Our five year plan refresh

Background and our ambition

Our first five -year plan was published in March 2020, a matter of days before the first COVID-19 ‘lockdown’.  This included our 10 big ambitions setting out what was important to us collectively and reflecting the fact that we are an equal partnership of NHS organisations, local authorities, hospices, Healthwatch communities and the voluntary community social enterprise sector.

Our first three ambitions all relate to narrowing health inequalities across West Yorkshire – for the 10% of people who live in our poorest areas; for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism, and for children living in poverty.

The next four ambitions all deal with improving access to and quality of services, including for example earlier diagnosis of cancers so that they can be cured, and safe and high-quality maternity services.

The final three ambitions all relate to our contribution to wider social and economic goals for our region, including improving the diversity of our leadership so that we are reflective of the communities we serve; contributing to the response to the climate emergency; and ensuring that healthcare investment in West Yorkshire is used to support economic growth which will benefit everyone. 

As a result of the Health and Care Act 2022, we now have a set of statutory arrangements.  In these new arrangements, our Integrated Care Partnership (or Partnership Board as we call it) is responsible for overseeing the development of this refreshed strategy and making sure it reflects the needs of the 2.4 million people living across our area. 

The Integrated Care Board is responsible for the development of a joint forward plan that will deliver the NHS components of the strategy.  This joint forward plan will also need to reflect the requirements set out in the refreshed NHS Long Term Plan (expected to be published shortly) and the Fuller stocktake. 

Find out more about NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

We know from the conversations we have already had that our big ambitions are still the right ones and that we should focus more on how we work together to deliver them. 

But we also know that the pandemic, and its immediate aftermath have had a profound impact on people’s lives.  It has shone a light on the inequity that exists in the communities across West Yorkshire.  It has also led to unprecedented demand for services which has added to problems with accessing services that haven’t been seen for over 15 years. 

More recently, the cost-of-living increases, driven by fuel and food prices is increasing the number of people in poverty.  This will have a direct impact on people’s ability to access services, and their health and wellbeing. We also recognise the impact that this will have on our workforce, and we need to support them in the best way that we can. 

The Healthwatch organisations in West Yorkshire have provided insight into people and communities concerns and priorities for health services in this context, for example: 

• People are understandably concerned with access to planned care and general practice services, but they have also identified the importance of good communication for people who are waiting as well as understanding the alternatives available.
• Digital technology has created greater choices for how people access services, but there is concern that this can lead to greater exclusion from care which can widen inequalities.
• People are increasingly concerned about pressure on staff, and workforce shortages across the health and care system, with social care staffing pressures of particular concern. 
• People want physical and mental health and care services to be jointed up – and have commented specifically on the need for better hospital discharge processes and more effective planning for moving from hospital to home and care in the community.

We will continue to work with citizens through Healthwatch as we develop our Integrated Care Strategy and Joint Forward Plan.

Our new strategy will therefore build on the ambitions we have to date but also reflect this reality.  These challenges are significant, but as we have seen over recent years, working together on the right footprint on the right issues gives us the best opportunity to address them. 

Our five place partnerships, bringing together the place based integrated care board teams, local authorities, the voluntary and community sector and providers will continue to lead most of this work – ensuring that population health and inequalities are placed front and centre.  Our strategy will continue to reflect the five local Health and Wellbeing Board strategies, and the Joint Forward Plan will be built from place. 

Our provider collaboratives where groups of provider organisations work together, will work at scale where there is a clear case to do so – for example WYAAT (the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts) will continue to oversee our elective recovery work, having reduced the number of two year waits for a planned procedure by over 90% in the first four months of this financial year.

At a West Yorkshire level, we will continue to work with partners such as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and West Yorkshire police on common goals, such as joint work on the climate change agenda, employment and skills, and violence reduction.

If you would like any further information about this work, please email westyorkshire.ics@nhs.net