing care to. I guess most of us will have gone through any number of inspections by various regulators the starting point for which will tend to be process and governance orientated, these are after all much easier things to measure, “Do you have a process for that?….Tick, and I suspect many of us have fallen into the trap of believing that the presence of a robust process alone, will suffice, not so. Good governance and robust processes are absolutely critical but; As Chris Turner says: “Process has its place but something is more important, people! By choosing to behave in ways that value and respect the people around us we help individuals and teams perform at their peak.”
And here’s another view, Derek Feeley President and CEO of IHI: “Civility promotes engagement; kindness gives us productive relationships with patients, families and our staff. When civility is the norm the atmosphere at work is a source of energy and inspiration.”
And for what it’s worth, here’s my take on it put simply, C+K=J (Civility + Kindness = Joy).
So here’s where we loop back to the beginning of this piece. A desperately tragic incident, a futile and unnecessary loss of life has given rise to many emotions. Out of the sadness comes the opportunity to harness in a conscious, structured and purposeful way the powerful positivity and the desire for change that is emerging. The power of kindness generally but most specifically, in the delivery of health and care services, has been well documented but how many have a metric for kindness and Joy in their integrated performance report? Colleagues of mine over in the North West are really working hard on this, in describing to their staff their expectations of them as individuals, or when working in or between teams and have created some helpful metrics.
The time is right, the evidence of its impact is building, the NHS Chief People Officer, Prerana Issar, wants us to create a sense of joy in our organisations, knowing full well the many benefits it generates. Some of us always felt it, a few secretly suspected it, almost all of us are now coming to know it for sure; Kindness makes a difference, kindness saves lives, KINDNESS MATTERS! Join me, in planting seeds of kindness and watching them grow.
Have a great weekend,
Mel
What else has been happening this week?
Workforce
The final meeting of the Local Workforce Action Board in its current form took place in Leeds last week. Co-chair Brendan Brown (CEO for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and the SRO for our workforce programme) expressed his thanks to the group for their enthusiasm and hard work in striving to realise the ambitions of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Partnership. He was keen to stress that this was by no means the end, simply a regeneration to enable even greater things for the future.
Future meetings will be aligned with the new structure of a ‘People Board’ and ‘Workforce Hub’, with the SHAPE Network and Investment and Development Groups feeding in.
With regards to the nursing workforce; the Deputy Chief Nurse Group are tasked with taking forward the agenda for trainee nursing associates, at their first meeting in January they established the current status. Work is underway to explore opportunities for shared learning, placements and rotations. The aspiration is that these will span all care environments from social care, primary care and into hospital acute and secondary care.
Steph Lawrence (Leeds Community Healthcare Trusts and GP Trusts) provided an update on the Leeds District and Primary Care Nursing workstream. From September 2020 the district nursing apprenticeship will begin. Work is continuing with engagement of undergraduate nurses as well as considerations around a broader career framework that considers mobilisation of people that start their career in the ‘care sector’ and wish to progress into this area of nursing.
A task and finish group will be established to look at continued professional development and workforce development funding with a view to proposing some principles for how this can be spent across the Partnership to maximise efficiency and impact. The group will have chief nurse, allied health professionals and midwifery representation. This follows on from the learning needs analysis work undertaken in the last few months.
There was an update on the development of the learning hub. The hub will focus on individualising and personalising learning whilst integrating everything into one system in order to maximise efficiency and value. The new hub offers a platform to allow colleagues to contribute and share learning. It will be available to the health and care workforce. The development is on-going and members of the group were invited to participate in testing.
Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme
The Programme Board met last Friday. Chaired by Sara Munro, CEO Lead for the Collaborative Board and CEO for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the programme is made up of colleagues from the NHS, council and community sector.
The Board met last Friday with a full agenda. This included an update on the Suicide Wave 3 bid, with the money expected to be released (if we are successful) at the end of March 2020.
The Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network gave an overview on their study of mental health / physical health checks programme. They reminded us that they offer a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited e-training package and asked us to let colleagues know that it is available.
A report about the work of the Health and Care Champions (people with learning disabilities) was brought to the Board. Feedback on the report from the Board will be incorporated and it will be shared with the other programme boards shortly for their views.
West Yorkshire Joint Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee (WY JHOSC)
WY JHOSC is made up Chairs of the local Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSC) from our local places (Bradford district and Craven; Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield). An OSC member from Harrogate / North Yorkshire County Council also attends the meeting. WY JHOSC met on Tuesday to receive an update on the Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme, this included assessment treatment units (ATUs) for people with learning disabilities. Working closely with JHOSC is an essential part of our Partnership work and we welcomed the opportunity to respond to the questions raised on the report papers which you can read here.
Local Maternity System Programme
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity System (LMS) Programme Board met on Monday. Chaired by Carol McKenna, Chief Officer, Greater Huddersfield and North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Groups, the programme is a partnership of maternity and neonatal providers, commissioners, local authorities, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Maternity Voices Partnerships working together to transform maternity services in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
The Programme Board heard a number of success stories, not least that the LMS has reached a high standard in treating 98% of eligible newborns under the Prevention of Cerebral Palsy in Pre-Term infants (PReCePT) protocol. Other successes include high numbers of babies receiving deferred cord-clamping – a potentially life-saving procedure that improves the flow of blood to the newborn, stabilising circulation and reducing the need for transfusions.
