The Leeds Way goals

We want Leeds to have the most engaged workforce in the NHS. There is clear evidence that an enthusiastic, motivated and empowered workforce is most likely to provide outstanding care for our patients.

We set ambitious performance expectations to ensure all our staff have clarity on their job roles and have high quality objective setting in their appraisals. We will develop a systematic approach to talent management and a people-centred approach to employment relations.

We will enable our people to work across the health and care system with our partners. The Health and Care Academy is at the core of our approach and we will design organisational development interventions to support system working across Leeds and West Yorkshire.

We will work in a way which is inclusive and free from discrimination valuing the contribution of every employee, volunteer, and student. We are increasing the diversity of our organisation, ensuring representation and equity of experience of colleagues at all levels. We are supporting the ongoing development of staff networks, creating opportunities for reciprocal mentoring and providing leadership development programmes.

It is vital that we support the mental and physical wellbeing of staff, including those with specific health needs. We will support staff and services to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

We will provide excellent education, training and development so that people are skilled to do their job and realise their full potential. This includes improving the student experience and maximising the use of apprenticeships.

We want to play our part in ensuring people’s experience of care in different parts of the health and care system is consistent and positive, where teams are coordinated, communication is clear, and care happens in the right place at the right time.

We are working with our partners to improve access to, and outcomes from, unplanned and urgent care across Leeds. We are supporting people to stay well in their own homes, and discharge people from hospital to the most appropriate setting at the best time.

We are increasing planned care capacity, working with our partners across the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts to address significant waiting lists, share data and apply best practice. We are creating different patient pathways, further developing virtual wards and streamlined admission processes.

The Leeds Improvement Method and engagement with staff have been central to our improvement journey. We will seek opportunities to use data and methods to improve quality across the health and care system, ensuring our clinical directors and their clinical colleagues in primary and community care are at the centre of improving pathways across the city. Working with our partners we will engage all staff in creating a collaborative, person centred culture across health and care organisations in Leeds.

We will improve our ability to address the mental and physical health needs of our patients. Mental health problems are highly prevalent in our society and our hospitals; up to 60% of older people already have, or will develop, mental health problems during inpatient care.

Our aim is to deliver world class outcomes in our specialist services, providing leading edge innovation in diagnosis, treatment and care.

We provide excellent education, training and development so that people are skilled to do their job and realise their full potential. We will promote a comprehensive development offering including building the skills and capability for improvement, increasing interprofessional educational programmes and opportunities for technology enhanced learning. We are continually improving our education and training facilities to ensure they can provide an outstanding experience for our learners.

Our aim is for every patient to be able to participate in, and benefit from, research. We will empower our research delivery teams to champion research, ensuring it is visible and impactful for both patients and staff. Centre of excellence for research, innovation, education and specialist services goals and priorities.

We are contributing to health and economic growth through the invention, development and adoption of health innovations. Working collaboratively with city, academic and industry partners, we are developing our world class infrastructure to create opportunities for growth. This includes the regeneration of the Leeds General Infirmary as part of the Leeds Innovation District and the development of real world data partnerships.

We are continuing to invest for outstanding specialist services in a world class environment. The Building the Leeds Way programme will ensure we have enough specialist theatre and critical care capacity to fulfil our role as a leading specialist centre. We will support our centres of excellence in children’s, neurosciences; cardiovascular; transplant and other specialist surgery; cancer, blood and genetics.

Our objective is to become the most efficient teaching hospital in England, delivering a sustainable financial surplus so that we can continue to invest in our people, buildings and equipment.

That means delivering the best possible outcomes for the lowest possible cost; we work openly and transparently with our partners to collectively manage our resources to deliver the best patient care based on the health needs of our population. Our aligned incentive contract exemplifies this approach.

We provide efficient and high-quality health care by reducing waste and continuously improving our financial processes through our value programme, Finance the Leeds Way. We benchmark ourselves against the best performing organisations and use dynamic tools such as patient level costing to support clinical teams to manage their resources.

Becoming more efficient means we have the resources to invest in our building and maintenance programme, renewing medical and surgical equipment and investing in our estate and digital healthcare.