Our pioneering new Leeds Health and Care Academy takes international stage

Around 57,000 people who work in Leeds’ health and care sector are part of our pioneering new Leeds Health and Care Academy being showcased in Washington DC this week.

In an unprecedented partnership approach, through the new Leeds Health and Care Academy, we are bringing together and transforming the learning and development for all who work in health and care. In doing so, we are helping underpin the city’s aim to benefit citizens by create ‘one workforce’ across health and care. 

The city’s universities will help position the Academy at the forefront of learning, with a portfolio based on world-leading evidence, research and education.

The Academy is a groundbreaking project of Leeds Academic Health Partnership (LAHP), one of the biggest of its kind in the UK, which includes the Universities of Leeds and Leeds Beckett. The LAHP founding partners include three Leeds universities, the city’s three NHS trusts, NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group and the City Council.

The LAHP is one of only two UK members of the Association of Academic Health Centers International. LAHP representatives were invited to present the unique Academy ambition and vision to its prestigious Global Issues Forum in Washington DC this week.

This international conference brought together senior leaders in academia, healthcare and government relations to hear how its members around the world are enhancing health and care in sustainable ways. The LAHP presentation included a dynamic short film narrated by Yorkshire born and bred actor and Coronation Street star Joe Duttine, which you can watch below.

The Leeds Health and Care Academy will help the city:

  • tackle current workforce challenges across all sectors
  • provide Leeds’ people with opportunities for work experience, apprenticeships and careers, with a focus on areas of highest deprivation, thereby supporting the city’s inclusive growth strategy
  • equip the health and care workforce for the future, keep pace with changing models of health and care, such as the impact of digitalisation and new technologies
  • offer a transformational experience of learning and working together, with a focus on the city and its people rather than on services and organisations
  • be agile in responding to its population’s health and care needs
  • implement its citywide health and care workforce strategy
  • attract talented people work in its health and care sector.

Ongoing advice and guidance from our academic experts, those leading innovation in health and care practice, national policy and think tanks will help ensure the Academy’s portfolio remains in the vanguard of learning.

Since going live in April, the Academy is focusing on laying foundations across the city’s workforce. For example:

  • it has trained extra mental health first aiders from within its partner organisations to increase and enhance support for all staff
  • it has recruited the first 26 Academy ambassadors from among health and care practitioners, who are visiting local schools, colleges and its most deprived communities, to promote careers in health and care
  • it is rolling out across the city a training programme to help those in leadership roles begin to focus more on the city as a whole and to think and plan for the whole ‘system’ rather than just their own organisational needs
  • and – for the 3,000 or so people who join the Leeds health and care sector every year – the Academy has launched a citywide induction. Whichever role or organisation someone is joining, they will understand from the start that they are part of a ‘one workforce’ culture and approach.