Our work during Covid
Looking after you
How people’s lifestyles have been impacted by Covid-19 in the LS25/LS26 Local Care Partnership area.
The percentage of the population registered as obese is higher in the LS25 and LS26 areas of Leeds compared to the city as a whole and therefore tackling obesity is one of the LS25 & LS26 Local Care Partnership’s current priorities. The local care partnership is a group of health and care professionals who are working together to improve health and care services in these postcode areas.
- Isolation has increased mental ill health, particularly amongst younger people and has negative effects on the motivation to be active, particularly when walking, cycling, or running are the principal activities available.
- The changes that are taking place in lifestyle are quite small and whilst home cooking from scratch for example is increasing, so is the apparent increase in alcohol consumption, though this is not easy to accurately assess as the opportunities for social drinking are reduced.
- Improving, appropriate, safe and easy access to both health and care services and formal exercise facilities are considered by the public to be the greatest opportunities for improving wellbeing and reducing obesity.
Care Home Staff Feedback Report
How have staff been affected since the pandemic began.
Over the period July to September 2020, we ran a survey to find out how care home staff felt things had been going since the pandemic began. We wanted to know what they thought had gone well and what had not gone so well at the care homes where they worked. We also asked them if they had any suggestions about how to make things better now and in the future for care home staff, residents and relatives.
Latest report on Digital Inclusion is out
Digital Inclusion Leeds: How Does it Feel for me? Autumn Check In
This briefing focusses in large part on the experiences of people facing the greatest health inequalities. Its insight comes from the new Communities of Interest network, which seeks to hear the voices of people facing multiple health inequalities.
It is important that we acknowledge this is just one potential approach to the issue of digital inclusion, and there are other perspectives via which we hope to tackle the subject in future briefings. These include, for example, specific health conditions and disabilities.
We also acknowledge that, while the Communities of Interest network covers a broad range of voices, it would be reductive to claim that this briefing has captured every possible profile and experience in the city. Leeds is a diverse urban area of over 800,000 individuals. By depicting the experiences of some of its communities and population groups, we hope to paint one picture at one point in time which will help to inform the work happening across the city around digital inclusion.
Thank you!
We couldn't have done our work without your voice.
Thank you for your feedback, from the first moments we went into Lockdown right up to now, all the information you have shared with us has helped. Each week we have been creating a Weekly Check In, a round up of what we are hearing and we have been sharing this with health and care services, Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board, Gold Command/Silver Command and our voluntary sector partners. Click on the green image on the right to read all the Weekly CheckIns
We think its important you know how your feedback helps
What happens when you give your feedback
We think it’s important that you know when you tell us about your experiences, that it doesn’t just end there, that it is fed back into the city to help them understand what’s working or what needs to change.
Since March we have been sending out these short surveys, the first one focussing on how we all, Leeds residents, had to deal with sudden changes in how we accessed services. We all had to change very quickly from face to face, to telephone or video calls, we all began to learn about ‘Zoom calls’ and ‘Skype’ and ‘Google Hangouts!’ It’s been fun and frustrating, in equal measure!
Through your feedback we discovered that people were worried about their mental health or had concerns about friends and family members' mental health. We received feedback from over 1000 people, young and old! This information was fed back to the Mental Health Commissioning team in the Mental Health Briefing During Covid-19 and helped the city as they began to restart the city’s health and care services.
This is why this work is so important, hearing first-hand from people means services get it right first time, rather than trying to second guess what people want. This has been crucial when we have had digital access to services forced upon us. Most of us took to it easily, and have welcomed the opportunity to access digitally rather than having to go to a clinic. But that doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
Working with our partners in the People’s Voices Group, (PVG), a group made up of engagement leads for Clinical Commissioning Group, (CCG) Health Partnerships Team, local NHS Trusts, organisations from the Third Sector and 100% Digital Leeds we compiled feedback from across the city and created the report, Digitising Leeds: Risks and Opportunities for Reducing Health Inequalities in Leeds.
As well as the using the weekly check-in surveys, our staff and volunteers phoned a number of care homes to listen to their experiences. We were hearing a lot about the impact lockdown was having on resident’s mental health and well-being.
We did a short, focussed piece of work to get a more detailed understanding of residents’ well-being.
The ‘Emotional impact of Covid 19 on care home residents in Leeds’ report highlights the effect lockdown is having on residents and their families.
And our work understanding how it is for carers and people with sensory impairments during Lockdown has created some novel uses of your feedback!
Knowing that the feedback you give us is making a difference to people’s lives in Leeds is a great thing.
