A new Leeds and Social Care Hub launched yesterday, bringing together the Department of Health and Social Care and various local organisations to improve health outcomes across the community.
Members of the public, private, and third sector organisations, including NHS, local government, universities, and other health organisations will be brought together to tackle health disparities and improve employment opportunities across the region.
The aim of this venture is to position Leeds as the natural choice for professionals who are looking to pursue a career in health and social care encompassing local government, public, and private organisations.
This will ultimately help the city retain and develop talent, as well as providing a boost to the local economy – it will also encourage local residents and graduates to pursue a career in the health and social care sector, meaning the workforce reflects the community they serve.
Health Minister, Maria Caulfield, said: ““The Leeds Health and Social Care Hub provides a welcome platform for us to forge closer and stronger working relationships with our partners in Leeds and the north of England.
“It will allow us to entice more talented health and care workers, as well as organisations, to the region, boosting both the local workforce and the economy. Together, we will work on a comprehensive vision to improve health and social care outcomes and come up with innovative solutions to tackle health disparities across the north of England.”
The project has three main areas of focus:
- People and Talent – Promoting the health sector as the primary choice of employment for local people. They will do this by:
- Making career paths between organisations clearer and facilitating movement across different organisations.
- Expanding and diversifying the talent pool.
- Developing new apprenticeships, rotation schemes and outreach initiatives.
- Health and social care economy – Making Leeds a location of choice for health and social care businesses, especially innovative businesses and those within the digital health and medical technology sectors. They will do this by:
- Supporting the Innovation Arc project which looks to create a series of innovation neighbourhoods.
- Supporting inclusive and collaborative partnerships between life sciences, businesses, academics, healthcare providers and policymakers.
- Working to attract talent into emerging health technologies and maximising start-up opportunities.
- Policy and collaboration – Bringing together the experience and insight of all partners to address health and care policy challenges. This will do this by:
- Establishing new ways of working where to jointly test ideas, explore policy solutions, and gather real-time insight.
- Creating a specific working group to address health challenges and ensuring work is backed up by excellent academic input from local universities.
Partners for the new hub will include Leeds City Council, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS England, West Yorkshire Integrated Care System, University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University, Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network, Leeds Health and Care Academy, Leeds and York Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust.
Richard Stubbs, Chief Executive Officer, Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network said: “The Hub is a significant opportunity to build upon the existing collaboration between health and care across Leeds and West Yorkshire, aligning conversations around health, the economy, employment, and innovation to improve health and life outcomes for the region’s citizens.”
More information about the new hub is available here.
