Hello, my name is Jo.
I’m the Accountable Officer for Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership. My role also includes responsibility for Adults and Health at Wakefield Council and Community Services at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Next Wednesday is International Women’s Day (IWD). It’s a really important day for me and I could fill this week’s blog with the names of all the strong, dynamic women I’m fortunate to work alongside across Wakefield District and West Yorkshire – we’re certainly not short of inspirational women around these parts!
The woman who has been one of the most influential in my life is my childhood next door neighbour, Sandra. Sandra ran our local Tuck Shop. I grew up in a family where most women stayed at home and looked after the children (a very important job!) – certainly not a picture of gender equity, which is the theme of this year’s IWD. Sandra was one of very few women I knew who had a job. She always remembered my order (a quarter of sherbet lemons) and always took the time to talk. She was interested, she was authentic, she cared. She inspired me to go out and work, and to take that authenticity and understanding with me into the workplace. I’ve kept those values front and centre throughout my career.
Sandra’s 82 now and the Tuck Shop is long gone, but she still inspires me. She has multiple health concerns but remains active in the community and she’s just returned from a trip to Australia to visit her family - she lives life to the full. Sandra’s independence, despite her ongoing health challenges, is a real driving force behind the work I do across health and social care every day. I want everyone to be happy, healthy and independent in the place they call home. It’s one of our Partnership’s key ambitions.
Across the Wakefield District we’re working together to create a connected system that supports people to start well, live well and age well. Our whole system approach is person-centred and concentrates on preventing ill health, promoting independence and helping people to help themselves. Our aim is to help keep hundreds of people like Sandra at home, surrounded by the people and things that matter most to them.
We’re using shared data to drive decision making and to help us understand what people need to keep them well and in control of their own health and wellbeing. We value citizen voice and community involvement alongside clinical and professional expertise in strategic planning and service design. We’re joining up teams and systems to wrap ourselves around the people who need support, instead of expecting people to find their way through multiple services and criteria and risk falling through the cracks.
We’re introducing new ways of working that capitalise on opportunities to improve the quality and effectiveness of our work, reducing differences in care, and making sure that everything we do adds value.
Much of this work is rooted in a ‘home first’ ethos that is preventing hospital admissions, supporting people faster and more effectively to leave hospital, and enhancing the support available upon discharge.
We’re helping people avoid a hospital admission altogether thanks to the dedicated rapid response team working in our emergency departments.
Our respiratory and frailty virtual wards are providing a safe alternative to hospital admission. More than 2,236 bed days of acute care have already been delivered in over 550 people’s homes, and this is only the start of the model across Wakefield District.
We’ve introduced new pathways, including the complex care pathway, to significantly reduce the length of hospital stays for people living with dementia whilst providing additional support to their families and carers.
Our integrated care team and reablement service have developed a new ‘one referral, one triage, one assessment’ model that prevents duplication, streamlines access points and pathways, and maximises the joint available capacity across both teams. This integration is projected to release up to 65 acute care hospital beds, or around 24,000 bed day savings per year.
Once people leave hospital, a new voluntary sector-led response model is supporting people at home and connecting them into their communities. It provides a transport and settling in service – including checking their homes are warm, and people have food. For those who need support overnight, our new night response service provides 24-hour care that includes ‘turning’ to help maintain skin integrity and help people to stay at home. Our ‘winter warm packs’ are given to people who are struggling due to the increased cost of living. These include basic food supplies, warm clothing and blankets. The Enhanced Council Welfare Support Fund is a dedicated route to supermarket vouchers and energy bills support for hospital discharge and to support unpaid carers.
One of our real success stories is how we’re delivering home care services. We’ve worked closely with providers to reimagine this care framework, including adjusting contractual requirements and offering incentives for same day referrals. This outcomes-focussed, flexible approach means that this kind of support can now be accessed very quickly, directly from hospital. The number of people waiting for a domiciliary care package has reduced from 214 in early 2022 to just seven at the end of February this year.
Our district’s care homes are an important part of this picture. I visited three homes last week and the care and compassion that staff were giving to their residents was amazing. I felt like I’d had a hug when I left. There were people dancing, in the kitchen baking, making and doing things that were important to them. I could see that the staff were using approaches that got to the very nub of what mattered to each and every resident. That was echoed by the families I spoke to while I was there.
And that’s what it’s all about for me. Doing with, not doing to. Creating the conditions for independence. Supporting people to be the best they can be, wherever they call home. At the risk of sounding like I’m clicking the heels of a pair of ruby slippers, there really is no place like home.
Our approach is paying off; the latest figures show that the number of local people able to be discharged from the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust rose by 11 percent in the second half of 2022 compared with the first six months. Patients are experiencing shorter hospital stays, reduced waits for domiciliary care and improved support upon discharge. Teams are enjoying more joined up processes, access to enhanced training and new ways of working. And our work has just been shortlisted for the 2023 LGC Awards in the Health and Social Care category. Please keep your fingers crossed for us in June.
We’re doing all this of course as we emerge from the depths of a winter that saw unprecedented demand on all our services. Our brilliant staff, along with staff across West Yorkshire, continue to work hard, seek out opportunities to do things differently, and deliver quality with compassion. I couldn’t be prouder to work in this system.
So here’s to making strides towards our ‘home first’ ambitions. Here’s to all those providing quality care, innovation and authenticity across our West Yorkshire partnership. And here’s to Sandra. Happy International Women’s Day.
Thank you for reading and have a good weekend,
Jo