Feedback on our work during Covid-19
What have health and care services been saying about our work
"Healthwatch Leeds work has been invaluable. From the beginning of the pandemic Leeds Community Healthcare was concerned to ensure we heard the voice of the citizen and particularly those voices that are seldom heard. Healthwatch was one of the main routes we utilised to hear real people in real time. You have been invaluable" Thea Stein - Chief Executive - Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
"In the middle of a fast moving situation like a pandemic where there is little time to effectively consult in our normal way it is doubly important to get a sense of the impact on local people of the changes being made. The reports produced by Healthwatch Leeds has been a significant contribution to that understanding and we share it widely with our commissioning leads. As well as helping us collectively as partners consider immediate corrective action it has also helped identify some issues that will require longer focused pieces of work." Tim Ryley - Chief Executive NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group
"Throughout this pandemic Healthwatch Leeds have kept a clear and consistent focus on seeking out what the impact is and continues to on the mental health of the citizens of Leeds. Their ability to reach so many different groups and communities has been very much appreciated and the feedback helped steer us each step of the way. Thank you" Dr Sara Munro, Chief Executive Officer - Leeds & York Partnership NHS Trust
“I have been checking in with the Healthwatch website updates for how things have been going for people, and encouraging the community teams to do the same- really useful work that gives a great narrative of experience feedback!” Eddie Devine, Head of Operations: Community and Wellbeing Services
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
“I found this newsletter really useful - thank you - lots of sad stories but also some really positive work from agencies during this difficult time. Most interesting for me is the fear of coming out of lockdown for some people - whilst many of us can’t wait for it to be over others are clearly feeling differently which I wasn’t expecting.” Daniella Hembra, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Specialist Safeguarding Adults Nurse Advisor
“Fantastic, important and timely piece of collaboration!” Roz Davies, MBA FRSA, Managing Director, mHabitat
“Well done to everyone for all the hard work to get the report ready, brilliant piece of work which will hopefully made a big difference to people's experiences/ service offers re digitisation!” Lucy Graham, Operations Manager, Volition, Forum Central
“It’s been really impressive to see this piece of work develop into such an insightful report. Thanks so much for your efforts. There have been many conversations at Local Care Partnership level re: Digital Inclusion so we will be actively sharing the report and its findings with partnerships over the coming weeks.” Neil Maguire, Development Manager - Local Care Partnerships
“The weekly ‘How does it feel for me during Covid 19? – Weekly real-time report’ has proven to be invaluable. Having insight into the experience of people and how they are accessing and experiencing health care during COVID19 is vital. An example was in relation to care homes and a lack of clarity in what care home can expect from GP Services and the impact of this on care home residents. This resulted in a rapid and focussed piece of work to produce clear guidance and clear expectations for both care homes and GPs, with the intended impact being the right access to health care for residents.” Jim Barwick, Chief Executive Leeds GP Confederation
"Responding to Covid 19 appropriately so we protect and support our citizens has been intense hard work and what helps us get it right is hearing the direct feedback from local people. Healthwatch Leeds insight reports keeps it real and gives us valuable information on how we might do things even better going forward." Cath Roff, Director of Adults and Health Leeds City Council
“This is a great report thank you, very emotionally hard hitting but gets to the big issues. I'll share with the chair of the Covid Social Task Force” Imelda Redmond CBE, National Director, Healthwatch England
“Thank you for sending this - it looks brilliant - such a solid and well articulated piece of work that strikes the balance of making clear and reasonable asks of partners and are suggestions that would make a real difference to the quality of life of residents and relatives.” Rachel, Leeds Older People's Forum
“We have used the information to create some animations, one for Deaf and Hearing impaired individuals and the other to support Carers: Deaf Awareness: & Carers: The Carers animation was shared across the Trust during Carers Week and the Deaf Awareness animation has been shared at our Connecting Leaders in Care meeting. Both will be shared as the patient story at the next Patient Experience Sub Group also.” Jenny Wilson, Project Manager, Patient, Carer & Public Involvement Patient Experience, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
“The weekly check in reports, along with the Communities of Interest insights, have fed into a piece of work focussing on health inequalities and how we must consider this as we start to reset services. The reports are now part of an engagement plan proforma for our reset and recovery, so that services are directed to the information and use this as one of many decision making tools around continued and reintroduction of service provision and embedding patient, carer and public voices within this.” Heather Thrippleton, Patient Experience and Engagement Lead - Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
“We have fed in examples from Leeds nationally! Our Intel Team are now on the mailing list so they should be picking up the detail. I think it has been a great example of a Healthwatch in tune with their local community.” Gavin Macgregor, Head of Network Development, Healthwatch England
