Improving Health Equity

Welcome to our Improving Health Equity (IHE) page. We’ll be using this page to keep our service users, carers and partners up to date on the development of our health equity strategic plan, and the work we’re doing to deliver it.

In January 2025 the Trust Board approved our Improving Health Equity Strategic Plan 2025 – 2029.

Read the accessible word document version.

If you’d like a copy of our full glossy version, please contact lmh-tr.healthequity@nhs.net.

As a Trust we are working together to improve the health and lives of the service users, carers and the communities we serve by making Improving Health Equity part of our core business.

We know that people who need help for their mental health, people with learning disabilities and those with neurodiversity conditions and wider protected characteristics endure inequalities which affect their health and lives.

The causes of health inequalities include things like poor quality housing, low income, and insecure employment. Things have got worse over the last 15 years. As a result, the NHS is facing rising demand for healthcare from a ‘society in distress’ according to Lord Darzi’s Independent investigation of the NHS in England, published in September 2024.

We recognise that tackling health inequalities often requires system-level solutions, by working in partnership with local authorities, integrated care systems (ICSs) and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations.

Collaborative working needs to be embedded across the work of our Trust to enable us to deliver on this agenda.

It’s important to note that that success of our new health inequalities plan is dependent on us ALL working together.

The work we’re doing is being managed by our Head of Health Equity, Sophie Valinakis pictured.

Sophie reports to our executive team and we are ultimately accountable to the Leeds Mental Health Population Board.

 

Watch Sophie’s webinar

In 2024 Sophie presented our health equity work to staff and partners – you can watch it back on YouTube.

 

How you can get involved

• Through the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) expert advisory group (and other groups or positions that emerge),
• Co-development of specific projects and pieces of work set out in our strategic plan,
• Holding the organisation to account on delivery of the strategy – keeping equity a priority conversation.

If you are interested in getting involved, have any questions or would like to speak to one of our team members, please contact us via email at lmh-tr.healthequity@nhs.net.

The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF)

PCREF is the first ever anti-racism framework from NHSE. We are proud to share that LYPFT have been selected to be one of the national early implementer sites. This work brings ground-breaking change to our sector and promoting a whole new dimension of coproduction, where individuals and communities are at the heart of the design and implementation of the services they need. Find out more on our PCREF web page.