Mental Health NHS Trust supports Innovation Week
This week is Innovation Week, an event that aims to nurture and reward innovation within the NHS. In response, South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust, which provides specialist mental health and learning disabilities to people in Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, is encouraging its staff to celebrate and promote their innovative practice.
Innovation Week provides an opportunity to communicate the positive impact that innovation has already had on healthcare nationally, raise awareness of the innovation agenda across the NHS and to the public, and reinforce the new package of innovation policies.
The initiative is an important part of the High Quality Care for All agenda, which provides an ambitious shared vision for the future of the NHS, and promotes the use of innovation as a means of improving people’s experience of the NHS.
As part of the government’s plan, England’s 10 Strategic Health Authorities (SHA’s) will receive special funding over the next 5 years to help frontline NHS staff develop their innovative ideas. The SHA that oversees trusts in Yorkshire and the Humber, including South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust, will receive £2 million this year and £5 million in each of the following four years. This will directly benefit people using NHS services and increase the quality of the care they receive.
Developing new and innovative ways of working is high on the Trust’s agenda and teams within the organisation have already been awarded government funding to support pioneering projects.
The Trust’s director of innovation, nursing and compliance Noreen Young said, "Our staff are constantly finding new and better ways of working and are committed to continually improving the services we provide for local people. Without sufficient funding, many innovative ideas across the Trust are at risk of not being developed, so we are delighted that money has been made available to help implement them."
She continued, "Innovation is key to staying ahead and ensuring that people who use the Trust’s services have access to cutting edge care and treatment. Innovation Week is a fantastic opportunity for our staff to celebrate the impact their innovative work has already had on people using our services and demonstrate the ways in which we are contributing to a forward-looking National Health Service."