The Performance of the LMS against the trajectories was shared at the start of the meeting to aid discussions and decisions regarding future work. The neonatal data element has been strengthened.
Continuity of Carer continues to be a challenge. Trusts were invited to a CoC Assurance meeting with NHSE/I and the LMS to present their future CoC Plans. Progress is now being made and providers continue to work hard together to reach the trajectories for March 2020 and March 2021.
The Saving Babies Lives (SBL) concept has been developed to support the ‘Halve It’ trajectory to reduce the number of stillbirths. The LMS has been supporting the Trusts with the implementation of Saving Babies Lives 2. It has been identified that all Trusts require assistance with uterine artery doppler scanning which identifies high risk pregnancies. A proposal to develop and facilitate a training package, with the assistance of fetal medicine specialists, for midwives, sonographers and senior obstetricians was agreed by the LMS Board.
An update on ‘Building the Leeds Way’ was given by Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust and NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group. Funding is now in place to build two hospitals by 2025/2026. The proposal includes a children’s hospital that maternity would be a part of. A public consultation around the plans to centralise maternity services is currently taking place. You can find out more here.
The LMS Board approved the health inequalities work. A detailed strategic picture will be developed to explore the range of inequalities that impact on maternity outcomes. This will also respond to the unjust and avoidable differences in people’s health before, during and after pregnancy. This will be carried out in partnership with the Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service (PHE) and will follow the woman’s maternity journey and identify risks and inequalities.
A postnatal care plan has been co-produced with the Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) network and will be uploaded to the partnership website following submission to the North Region Team.
The LMS are establishing methods to better engage with those from the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. There is already good practice across the system that the LMS will learn from.
The next Board Meeting will be held on 15 May 2020.
Suicide reduction campaign
Reducing suicide by 10% across West Yorkshire and Harrogate by 2020/21 and achieving a 75% reduction in targeted areas by 2022 is one of our Partnership’s 10 big ambitions. It is highlighted in the Partnership’s draft Five Year Strategy and the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Five Year Plan. This ambition supports and complements the work taking place in our six local places.
We have been working together to reduce suicide across West Yorkshire and Harrogate since 2016/17. As a result we have successfully secured national funding from NHS England/NHS Improvement (August 2019) to enable pathfinder support workers to provide advice, training and support for up to 600 men in the area, drawing on voluntary organisations like State of Mind and Luke’s Lads to help. We have also secured funding to improve suicide bereavement services across the area (November 2019). Our approach includes working with public health colleagues to create a high-risk decision support tool for primary care and non-mental health services to identify people at risk of suicide so we can better target support. Partners have agreed to work together to develop a suicide reduction campaign for the area, targeted at staff to begin with. The first project meeting will take place in March. Members include colleagues from public health, the suicide bereavement service, councils, community sector and those with lived experience.
Urgent and Emergency Care Programme Board
The Board met on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by Dr Adam Sheppard, our clinical lead for the programme and Chair of Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group.
The Board agreed the three priorities which are the current focus for work. The first work stream is focussing on population health analysis with a focus on those living in the most deprived areas to identify if there are specific cohorts of people where there is opportunity to redesign pathways. The second work stream will be focussing on the patient’s journey in integrated urgent and emergency care, looking at the entry points of access and whether the infrastructure provides a seamless patient journey. The third work stream will be focussing on the provision and equity of local urgent and emergency care.
The board also agreed to support the development of a UEC competency framework and establish a workforce reference group, in order to help create a workforce that is able to better adapt to meet the current and future demands of our population. Colleagues from Calderdale also shared the learning so far on the Clinically Led Workforce and Activity Redesign (CLEAR) project which is redesigning the workforce for current services and the development of Urgent Treatment Centres on both hospital sites.
Cancer Improvement Collaborative event
Around 150 patients, clinicians and leaders from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate came together last week to celebrate and share good practice in enhancing patient experience and outcomes through improving cancer waiting times performance.
Chaired by Julian Hartley – Cancer Alliance Board Co-Chair and Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – the celebration event was a follow-up to last July’s launch of the WYH Cancer Improvement Collaborative. Read more about the launch here. Led by the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance and the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT), the collaborative facilitates a new way of working together, breaking down organisational barriers and taking a whole system approach to performance improvement.
David Fitzgerald, NHS England’s National Cancer Programme Director, was keynote speaker at the event and reinforced the role of Cancer Alliances as system leaders. He also highlighted the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance as an exemplar of good practice in terms of its integration with the wider WYH Health and Care Partnership and its support for system-wide working to drive performance and improvement. David outlined the importance of delivering on the national cancer priorities, including the roll-out of targeted lung health checks; work towards optimal pathways, and the development of Rapid Diagnostic Centres to speed up diagnosis of patients with concerning symptoms. Operational performance and the recovery of national cancer waiting time standards remains also remains a key priority.
