This week's leadership messages come from Jo Baker and Sayma Mirza

This week’s Partnership’s blog comes from Sayma Mirza Associate Director for Children, Young People and Families

Hello, my name is Sayma and I have the privilege of leading on transformation for children and young people across our West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.

I recognise the huge opportunity this role brings to make a difference for children and young people because as a registered paediatric nurse, I have previously been on the frontline witnessing the impact of widening health inequalities on children and young people and their families.

I recently heard a quote by Bernice King, daughter of the great Martin Luther King who said, ‘Social justice is love applied to systems, policies and culture’. And it really resonated with me in the context of leadership. If we are to truly make a difference for our communities, it must be done through partnership, integrated working and building relationships with a collective mission to reduce inequality.

A report by Sir Michael Marmot Child of the North Report highlighted the stark reality for a child who lives in the north impacted by poverty. Decisions driven by necessity to survive often results in families having to make difficult choices between health and wealth. This has been made even more difficult following the global pandemic and cost of living crisis.

The impact of this is often seen in poorer outcomes for children and young people from low-income households, those with complex health care needs, those from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds and for children and young people that have experienced care. This is why one of our West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership 10 Big Strategic Ambitions is to address the challenges for low income households.

By working with partners in both health and social care we recognise that there is further opportunity to reduce the inequalities our children and young people and families experience. An example of the power of integrated working between health and social care in West Yorkshire to reduce inequality is evident through our work on Project Hope, an exciting initiative designed specifically to give care experienced young people from West Yorkshire hope for a better future.

• Read the Project Hope newsletter

An exciting initiative designed specifically to give care experienced young people from West Yorkshire hope for a better future. Review of stark data about the experiences and outcomes for children and young people that are care experienced makes for sombre reading.

National data tells us care-experienced young people are:

• Seven times more likely to die before the age of 25 than the general population (Department of Education 2017)
• Twenty-five times more likely to be homeless (National Audit Office 2015, 25% of homeless population had at some point been in care, 1% of population are looked after)
• Up to twenty-seven times more likely to be in the criminal justice system (HMIP 2011)
• 88% of care leavers felt depressed, some, most or all of the time while they were in care, falling to 87% after leaving care (CLA Health Research 2017)
• 55% of care leavers attributed their mental health issues to their care experience (CLA Health Research 2017)
• 42% reported being diagnosed with depression and 19% being diagnosed with more than one mental health condition. (CLA Health Research 2017)
• 78% of care leavers felt isolated some, most or all of the time while they were in care, falling to 75% after leaving care (CLA Health Research 2017)

Similar trends are seen across the North. It therefore comes as no surprise that a lack of social capital often means care experienced young people do not have a network of relationships to rely on to help create opportunities that could improve their life and career prospects for the future.

Across West Yorkshire, we recognise not only are we uniquely placed to take some positive action for members of this specific community, but it is also the moral thing for us to do as we strive to reduce health inequalities. It is for this reason; I am using my leadership to shine a light on this important agenda.

We are not succeeding unless everyone is succeeding, and we want our young people to have hopes and aspirations so that they can thrive not just survive. Our core values as a partnership include being ambitious for our communities and that is why as an Integrated Care Board pathfinder based on the National Care Leaver Covenant, we are focusing on creating a West Yorkshire talent pipeline of children and young people that are care experienced.

We are doing this by building a positive action 12-month programme that has been informed through existing local offers for care leavers across West Yorkshire and care experienced young people themselves.

Project Hope aims to provide children and young people that are care experienced with opportunities for paid placements across the West Yorkshire health and care sector, tailored pastoral support that is trauma informed, and subsidised offers for travel, retail, and sport activities. We also aim to involve children and young people in events such as a care leavers jobs fair and support their education and training employment skills.

The benefits of working on this across a system are clear. We can reduce health inequalities, we can deliver integrated working across the health and care sector to meet needs in a personalised way, we can increase the number of organisations that are trauma informed, we can go some way in helping address the recruitment and retention challenges in health and care across West Yorkshire by creating a talent pipeline. And we can also meet some of the socio-economic needs as we do so.

Over recent months, a core design team of experts working with care experienced young people and those with expertise in developing leadership programmes have been collaborating together to create the framework for this initiative that is truly trauma informed.

A key element of the design is involvement with young people and the focus in coming weeks will be to create a reference group for care experienced young people to inform the ongoing design of Project Hope. A further key element to Project Hope is the collaboration with external partners including Spectra, NHS England, Princes Trust, and Career Matters. We aim to create a wholesome offer that truly leads to hope for a better future because as Martin Luther King, Jr once said ‘Everything that is done in this world, is done by hope’.

I hope this leadership message has filled you with hope that together we can make a difference. Have a lovely weekend.
Sayma

New CEO for Forget Me Not children’s hospice announced

Forget Me Not children’s hospice in Huddersfield is delighted to announce the appointment of their new CEO, Gareth Pierce, who will take up his post this September following the retirement of current chief executive Luen Thompson.

With an extensive background in management, Gareth joined the hospice as head of retail in 2016, becoming the director of income generation in 2018, responsible for raising the £5.5 million the hospice needs each year in order to run. As a key member of the senior leadership team, Gareth has also always considered the needs of children and families first and as such has been integral to the design of new services and ensuring those services are sustainably funded. He recently played an integral role in the development of the charity’s ‘Thrive25’ strategy, which aims to improve how families are supported and the way the hospice provides its care.

Gareth steps into this role at a critical time for the charity as it strives to double its income over the next 10 years to combat rising costs and to deliver more and better care to families in West Yorkshire who are living with or facing the loss of their child. He will take up his new role in September and will be working with outgoing CEO Luen Thompson on a handover and induction over the next few months.