Posted on: 21 December 2023
This Year in West Yorkshire
Watch our end of year message, where colleagues talk about some of the amazing work which has taken place across the Partnership.
Connecting Wakefield District
Hello, my name is Jo Webster, and I’m the Accountable Officer for Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership. I also have responsibility for adult social care, public health, and adult community services across the district.
I never feel closer to the things that are most important to me than I do at this time of year. Spending quality time with my husband and daughters; taking in the buzz of our local light switch on; calling in to swap festive wishes with the neighbours. Beyond the turkey and tinsel, the real magic of the season for me is all about connections.
Connections are the building blocks of healthy, resilient communities. Creating, strengthening and nurturing those connections is at the heart of everything we are doing across the Wakefield District to improve health and wellbeing and tackle health inequalities.
Connecting data
Joining up NHS, social care and public health data is giving us a holistic picture of people’s past and current care needs, allowing us to identify gaps, prioritise resources, and design responsive services.
It’s helping us identify people who are most likely to develop conditions that will require a higher level of support from our services. Connecting with people before their needs have progressed allows us to work together across health, social and voluntary sector organisations to prevent, reduce or delay any deterioration in wellbeing and support people to live healthier lives for longer within their own homes.
Using this approach to wrap preventative services around a group of ‘high-risk’ adults, we’ve been able to cut the number of hospital admissions, reduce the length of hospital stays, and keep more people independent in their own homes for longer.
You can read more about this area of Wakefield’s work in Sir Chris Ham’s report into improving health and care at scale.
Connecting care We are developing Integrated Neighbourhood Teams to deliver the coordinated care people need to keep well as close to home as possible. These teams include a range of professionals from health, social care and the local voluntary sector who will proactively manage the individual needs of adults at greatest risk of deterioration. Without these connections these people are more likely to need specialist and unplanned care that we know impacts on their overall outcomes and their ability to live healthier lives.
The Integrated Neighbourhood Teams will be in place across six locations in the district, serving an average population of 60,000 people, by April 2024. Alignment of these teams with their Primary Care Networks will place them in the very heart of their communities, with greater opportunities to maximise the capabilities of our community voluntary partners. Teams will not only be physically linked to a neighbourhood footprint, but each team will also be directly connected to the specific needs of that community. For example, in areas with high levels of respiratory illness, teams will have an increased mix of respiratory skills.
Connecting communities
Our Healthy and Sustainable Communities Programme is our strengths-based approach to building connectivity with and within communities. It is being rolled out across the district’s 10 most deprived neighbourhoods and links residents with support that is already available with housing, cost of living, access to employment, health, and social support.
It uses coproduction, community leadership and local knowledge to nurture those all-important connections and achieve change. This includes developing trusted ‘community connector’ roles, who will work alongside people and families to understand barriers, coproduce solutions, and support people to become more active participants in their own health and wellbeing. The insight will be connected back into the system to inform ongoing service development and decision making.
The incredible impact our local VCSE organisations and community anchors have in neighbourhoods is pivotal to this approach. We are currently harnessing these connections to prevent heart disease. People can now go along to a Healthy Hearts Community Hub, based in local libraries and community centres, to have their blood pressure checked and receive advice from trained volunteers.
Wakefield District is united in our vision to create a connected system that supports people in their homes and communities to live happier, healthier lives.
The evidence of how our connected system is benefitting people in Wakefield can be found in people’s lived experiences. Like Joyce, who’s been able to stay at home, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, thanks to the virtual ward. And Pauline, who has reclaimed her relationship with Fred as his sister, rather than his carer, thanks to the intervention of the specialist dementia nurse in the Integrated Transfer of Care Hub.
So in the midst of the twinkling lights and festive decorations, let’s keep hold of what matters most - the magic that happens when we come together, and the power of connections.
Thank you for reading,
Jo.
What else has been happening this week?
WE have a dream
At our recent Health Inequalities Academy, Dr Sohail Abbas ended the event with a personally crafted message ‘WE have a dream’. ‘WE have a dream’ sets out our ideals for West Yorkshire – a place where how long and how healthily we live will not be determined by who we are, where we live or how much we earn. It’s a message of hope, strength, celebration of diversity and ambition, building a place where everyone can reach their potential and call home. We liked it that much, we’ve recorded it as this year’s Christmas message from the Improving Population Health Programme using different West Yorkshire voices.
Watch 'WE have a dream' on our video channel
With huge thanks to everyone involved in the recording and production.
Inclusive language guide
Colleagues in Bradford District and Craven have developed a new inclusive language reference guide, co-designed with partners, representatives and allies who specialise in race, gender, LGBTQ+ and disability. The guide is primarily for communications and involvement professionals but can be used by all staff. It may be helpful to use this guide when onboarding new staff, or as a reference point when communicating with our diverse audiences and communities, with focus on inclusion and belonging.
Recordings available from Connected on Ability – Inspire and Enable festival
Connected on ability – inspire and enable festival 2023 was a success! The week-long festival, held earlier this month, was open to anyone working in health and care across the NHS, local authorities, VCSE and the independent care sector. The programme was co-designed by colleagues with lived experience of disabilities and wider colleagues who are part of our staff networks. Recordings from this year’s sessions as well as last year are now online. Visit the Bradford District and Craven partnership website to watch the recordings.
Check In With Your Mate campaign at Christmas
Major sports clubs across West Yorkshire have been helping us to issue a timely reminder for everyone to ‘check in with a mate’ this festive season – a time of year which can feel overwhelming for some. Leeds Rhinos, Bradford AFC and Bradford Bulls are sharing our campaign’s messages on social media channels and Keighley Cougars (pictured) are also dedicating their Boxing Day match to the campaign.
Suicide Prevention Champions
Our campaign to recruit Suicide Prevention Champions across West Yorkshire has seen hundreds sign up in the first few months – surpassing our initial end-of-year target with weeks still to go.
The campaign – which encourages people to take an active role in challenging stigma and awareness – has seen 301 Champions sign up already, beating our initial aim of 281 by the end of the year, one for each of the 281 people whose deaths were registered as suicides in 2021. For more info and to sign up online, visit our website.
Still time to apply for our Improving Population Health Fellowship class of 2024
Applications to our Improving Population Health Fellowship class of 2024 are open until Monday, 8 January 2023. For the next cohort, we are on the lookout for: 30 Health Equity Fellows; 30 Adversity, Trauma and Resilience Fellows, five Climate Change Fellows, five Suicide Prevention Fellows and five Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Fellows. The fellowship is open to all employees across West Yorkshire irrespective of your current job role, grade or profession. Everything you need to know, including a statement of interest form, is available on our Improving Population Health Fellowship pages.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust welcomes visitors
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Leader and Wes Streeting, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, visited St James’ Hospital in Leeds on Monday. They had an interesting conversation with the colorectal team about their successes with weekend working to help to reduce waiting lists for people.
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