This strategy is poverty and trauma informed, and demonstrates a commitment made by our Partnership and others including West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit.. Both have been strong themes coming out of our engagement with partners, staff, people and communities.
Viewing West Yorkshire as a whole population gives us the opportunity to consider what action we can take to improve health and wellbeing for people living and working here on a larger scale. Health status is determined by much more than health and care services alone.
It is well established that the wider determinants of health (housing, work, education, social relationships and the local environment) contribute more than three quarters of the impact on our health and wellbeing, and direct healthcare less than a quarter. Working as a partnership will allow us to work together to more effectively address these wider causes of ill health.
Watch these films from Kirklees about the work taking place with some of our voluntary community partners:
This animation film was translated into 17 community languages. It explains the different NHS services, from general practice to accident and emergency and when and how to use them. has been produced, primarily for people who have newly arrived in the UK, especially refugees and asylum seekers. The partnership co-funded the resource along with other organisations who work with migrant communities across the country, including the UK Health Security Agency, COVID Legacy and Equity Partnership and the Child Health and Wellbeing Network. NHS England and Doctors of the World co- produced the video with Bevan.
Helping those facing the most inequality
Our independent race review (2020) to tackle health inequalities for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and colleagues, highlighted a number of recommendations which are woven through this strategy and will be set out in our Joint Forward Plan to deliver it. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the impact of deep-seated and long-standing health inequalities faced by some of our communities. In particular our 2022 Connected on Inclusion report identifies that people from our ethnic minorities need to be involved in discussions about access to end of life care.
What causes these inequalities is the subject of much debate. This can be linked to the deeper impact of wider societal inequalities beyond the operation of health and social care services. These include broader environmental, social and economic factors that exert a profound ability to shape health outcomes for communities. Structural racism and the impact that this has is a particular concern and we will continue to prioritise our work in this area and embed it throughout our programmes of work. We are committed to targeting action around the recommendations of the review, including how we better support our own workforce, particularly around leadership development, reflected in our ambitions. See examples of the positive difference we are making. There is still much to do.
Our partnership has a crucial role in tackling health inequalities in West Yorkshire. This is particularly the case in relation to addressing inequalities around access to healthcare services. The partnership also has an important role in reducing preventable excess deaths including approaches to secondary prevention.
Our most vulnerable people often face the biggest inequalities in health and our strategy is focused on trying to mitigate this. We have approximately 400,000 unpaid carers across West Yorkshire, many of whom don’t access the support they may need. We know children and young people from deprived areas have more than twice the level of tooth decay than children from less deprived areas. We are working collaboratively with public health and local authority leads to discuss oral health provision across West Yorkshire. There is a significant opportunity for us to utilise our new role in planning for dental services, to improve oral health through approaching access to dental services as part of a broader approach.
It is important to recognise the challenges our population face around health literacy and literacy in being able to plan to support people in the right way to make a change.
Many of our unpaid carers are young carers, who can be invisible and are often not identified at school or in health settings, so do not have access to the support that is there to help them. With their help we have developed an app which will help ensure they are able to help their loved ones whilst looking after their own physical and mental health coupled with working towards a bright and healthy future for themselves.
We also know that our looked after children face many inequalities and are one of our most vulnerable sections of our population. As a Partnership, we are committed to reducing these inequalities and working to improve both their wellbeing and life chances. Of particular importance is the transition into adulthood in a supportive inclusive way.
We know that often those without a voice or advocacy can experience the most inequality, as highlighted in many national reviews over the last year.
We have worked hard through the pandemic to provide the best support we can, for example prioritising those with a learning disability for elective care. Advocacy for children and young people can be even more difficult so we have established a West Yorkshire Youth Collective to help influence our top priorities and decision making. We know, however, that there is much more that we can do.
People in West Yorkshire who are involved in serious violence, exploitation and the criminal justice system are at increased risk of additional social needs, inequalities and poor health and wellbeing. We know that the majority of people in the criminal justice system have experienced trauma and adversity, often in childhood.
Working with partners across West Yorkshire, including the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, West Yorkshire Policing and Crime Team and NHS England Health and Justice team, we will provide support for people when they enter, are in and leave the criminal justice system. We will also provide support for their families and victims.
Our population and demographics continue to change and it is important to listen to our place-based joint strategic needs assessments in order to plan for them. It is also, however, important that our system has the flexibility to be responsive at short notice when challenges arise.
The rising cost of living is impacting both on the staff we employ and the wider population we serve. We have committed as a partnership to mitigate the impacts of poverty and the increased cost of living on the health and wellbeing of our population and workforce, including:
People in West Yorkshire who are involved in serious violence, exploitation and the criminal justice system are at increased risk of additional social needs, inequalities and poor health and wellbeing. We know that the majority of people in the criminal justice system have experienced trauma and adversity often in childhood.
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An important part of improving people’s health and wellbeing is through better delivery of trauma-informed personalised care, with people and alongside them.
Our ambition for personalised care is important in tackling inequalities for communities and people, especially those who don’t always know how best to access the care and support they need. For example, we know that people with learning disabilities die 15-20 years earlier than the general population, as do people with complex mental illness. We also know that children and young people from ethnic minority backgrounds experience poorer health outcomes, with higher asthma rates and challenges to a healthy weight both in terms of obesity and under-weight.
Finding new and innovative ways to support our population to have happier healthier lives is important to us in West Yorkshire and we want to have an active, vibrant, creative health sector. Our work to use creativity to support this is an important element of our work. It is proven to:
We will continue to work with the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) who are working in partnership with NHS England on a programme of developing a programme of Creative Health Hubs, of which West Yorkshire is one of four nationally. We have been working with NCCH to:
With many successful cultural events already having been held there are still many others to come, including Kirklees Year of Music 2023, Leeds 2023, Calderdale Year of Culture 2024, Wakefield Year of Culture 2024 and Bradford 2025. This alongside strong strategic interest from the Arts Council, there is a significant opportunity to advance this work to the benefit of all of our communities and with tangible benefits for our health and care system.