Julian Hartley led an ‘in conversation’ session with patients Richard Seddon and Sara Williamson, who shared their own experiences since last year’s launch. Other members of the Cancer Alliance community/patient panel, including Lay Board member Paul Vose, also attended the event. Representatives from each local place outlined key elements of their improvement work over the past 12 months. Delegates had the opportunity to attend a number of workshops during the course of the day, led by clinicians and managers from local places, partner organisations and the Cancer Alliance Project Management Office team. Topics covered included:
- Prostate cancer patient information – Cancer Alliance Optimal Pathways team and patient Richard Seddon
- Personalised care in action – Cancer Support Yorkshire/Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Rethinking diagnostics – Rapid Diagnostic Centres – Cancer Alliance
- Prostate transpereneal biopsy – Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Pathway improvements in pathology – Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
- Diagnostic capacity and demand programme – Cancer Alliance
- Workforce and new roles – Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust
Alliance Lead Professor Sean Duffy closed the event and thanked everyone involved in the collaborative for their willingness to strengthen their quality improvement methodologies and to be transparent about gaps and areas for improvement. This in turn has facilitated an understanding of how best to use the resources available and an appreciation of how any additional funding available could be used to support further improvement.
More information/photographs from the event and the series of workshops held during the day will be posted on the Cancer Alliance website next week – and look out in next week’s Health and Care Partnership leadership message, which will come from Cancer Alliance Lead, Professor Sean Duffy.
Coronavirus update
The NHS in West Yorkshire and Harrogate and Public Health England (PHE) are well prepared for outbreaks of new infectious diseases. The NHS has put in place measures to ensure the safety of all patients and NHS staff while also ensuring services are available to the public as normal. The risk to the general public is moderate. If you have arrived back to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau within 14 days, follow the specific advice for returning travellers. Call 111 now if you've been: to Wuhan or Hubei Province in China in the last 14 days (even if you do not have symptoms); to other parts of China, including Macau and Hong Kong, in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if it's mild); to Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Republic of Korea or Malaysia in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if it's mild); in close contact with someone with confirmed coronavirus
Do not go to a GP surgery or hospital. Call 111, stay indoors and avoid close contact with other people. Further information is available on gov.uk/coronavirus and nhs.uk.
Like the common cold, coronavirus infection usually occurs through close contact with a person with novel coronavirus via cough and sneezes or hand contact. A person can also be infected by touching contaminated surfaces if they do not wash their hands. The risk of being in close contact with a person with coronavirus or contaminated surfaces is very low at the current time, as members of the public who have visited Wuhan, Hubei province, China are currently in isolation.
Testing of suspected coronavirus cases is carried out in line with strict regulations. This means that suspected cases are kept in isolation, away from public areas of the hospital and returned home also in isolation. Any equipment that come into contact with suspected cases are thoroughly cleaned as appropriate. Specific guidance has also been shared with NHS staff to help safeguard them and others. Patients can be reassured that their safety is a top priority, and are encouraged to attend all appointments as usual. Everyone is being reminded to follow Public Health England advice to:
Always carry tissues with you and use them to catch your cough or sneeze. Then bin the tissue, and wash your hands, or use a sanitiser gel.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after using public transport. Use a sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
- Avoid close contact with people who are unwell.
You can find the latest information and advice from Public Health England at www.
What's happening next week?
- The West Yorkshire and Harrogate System Oversight and Assurance Group (SOAG) meet on Monday.
- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Operational Planning 2020/2021 workshop with local place planners and programme leads takes place on Wednesday .
- The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Communication and Engagement Network meets on Wednesday.
- NHS Assembly meeting takes place on Friday.
- The Improving Population Health Programme Board meets on Thursday.
- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health Inequalities Workshop on Friday.
What's coming up?
- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance UGI Optimal Pathway Group – Education Event: working together to improve outcomes across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. Friday 27th March 2020, 10am – 4pm. Cedar Court Hotel, Denby Dale Road, Wakefield WF4 3QZ. Click here for more details and full agenda.
- Leeds Harnessing the Power of Communities 2018-19 learning event on 25 February. Delegates will hear first-hand from the nine grantees funded through the programme over the last year that have been supporting the Leeds Plan, tackling loneliness and isolation and working to reduce health inequalities.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership’s Partnership Board will meet for the fourth time in public on Tuesday 3 March, 2pm to 5pm, at Huddersfield Town Hall. The Board is an important group for the Partnership, which covers Bradford district and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield. It brings together elected members, executive and non-executives and independent lay members in one decision making process. Chaired by Cllr Tim Swift, Leader of Calderdale Council and Chair of Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board, the meeting will discuss population health, including climate change; supporting the talent of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues into more leadership roles; planning and ‘Looking out for our neighbours’ community campaign. View agenda (from Tues 25 Feb) and watch live on the day at www.wyhpartnership.co.uk/partnershipboard- West Yorkshire and Harrogate Housing for Health Conference 2020, which is in partnership with the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network and Leeds City Region Housing Association. The event will be held on the 31st March 2020. The event will bring together housing and health partners from across the area and will provide a great opportunity for housing and health colleagues to build relationships and promote good housing as a health asset.
- ‘Digital in a Day’ will take place on the 17 March. More information will follow.