Today [Tuesday, July 19] marks the beginning of a new Leeds and Social Care Hub that will bring together the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and various local partners to enhance health outcomes throughout the area.
The hub will bring together a group of specialists to advance patient care in the area.
In order to address challenges like addressing health disparities and enhancing employment opportunities in the sector, members of the public, private, and third sector organisations, including NHS, local government, universities, and other health organisations, will work.
This will make sure that the DHSC’s main offices in Leeds are integrated into the area’s expanding healthcare sector and continue the effort to turn Leeds into a hub for the healthcare sector on a national and international scale.
The goal is to make Leeds the obvious choice for professionals looking to advance their careers in local government, public and private organisations, as well as for start-ups looking to locate or grow their base in the city.
Along with boosting the local economy, this will aid in talent retention and development.
Additionally, it will encourage locals and graduates to consider careers in the health and social care sector so that workforces reflect the communities they serve.
“The Leeds Health and Social Care Hub provides a welcome platform for us to forge closer and stronger working relationships with our partners in Leeds and the north of England,” said health minister Maria Caulfield.
It will enable us to lure more talented health and care professionals and organisations to the area, thereby enhancing the labour force and the local economy.
Together, we will develop a comprehensive plan to enhance social and health care outcomes and find creative ways to address health disparities throughout the northern region of England.
This will build on previously successful cross-sector partnerships. For instance, in 2019,
Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust teamed up with Leeds City Council and a local charity to provide job opportunities and employment information to residents of Lincoln Green and other underserved communities in Leeds.
As a result, 49 people began a six-week employability programme, and 29 people were able to successfully land jobs at St. James’ Hospital.
Leeds will become the city of choice for organisations and businesses because The Hub will serve as a focal point for healthcare activity in the area.
To ensure that locals can profit from new innovations, the new West Yorkshire Innovation hub, for instance, has been established.
It recently unveiled ten innovative programmes, including one to help older cancer patients and programmes to increase cancer screening uptake in minority populations.
Leeds City Council, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Beckett University, Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network, Leeds Health and Care Academy, Leeds and York Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust are just a few of the partners.
“I believe the Hub offers a unique opportunity to speed implementation of our shared aspirations, not to mention great potential to be duplicated across diverse sectors in other regions of the UK,” said Sir Chris Wormald KCB, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care.
“The centre brings together a varied collection of partners both locally and nationally that will be able to do so much more collectively,” said Dr. Sara Munro, chief executive officer of Leeds & York Partnership NHS Trust.
“You need national, regional, and local perspectives working together to develop and deliver good policy, and this initiative is a terrific opportunity to achieve precisely that,” said Tom Riordan of Leeds City Council.
“The Hub is a significant opportunity to build upon the existing collaboration between health and care across Leeds and West Yorkshire, aligning conversations around health, the economy, employment, and innovation to improve health and life outcomes for the region’s citizens,” said Richard Stubbs, Chief Executive Officer of Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network.
Three important areas will be the project’s primary focus:
Making the health sector in the area the employer of choice for many locals from all communities in terms of people and talent.
This will consist of:
Making migration between organisations easier and clarifying career routes between organisations
By attracting local talent and encouraging them to join our organisations, we can increase and diversify the talent pool.
Creating new apprenticeship programmes, rotation programmes, outreach programmes, and collaborating closely with regional universities to create higher education opportunities.
Working together to make Leeds a destination of choice for firms in the health and social care fields, especially those who are innovative and work in the fields of digital health and medical technology.
This will consist of:
supporting the Innovation Arc, a project that is a crucial component of the government’s New Hospital Program that aims to establish a number of innovation neighbourhoods, as part of the work to develop the new hospital on the Leeds General Infirmary site
supporting diverse, cooperative alliances involving the life sciences, industry, academia, health professionals, and decision-makers
working to maximise start-up potential and attract people to the field of new health technology
Collaboration and policy: Addressing health and care policy issues with an emphasis on health disparities by combining the knowledge and perspective of all partners.
This will consist of:
establishing new methods of operation that allow for the testing of concepts, investigation of policy options, and real-time insight.
forming a dedicated working group to address health issues and ensuring that the effort is supported by outstanding intellectual contributions from nearby universities
Lincoln Project for green employment and skills
With six hospitals located throughout the city, Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust is one of the largest employers in Leeds.
An institution that serves as an anchor is well situated to offer local residents employment opportunities.
In order to provide information sessions and cutting-edge employability courses that would connect residents of Lincoln Green and other underserved communities in Leeds with job opportunities, Leeds City Council worked in partnership with the Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust, Learning Partnerships, and a local charity. The endeavour has been a huge success:
29 out of the 49 participants in the 6-week employability programme were successful in getting jobs at St. James’s Hospital.
The Narrowing Inequalities via Health and Care Careers programme, which spreads the paradigm across multiple partners and different careers, has utilised the lessons learned from the Lincoln Green project to its advantage.
Since the pilot in 2019, a number of people have benefited from the learning opportunities to advance from their initial occupations as facilities technicians (ward housekeepers and porters) to clinical positions.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has promised to finance three programmes per year as a result of the pilot program’s success.