As Chair of the Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership, I am proud to introduce our updated Health and Care Strategy. This sets out how we will work together to improve health, care, and wellbeing for everyone in our area, and how we will respond to the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Acting to reduce health inequalities and improve the health, care, and wellbeing of our population is at the heart of everything we do. This plan is set out in support of our Health and Care Partnership vision, where we Act as One to keep people Happy, Healthy, at Home.
Our plan is informed by our work with local people as partners. We have made, and continue to make, significant efforts to reach seldom heard and underserved people and communities, working with trusted partners to achieve this. Our active citizens are shaping the future of health and care in Bradford District and Craven. We are connecting through community insight and continuing to take an asset-based approach in our neighbourhoods and localities.
Our plan is shaped by the opportunities made available to us through new capital investment, the establishment of provider partnerships, and by our shared understanding of our population. We know where we can work together to tackle inequalities, develop neighbourhood health and care, and thereby improve health now and for generations to come, by using the data and insight we have available to us, to better understand our communities and better allocate resources.
The underlying reason for this plan is the health and wellbeing of our population. While we have a relatively young population, when we look forward to 2040 our population demographic changes significantly. Our use of predictive modelling to foresee the future has shown us why we need to transform how we work, where we work, and the simple changes that can make a difference to people’s access, experience, and outcomes of care. Without change, the health of our population will continue to deteriorate and our services will be unable to meet the rising and changing needs of local people. Prevention – primary, secondary, and tertiary – needs to become life-long, whole system, and at the heart of all that we do.
As partners, we take on the responsibility for the wellbeing of our population. We have a culture of collaboration that is a powerful enabler of change. We are guided by the principle of subsidiarity, with decisions taken as close to local communities as possible, and at a larger scale where there are demonstrable benefits or where co-ordination adds value. This requires us all to be leading and directing our organisations to facilitate the ambitions and duties of our Health and Care Partnership.
This plan helps us answer questions and take decisions as a Partnership.
We are not what we currently do, or what we’ve done in the past. We are what we do next.
The full strategy will be published following formal approval at our Partnership Board later this month.
As always, we welcome questions from the public which will be raised at the meeting – Partnership Board | Engage Bradford District & Craven.