West Yorkshire Partnership welcomes Navina Evans

West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) had the pleasure of hosting a visit from Dr Navina Evans on Thursday 4 August. Navina was keen to hear about the work already underway across West Yorkshire, and especially the approach outlined in their People Plan, leadership and organisation development work  - including promoting inclusion and diversity in all we do. 

Hosted by Spectrum Community Health in Wakefield, the first part of the day saw a group of colleagues from the Partnership’s Race Equality Network and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) People Directorate showcased the development journey of the plan.  Navina heard about their ambitions for attracting and developing enough staff across the health and care workforce to enable us to support and care for people and communities across the area.

The morning continued onto the themes of ‘celebrating our diversity and our differences and as a Partnerships work around ‘responding to the ‘Tackling health inequalities for ethnic minority communities and colleagues’ review, launched in October 2020.

Navina heard about the personal journeys of colleagues who had taken part in the Partnership’s Award Winning Fellowship Programme and learnt more about the excellent examples of local work including the spotlight on the BME Staff Network at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. There was also a moving film which has just launched from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust relating to supporting colleagues with disabilities and carer responsibilities with their own careers.

The afternoon session saw leaders representing the Partnership from:

• Leeds Health and Care Academy
• Spectrum Community Health
• The voluntary community social enterprise sector
• Mid-Yorkshire Hospital NHS Trust
• The University of Bradford – representing the Workforce Observatory
• Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
• Workforce place leads
• Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust

West Yorkshire Race Equality Network and colleagues from the Integrated Care Board Executive Team also took part in a round table informal discussion to discuss initiatives taking place, service developments and the challenges we face in West Yorkshire.  Navina was keen to hear about the short-term challenges and some of the short and longer-term workforce plans and our desire to find a joined-up approach to solutions (where it makes sense to do so).  Recognising that our workforce is key, Navina heard about our collective views on what the future workforce might look like in terms of its shape and future skill requirements and essentially, what the role of NHS England will be going forward to support our local workforce agenda.