Welcome
Welcome to the summer edition of our quarterly round up where I bring you news from our partnership working across the Leeds Health and Care Academy.
Highlights from the last quarter
I am delighted to share that the work delivered through the Leeds One Workforce Programme was shortlisted in three categories at the Occupational Therapy Excellence Awards for the clinical placement pilot in primary schools: Most Innovative Practice, Best Partnership, and Excellence in Community Services and Peer Support. We are particularly proud to have been named winners in the Excellence in Community Services and Peer Support category. This award recognises the strength of our partnership approach and the impact of community-led initiatives in improving outcomes for individuals and communities across Leeds.
Following a highly competitive funding process, the Academy has secured an additional £150,000 from the Rayne Foundation to enhance support for the adult social care workforce across Leeds. A particular focus will be placed on ensuring smaller providers and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations can benefit from equitable staff development and support.
LHCA supported the coordination and delivery of the West Yorkshire Compassionate Culture Conference on 17th June, attended by over 400 colleagues from across the five places. The event provided an opportunity for participants to reflect on how they influence, lead and support the development of compassionate cultures, alongside sharing key learning insights from across the region, including the delivery of the Healthier Working Lives programme.
A joint review is underway to strengthen alignment between Leeds City Council’s We Care Academy and the Academy’s Talent Hub, creating a more seamless and coordinated experience for people seeking careers in health and social care across Leeds. The review aims to develop a streamlined, single candidate journey, featuring a single point of entry, shared assessment processes and clear progression routes into aligned career pathways. The initiative will support a more equitable and transparent system, increase the number of candidates progressing into sustainable roles, and provide enhanced support for small and medium-sized social care providers across the city.
As many of our readers will be aware, Neighbourhood Health is currently transitioning into a different phase of delivery across the city. The Academy has recently established a Neighbourhood Health Workforce Steering Group to coordinate the workforce elements. The Steering Group will ensure strategic alignment and connectivity of the workforce aspect of neighbourhood health, the development of the Leeds Provider Partnership and other connected system organisational change programmes.
Achievements and impact
It’s been a busy quarter for us and highlights of our achievements and impact are captured below.
The Fairer Healthier Leeds Health Equity Development Programme continues to grow in reach and impact. An options appraisal has been completed to support formal accreditation, strengthening recognition of participants’ learning and development. The Level 2 and Level 3 programmes remain highly evaluated, with upcoming dates available to book. Building on this success, the new Level 4 Service and System Change Programme is about to launch supporting leaders to deliver real improvement across the system, while a partnership with Leeds City College will embed health equity training into the curriculum for around 900 Health and Care students, helping shape the future workforce.
The newly launched Partnerships Leading Care Fellowship is already having a strong impact in developing more connected, system-focused leadership across Leeds. The inaugural cohort of 24 fellows has taken part in three structured development sessions, supported by dedicated mentors, to build skills in systems leadership and cross-organisational working. Early outcomes include increased confidence, stronger collaborative networks and a growing ability to apply learning in practice. To find out more about the fellows and their improvement projects, click here.
This quarter we delivered several bespoke programmes and careers outreach with Children and Young People, with a focus on young people at risk of NEET. We delivered bespoke careers activity with YMCA and Leeds City College, working with young people aged 16-19, to inspire them, develop key skills and support next steps. We also delivered targeted careers sessions for SEN (special educational needs) young people with East Specialist Inclusion Learning Centre, using a hands-on approach with four groups of young people.
Our Talent Hub remains busy, with over 367 individuals supported in Q1, leading to 52 people achieving accredited qualifications and 79 securing employment. Targeted engagement and recruitment continue to focus work with people in Leeds who are currently unemployed, live in priority neighbourhoods or are part of global majority communities, ensuring resources are most effectively used to tackle the inequalities faced in health, work and education.
Our learning portal attracted nearly 2000 new users over the last quarter, bringing the total users to over 15k. Whilst many users visit for Oliver McGowan mandatory training, we can see that they go on to explore other learning on the platform. The platform provides free access learning opportunities for all those who work or volunteer in the Leeds health and care sector, including unpaid carers. It has over 100 items of e-learning so really is worth a visit if you haven’t yet. New e-learning has been recently added to support Managers with return to work conversations Course: Coaching Conversations for Return to Work: A Guide for Health & Care Managers
For more detail about our achievements and impact over the last quarter please click here to view our quarterly dashboard.
Coming up
Over the next quarter data collection will begin for the refresh of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy H&C workforce indicators and city workforce profile.
The NeuroCreators training programme offers a blend of flexible e‑learning and supportive coaching to help neurodivergent colleagues develop greater self-awareness, confidence, and practical workplace strategies. The Workplace programme training launches on our learning portal this month (mentioned above) and the group Coaching starts in August and will be available to book shortly. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
Finally, our annual report for 25/26 is in final design stages and we look forward to sharing that with you in the coming weeks.
We’d love to hear from you. If you have any feedback on this roundup, or would like to learn more about any aspect of our work, please contact Jen Jones, Business Development Manager in the first instance jen.jones@nhs.net
Warm wishes,
Kate O’Connell
Director of Leeds Health and Care Academy and Leeds Strategic Workforce