Communications & involvement report (May – June 2021)

Recent media coverage

We’ve issued 17 media releases in the past two months, primarily focusing on different elements of the Covid-19 vaccination programme, as well as mental wellbeing and diabetes awareness. As part of this work, we’ve also arranged several radio and television interviews, in partnership with the regional vaccination team and our colleagues at NHS England.

• Walk-in and grab your jab this weekend Anyone aged 18 or over in Leeds will have the opportunity to get their Covid-19 vaccination this weekend by simply walking into one of a number of vaccination clinics.
• Hop on board the vaccination minibus The NHS in Leeds and Leeds City Council, working alongside local voluntary and community organisations, are encouraging people to have their Covid vaccine at the vaccination minibus.
• Feeling unwell? Choose the best service for your needs The NHS in Leeds is asking people to choose the best service for their needs if they are feeling unwell or have a minor injury.
• New drop-in clinic offers private space for women to have their COVID-19 vaccination As the NHS continues to run the largest vaccination programme in its history, the local NHS and Leeds City Council have introduced a new women-only drop-in vaccine clinic in Chapeltown, in partnership with Women’s Lives Leeds.
• Leeds residents urged to be Type 2 Diabetes Aware For Type 2 Diabetes Awareness Week, we’re reminding people that one in ten Leeds residents will be affected by diabetes – either because they have it already or are at high risk of developing it. Tens of thousands more know someone with the condition.
• NHS in Leeds raises awareness of children and young people’s mental health with graffiti art for Mental Health Awareness Week MindMate is working with Leeds Street Gallery to paint a graffiti mural at LS TEN Skate Park to raise awareness of mental health issues for children and young people in Leeds.

You can find all our press releases on our website: https://www.leedsccg.nhs.uk/news/

Current communications campaigns & activity

• Annual reports – during the last two months, we finalised and published both the statutory CCG annual report and accounts as well as our involvement annual report for 2020-21. We will also be producing short summary versions to ensure accessibility. Compiling annual reports is always a significant undertaking, but perhaps never more so than this year.
• Campaigns – as services safely restart, we are working with colleagues both in Leeds and across West Yorkshire and Harrogate to develop new campaigns and communications plans to support the system and our patients, for example around appropriate use of emergency departments, minor injuries units and NHS services generally.
• We have begun work with primary care colleagues on a new zero tolerance campaign to tackle abuse of staff. This is, unfortunately, not a problem that’s unique to Leeds – our 2019 citywide campaign is currently attracting interest from around the UK. However, the pandemic has resulted in new levels of abuse, coupled with many myths about primary care, so we are looking at a campaign that challenges unacceptable behaviour, addresses those myths and supports colleagues.
• In addition, we continue to support regional and national campaigns, for example around staff and public mental health, cancer awareness and diabetes awareness and prevention.
• Covid-19 vaccination programme – our team continues to lead the #TeamLeeds communications approach, working closely with all our partners to provide updates for health and social care staff, elected members and other key stakeholders. In addition, we are linking in with national and regional efforts to increase vaccine confidence, developing creative ways to engage with our diverse communities while also managing expectations for those eager to get vaccinated.  The last two months have been an especially busy time for vaccination communications, due to the rapidly changing eligible cohorts, the launch of several new flexible walk-in clinics and the national ‘grab a jab’ initiative.
• Covid-19 response in addition to the vaccination programme, we continue to support efforts to remind people to access services appropriately and support efforts to get people tested should they have symptoms. This has been especially important in recent weeks with the rapid increase in cases associated with the delta variant.
• City/regional meetings and representation – colleagues across the team continue to hold key roles in city and regional communications and involvement networks.
• Internal communications – we have continued our regular briefings for primary care and CCG staff and support our chief executive with regular team briefs via Microsoft Teams Live. We continue to use Workplace by Facebook to engage staff.
• Primary care communications – we continue to support practices by providing patient-facing materials, social media advice and media relations guidance, including press releases to highlight good news stories and PR support when things go wrong.
• System resilience – we continue to work with colleagues across the city to ensure clear, consistent and effective communications during this period of unprecedented pressure on health and care services.

Involvement activity

As a result of the ongoing pandemic, most of our involvement activities currently take place online.

• CCG volunteers – we continue to provide online mentoring.
• Community mental health support services review – more than 140 people have attended recent workshops.
• Community mental health transformation funding – we are supporting LYPFT with their initial involvement work on a three-year project to transform community mental health services.
• Community neuro rehab service redesign – the engagement plan was approved by the patient assurance group (PAG). Involvement activity will begin in early July.
• COVID-19 vaccination experience survey – we have so far received 5846 responses. We’re working with Leeds Voices to hear more from diverse communities.
• Grey literature library and insight repository – we have developed a specification for the grey literature library and are completing soft market testing to establish if external companies can provide what the city needs.
• Left Shift Blueprint – During May and June Qa Research engaged with 80 members of the public through focus groups and telephone interviews and have produced a draft report of the findings. Plans are being agreed as to how best to disseminate the learning.
• Minor injuries campaign – we continue to work with Brainbox Research to better understand people’s use of emergency departments for minor injuries prior to developing a behaviour change campaign
• Networked Data Lab – we are providing involvement input to this national programme to deliver data-driven insights on common problems facing the health and care system.
• Patient Assurance Group (PAG) – four CCG volunteers attended the June PAG to provide assurance on the involvement plan for the community neuro rehab service project.
• Patient participation groups (PPGs) – we continue to support PPGs.
• Planned and long-term care procurements – dermatology procurement is now ready to go out to tender. We have completed the combined impact assessment and insight review for ENT and audiology. Gastroscopy work is due to start in July 2021
• Primary care – we are providing support and advice to Garforth Medical Practice around engaging patients in a proposal to close a branch surgery. We have also recently published our report on the closure of The Avenue surgery.
• Youth project – we are supporting a young person’s representative on the Governing Body with a young person’s led project. The project aims to create a youth charter to contribute young people’s voice at integrated care partnership level.

You can find out more about our involvement activity during 2020-21 in Involving You, our annual report on engagement.

Upcoming activity

• Big Leeds Chat – we are working with partners in the city to plan and develop our approach to bring Big Leeds Chat back for 2021, including smaller local chats and an online event. Work started in the Crossgates primary care network area to try to support better involvement between local people and their GP practices will now be incorporated into the local chats across the city. It is expected that the Big Leeds Chat will take place during September and October.
• Campaigns – we will continue to work with colleagues to develop campaigns that support the Leeds system and our patients. We will continue to support regional and national health and awareness campaigns.
• Citywide involvement network– Following a pause during the pandemic, we are beginning to  pick up this work again and, in the coming weeks, will be meeting with potential providers to see if they can satisfy the original brief to deliver a framework for the citywide network.
• Community neuro rehab involvement begins on 5 July and runs until 10 September.
• Covid-19 – we will continue to support the Leeds system with clear and consistent communications about coronavirus and the vaccination programme, particularly as we move into phase 3 of the programme. As part of that, we will be working with partners to review our approach during the first two phases and look at what and how we can improve.
• Introductory mental health transformation sessions will take place online during July.
• Team development – with the arrival of our new head of service and new Shaping our Future roles and structures in place, the team will be spending some time on work planning, prioritisation and team development over the next couple of months.
• Transition to ICS – as the CCG prepares to become part of the new statutory integrated care system on 1 April 2021, the team will be working with colleagues to help ensure a smooth and efficient transition.