A thank you message from Cathy Elliott, Chair of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Deputy Chair of the Integrated Care Partnership - West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Board
Many thanks to you and all colleagues for your planning, preparation, and attendance at the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) engagement session and Board on Tuesday 19 September in Bradford.
The engagement session in the morning was extremely helpful, especially as it was ahead of the focused Board discussion in the afternoon on improving local services.
It was wonderful to see over thirty people at the session, bringing their personal thoughts and experiences of care and support into the room. The Healthwatch report into mental health was a helpful summary, setting out the challenges around accessing support for mental health and how this is a priority area for improving health outcomes in our Joint Forward Plan. Thanks to Jude for bringing together the report with your Healthwatch colleagues.
We heard at the session that people are tired of being asked about their experiences of mental health support and not seeing real change; they want services to be better connected across the NHS; and they want to see outcomes based on the experiences and stories they have already shared.
It was inspiring to hear people openly share their views with humility and integrity. I am grateful for their honesty. Feedback from the session included:
- The importance of health care colleagues understanding people’s different needs for support
- Real benefits of understanding where hospital trust sits, so that parents and young people have good relationships with services. This includes GPs, and schools
- Funding is important for early years support and the vital role of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector cannot be underestimated
- The importance of reliable community support, with good signposting routes and resources, which can be easily found
- Planning for short term support and long-term care is needed, complemented by commissioning the ‘right’ services across the life course for people with mental health conditions and autism.
It is clear to me that our services should be flexible enough to meet the needs of different people and communities and that they should be available to anyone who needs them.
As part of our work as an ICB we also want people to have support tailored to their needs, that are person centred and designed around them being able to access care, and not the other way around. Our role is to deliver integrated, joined up care, and long-term support and this feedback is especially important.
The engagement session provided an opportunity for Board members to hear about people’s experiences of care and services, and to consider whether we are commissioning services which meets people's needs. This enabled an open discussion from Board members in our formal meeting after our session about the importance of caring for people in their communities, including help for people with autism when accessing health services and the work of transforming services for the better.
The Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Collaborative received from the Board endorsement and support for practical ways forward across our Partnership. It was also good to hear the great work already taking place, across our five places of Bradford District
and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.
Please stay connected about the important work you do so I can continue to be an active supporter of our West Yorkshire Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Collaborative for our health and care system.
I am grateful for your contribution to the session which supported NHS West Yorkshire Board decision-making to further our work together on providing the best care possible in people’s homes and communities.