Posted on: 16 August 2024
The last few weeks have seen shameful scenes of violence, fuelled by racism and Islamophobia. The impact this is having on our staff, those across our wider partnership and all our communities has been clear from your stories and the conversations we have been having together. A recent call with 300 colleagues was one I will never forget.
Thank you to everyone who has publicly and privately described the fear and distress they feel. The impact on so many of our colleagues and our local communities is being felt in many different ways. Thank you also to those who have stood up to the issues in our communities and reflected the values to which we aspire.
Earlier this week, Fatima Khan-Shah, Inclusivity Champion for the ICB and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, led some additional safe space conversations. Staff from across West Yorkshire, including our voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, came together to share their latest, often horrifying experiences. I was particularly saddened to hear about the abuse that many of our international colleagues are seeing, receiving and feeling, on their way to and from work or at their home address.
To our international colleagues, my message is simple: You belong here, you enrich what we do, and you help make West Yorkshire the system it is today. We stand with you and will always support you.
Our values as a Partnership champion equality, diversity and inclusion. We stand in solidarity with all those impacted by the violence and public unrest. We are a system of sanctuary, an anti-racist system that stands for what’s right. We see our diversity as our strength, and we will always stand against those who seek to undermine our people and our communities. We are committed to being a great global citizen.
I am pleased that both Tim Gill and Jonathan Brown, leading our Global Partnerships team in West Yorkshire, are working with the NHS England Global Health Unit on a programme of work that supports our commitment to being a great global citizen. Our team has recently attempted to define what this means for us in West Yorkshire:
"Global citizenship is a way of working which recognises that organisations belong to multiple and diverse, local and international networks with a responsibility towards individuals and communities situated outside one’s own. Working as a global citizen involves being aware of oneself within the world and its issues; having concern and respect for others, and their society and culture; and actively engaging with a civic responsibility to improve local and global challenges collaboratively.
Therefore, to be a good global citizen, we commit to working in an ethical, sustainable, and inclusive manner in order to evolve health and social care and tackle its challenges both within the UK and internationally."
West Yorkshire has developed unique partnerships with the Government of Kerala, India, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines that are focused on ethical pathways for people migrating to West Yorkshire NHS or social care roles. These pathways focus on the full journey of an individual and possibly their family to new jobs and lives here.
We are working collaboratively across the partnership to share best practice on international recruitment, improve the experience of people arriving and give them the best chance to settle and stay for as long as they wish. Our partnerships with Kerala and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will be deepened with West Yorkshire-specific global fellowships, which will help us address some of our shared challenges.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) partnership with the Uganda Ministry of Health on maternal and neonatal health is a great example of how we can collaborate virtually to share experiences, clinical practice and learn how to improve health outcomes in different settings.
We will soon be taking some of this global learning into new areas aimed at improving the experiences of international medical graduates and sharing good practice across other professional groups and networks across the West Yorkshire partnership.
Our international people and partnerships bring valuable learning and new ways of working that will continue to make us stronger. And despite the horrific incidents that have and continue to take place locally and across the country, we will continue to work together to strengthen our solidarity even further.
I am looking forward to seeing how our West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership is strengthened in the future by standing together as global citizens, working to improve the experience and outcomes for all our people.
Thank you for your commitment, courage and determination.
Rob Webster CBE
Chief Executive, NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
CEO lead, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership