Sara's blog - summer 2018

Our Chief Executive, Sara Munro, blogs about our recovery from a fire at the Becklin Centre, activities to celebrate the NHS’ 70th birthday and the latest developments across the health and care system.

Hello, and welcome to my summer blog. Given there has been so much going on lately we decided to hold of my usual monthly posts and cover a bit more this time.

This month I want to start by sharing my utmost respect and gratitude for those involved in dealing with the fire on Ward 5 at the Becklin Centre in May – in terms of on the day and managing the fallout since.  I was the on-call manager that night and to get a call telling you there is a fire on an inpatient unit is something you never want to hear.

Staff on duty at the time ensured no patient suffered any harm and everyone was safely cared for overnight.  I witnessed first-hand the hard work, team spirit and resilience of our staff, the emergency services and partners who rallied round.

A special thanks to Maureen Cushley who was the on call manager and has provided excellent direction, leadership, support and feedback that night and since.

Within 24 hours of the fire we’d got a new temporary ward up and running in Bradford thanks to our colleagues at Bradford District Care Trust. They were outstanding in coming forward in our hour of need to make this facility available at such short notice and they’re providing great ongoing site support.

We’re grateful to the ongoing flexibility and dedication of staff who’re caring for patients in the temporary ward in Bradford.

Thanks to the ongoing team work across our departments – we’re aiming to be back in Becklin Ward 5 in August.

 

Many happy returns NHS 70

Cake for NHS 7 tea party at Mill Lodge in York

On Thursday 5 July we celebrated the 70th birthday of our National Health Service. Quite a monumental milestone – especially that there are people alive today who did not have access to healthcare free at the point of need in the early years of their life. Something we all too often don’t appreciate.

The NHS has changed so much since its inception and will continue to change.  This is because we are both ambitious to improve and driven by frustration when we can’t make the difference we want to.

The 70th birthday has been well and truly marked both nationally and locally, and we’re no exception. We’ve supported nearly 1,000 staff and service users to hold their own NHS 7 Tea parties, bringing people together for a brew, a slide of cake and a chance to reflect on our fine institution.  I have seen through Twitter we’ve got some very talented bakers – check out the cake from the tea party at our children and adolescent service in York (above)!

I was lucky enough to attend two events accompanied by our staff.  In June the NHS Confederation held a tea party in Manchester and I attended along with one of our longest serving staff members Amanda Shaw and Helen Goldsmith – one of our most recent recruits.  On the birthday itself I attended the celebration event at Westminster Abbey – accompanied by Tony Gascoigne Bates and Hollie Roblin.  It was a very special ceremony with speeches from a nurse who joined when the NHS started through to a young lady who was badly injured in the Manchester Arena Attack last year – thanking NHS staff for saving her life.

Our Anti-stigma Co-ordinator Tricia Thorpe put on a wonderful exhibition and event at Leeds Museums on 26 June. The event, entitled Looking Back, Looking Forward, celebrated the improvements we’ve seen in care for people with learning disabilities in Leeds, including performances, films, stories and tons of archive material that Tricia and her volunteers have unearthed over the last few months. The event ended with a tear-jerking rendition of the song Wonderful World performed by some of our service users.

 

We’ve also been celebrating the diversity of our staff with our 70 Faces at 70 campaign – showcasing the stories behind the people who work for us. Colleagues and volunteers have also created a new sensory garden at our children’s inpatient unit in York and I look forward to seeing the results.

 

My view on the five year funding settlement 

Our Prime Minister gave the NHS a birthday present and announced a five-year funding settlement of 3.4% per year.

Whilst this falls below the 4% recommended by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, given the wider political and economic context, we should see this longer term settlement as a positive. This long-term funding commitment means the NHS has the financial security to develop a 10-year plan. The priorities include “better access to mental health services, to help achieve the government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health” – which I welcome.

However, there is significant work to be done in the coming months to develop the financial framework for how the investment will be allocated across the NHS and what the expectations are in terms of efficiency and service transformation in return.  We are seeking to be actively involved in these negotiations and I’ll keep you updated as details emerge.

 

A shadow integrated care system (ICS) for West Yorkshire and Harrogate

We are part of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate health and care partnership which, on 24 May, was confirmed as a ‘shadow integrated care system’ or ICS by NHS England.

Our inclusion in wave 2 of the integrated care system programme is a really positive step and will put our area at the forefront of nationwide action to provide better co-ordinated and more joined up care for 2.6 million people across the patch.

We’ve now got some key steps to take to formalise this new structure including identifying our key priority areas and the people who’ll drive them forward, agreeing financial management arrangements so we can receive transformation funding and agreeing a memorandum of understanding between key partners in the system – of which there are many.

You can keep up to date with this work on the partnership’s website or sign up to their regular blogs.

 

Mental health collaborative

I’ve blogged before about our involvement in the West Yorkshire Mental Health Collaborative – a partnership between us, South West Yorkshire, Bradford and Leeds Community NHS Trusts.

The formalisation of this partnership continues and we’ve recently agreed our primary work streams, which are:

  • Reducing out of area placements
  • Standardising and improving alternatives to admission
  • A review of our Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) model and capacity
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Complex Care Model (or locked rehabilitation)
  • A Learning Disability Assessment and Treatment model for the Partnership
  • New Care Models Programmes (Children’s, Eating Disorders and Forensic services)
  • Addressing waiting times for children and adults with Autism and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Some of these programmes are based on working together to share best practice and therefore achieve better and consistent outcomes.  Some of them are larger transformation programmes that will require investment and some may require a change in how local NHS services are commissioned.

The mental health collaborative will also take forward the learning disabilities transforming care programme (TCP) led by NHS England and I will be joining the Yorkshire and Humber TCP board.  We have proposed that stronger involvement of local providers may help to provide better and timelier options for ensuring people are seen and treated close to their home areas.

 

And finally, welcome Baroness Harding

Picture of Baroness Harding's visit

We were delighted to welcome Baroness Dido Harding (pictured second from the right) to the Trust in June. She’s been Chair of NHS Improvement for seven months and, as part of her orientation into the NHS, she asked to spend some time with us to find out more about mental health services.

The visit was hosted by the National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine and the clinical leads for the NICPM, Perinatal Services and Eating Disorder services all attended to share the work they are doing on service development and the impact this is having for service users.

It was an excellent opportunity to showcase our work and to contribute our views on the importance of targeted investment in mental health, the challenges but importance of multi-agency working, effecting change and transformation.



Find out more about our Chief Executive Sara Munro