Partnership Lead
Kate O’Connell, Director of Leeds Health and Care Academy and Strategic Workforce
Purpose
Reduce inequalities across health, work, and skills by supporting the current and future health and care workforce, with a focus on addressing the barriers created by deprivation, disability, and discrimination.
Strategic drivers
- Improving health equity through access to good employment, targeted training, and fair career progression.
- Supporting groups most affected by deprivation, disability, or discrimination to access opportunities and thrive.
- Aligning workforce development with the ambitions of the Healthy Leeds Plan to create a fairer, healthier city.
Approach
- Collective problem-solving at the Steering Group to identify and prioritise equity-focused interventions.
- Leveraging the Talent Hub to design and deliver Connecting Communities programmes, targeting groups who face the greatest barriers to entering or progressing in health and care roles.
- Capturing learning and evidence of what works to improve accessibility, lived experiences, and outcomes for individuals, organisations, and the wider system.
Focus
Changing Practice
- Expanding digital skills badges to improve accessibility for people with limited digital literacy.
- Tackling inequalities in access to apprenticeships and T-Levels by targeting young people and adults from deprived backgrounds and those with disabilities.
- Piloting career development initiatives that remove barriers for those experiencing discrimination in recruitment or progression.
Collaborative Programmes
- Connecting health and care employers with schools, colleges, and community organisations in areas of high deprivation to widen participation.
- Designing inclusive pathways and tailored support for disabled people to enter and progress in the workforce.
- Building targeted initiatives with Third Sector partners to ensure seldom-heard communities can access opportunities.
System & Culture Change
- Embedding inclusive and equitable approaches across the city’s workforce strategy.
- Driving cultural change through leadership development, equity-focused policies, and practical workforce tools.
- Sharing learning across organisations to scale approaches that reduce inequalities linked to deprivation, disability, and discrimination.
Academy Role
- Facilitating quarterly Steering Group meetings to advance objectives and share collective learning.
- Managing and connecting pilot projects to test and refine equity-focused interventions.
- Using the Talent Hub infrastructure to deliver collaborative programmes, monitor impact, and ensure accessibility.
- Acting as a central hub for gathering evidence, demonstrating impact, and scaling successful approaches.
Planned Impact (Healthy Leeds Plan Alignment)
- For individuals: improved access to training, careers, and progression for those facing deprivation, disability, or discrimination.
- For organisations: a more diverse, skilled, and resilient workforce, better reflecting the communities served.
- For the system: stronger collaboration and reduced inequalities in workforce opportunities across Leeds.
- For communities: healthier, fairer outcomes driven by a workforce shaped by inclusion, equity, and shared learning.
To find out more about case studies/impact see below:
