Bradford and Airedale Teaching
Profile
Twenty four per cent black and ethnic minority population (majority of which is South Asian) / approximately 480,000 people covered / The area has high rates of ill-health and mortality, high structural unemployment, continuing problems with racial harassment, skills gaps and lower than national average income / Bradford Education scored 136th out of 150 LEAs
Our BME population faces big issues…
Lifestyle: To become more proficient at managing their own health through changing personal lifestyles and improving diet and physical activity.
Challenging services: It is important for BME communities to critically engage with commissioning organisations and provider services to help influence the nature of primary care service delivery. Bradford is developing a training programme for commissioners which links them with service users and the third sector to ensure that commissioning decisions are appropriate and relevant.
Organisational development: There is an emphasis in Bradford on ensuring that all aspects of the patient journey, that is assessment, referral and treatment, are culturally appropriate. Training has been arranged for the PCT Board and middle maangement around equality issues.
Our workforce needs…
To reflect the BME community: 12 per cent of the workforce is from ethnic minorities, and few are in senior positions. A workforce which reflects its local community contributes towards the fitness of its organisation. Clear targets to increase BME representation in the workforce have been set.
More opportunities: The PCT will provide more opportunities for professional development among ethnic minority staff to help increase representation of BME staff in senior management.
Varied entry points: We need to introduce balancing measures to improve the skills base in the ethnic minority community through management training and work experience.
Commissioning raises issues…
Poor data: The PCT is working to improve the quality of the information about our local population. Recording ethnicity allows primary care organisations and commissioners to consider how services are taken up by ethnicity so that they can redesign services accordingly.
Cultural capability: There is a need to develop robust systems and processes which collate accurate data and intelligence about our local communities and their needs. This information needs to be used meaningfully in the design and the delivery of culturally sensitive services.
We’re proud of…
Our work in mental health: Bradford has pioneered a whole systems approach to equality in mental health care by strengthening the partnership between the statutory and voluntary sector through a community development approach.
Our work in oral health promotion: Bradford’s oral health team has reached out to young Muslim children through the ‘Smile with the Prophet’ project which aims to improve oral health amongst Muslim children using culturally appropriate messages.
Next steps…
We are going to conduct full impact assessments of four services in the PCT: cardiovascular services, mental health services, substance misuse services and palliative care. We will consider how we can use practice based commissioning as a means to redesign services in order to help reduce health inequalities.
Programme Lead: Ali Jan Haider, Deputy Director of Equality and Diversity
01274 237650 or alijan.haider@bradford.nhs.uk