South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Accountable Care System – the partnership of all health and care organisations in our region - has today been announced as ‘outstanding’ by national bodies, NHS England and NHS Improvement.
The first STP Progress Dashboard has been published today (Friday 21 July) and marks the partnership against a number of key areas in how they are working together to improve the health and care of everyone across Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
Over the last 18 months, all health and care organisations in the region have come together as a partnership and last month were also named as one of the first areas in the country to become an Accountable Care System, having more local opportunities to improve health and care services for local people.
Sir Andrew Cash, South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Accountable Care System Lead and Chief Executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“We’re pleased to be named as one of a handful of areas in the country to be considered ‘outstanding’ in the new national dashboard. This is absolutely down to the proven history of working together across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw to improve health and care for our population and the strong relationships that exist between the NHS and local partners in each of our towns and city.
“Our job now is to continue to make improvements for our citizens, with our immediate focus on working together to take the strain off A&E, make it easier to get a GP appointment and improve care and treatment in mental health and cancer.”
The new Dashboard will be updated and published every year and will track progress on improving a number of health and care services – from access to GP appointments, reducing the time between being diagnosed and receiving treatment for cancer, improving access to mental health and therapy services and reducing A&E waiting times across all hospitals in the area.
Locally, this will support and track the ambition of the ACS to “give everyone in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw the best start in life with support to stay healthy and live longer” while ensuring everyone who needs it is able to receive the best treatment, in the best place as well as supporting the aim to improve education attainment, increase job opportunities and ensure access to suitable housing. Being a regional ACS will also strengthen local partnerships in each of the five areas, known as Accountable Care Partnerships, which build on the strong links between health organisations and local authorities to improve the health and wellbeing of local people.
Following conversations with staff and members of the public earlier this year, further opportunities to get involved with the developing ACS will be launched in the late summer. Full details of which will be available shortly.