HEALTH INEQUALITIES

The South Yorkshire Integrated Care Partnership is a statutory joint committee, which brings together the key partners in the health and care system in South Yorkshire, chaired by the South Yorkshire Mayor. The partnership was set up to facilitate joint action to improve health and care outcomes and experiences across their populations and reduce health inequalities. They are rooted in the needs of people, communities, and places, oversee population health strategies, drive integration, and take an inclusive approach to involvement.

Working Win supports people who have a health condition to find and stay in employment. It is funded by the Government’s Work and Health Unit, and delivered in partnership with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and local NHS partners, in order to provide holistic employment support for people across South Yorkshire.

The total number of residents supported by Working Win has now reached more than 5,200, with over 2,500 returning to work or finding work. This has helped the region’s fightback against the Coronavirus pandemic. The scheme has supported people in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw with physical and mental health issues to find or stay in training and work.

Barnsley Borough Council have sought out partnership with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to understand how people who would like to work in Barnsley and South Yorkshire could be better supported. The aim of the Pathways to Work Commission is to pave the way for inclusive access to work in Barnsley.

The Pathways to Work report, released in July 2024, explored how to reduce economic inactivity and help more people access work, with a focus on Barnsley and its local, regional and national challenges and opportunities.

The link between improved health outcomes and increased economic activity is stark, and Pathways to Work will work to reduce barriers and increase inclusiveness.

South Yorkshire has been awarded more than £3.5m to become one of 15 pilot areas across England to deliver a new work and health service. 

The region was selected by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to deliver the WorkWell partnership (WorkWell), as part of the Government’s Back to Work Plan. 

WorkWell will build on the successes of South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s flagship programme, Working Win, that has supported over 6,500 people with a disability or physical and or mental health condition to either start, stay, or succeed in employment since 2018.

Beds for Babies guarantees a safe place to sleep for all 0–5-year-olds, by providing a Moses basket, cot, cotbed or toddler bed to any under-5 who needs it. The programme is designed to work through existing referral and delivery routes including pre-natal, post-natal and midwifery services, GPs, Family Hubs, Children’s Centres and existing local voluntary and community sector organisations.

It was developed by a range of partners working with the Mayor including Baby Basics UK, Save the Children UK, Sheffield Hallam University, Ikea and many others. Beds for Babies aligns with existing local service delivery with Directors of Public Health and Directors of Children’s Services from the Local Authorities, the ICP and NHS all supporting the initiative. 

A healthy economy needs a healthy population. The Mayor has assembled a panel of experts to produce recommendations on what is needed to make South Yorkshire the healthiest region in the country. The output of this will inform further programmes of work. The panel is led by Professor Alan Walker – Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology and Co-Director of the Healthy Lifespan Institute at the University of Sheffield.

In South Yorkshire, active travel isn't just about reducing carbon footprints — it's about cultivating healthier, happier communities. Mayor Oliver Coppard, alongside Ed Clancy OBE, our Active Travel Commissioner, leads our Year of Active Travel initiative to promote walking, wheeling, and cycling. 

Through strategic investment in infrastructure, like safer roads and enhanced cycling routes, we aim to make leaving the car at home the natural choice for short journeys. But our efforts extend beyond construction; we're committed to engaging with local communities and listening to your needs.

We are working with Barnsley Council to deliver nearly £70m in the next phase of their brilliant ‘Health on the High Street’ (opens external website) programme, bringing mammogram screening and outpatient services into the heart of Barnsley town centre.

SYB Shows Up is a new campaign calling on individuals, organisations and communities to work together to help realise the bold ambitions of a new cancer strategy for the region.

SYB Shows Up is making cancer everyone’s business by working with partners including employers in industry, business, local authorities and health, and with children and young people in schools and colleges.

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said:  "Our region has one of the highest rates of cancer in England, with the lowest proportion of people diagnosed at an early stage. I’m simply not prepared to accept those statistics as inevitable or insurmountable. That’s why I’m now leading the development of a cancer strategy that will challenge us to think and act differently." 

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We’re working with the Sheffield Children’s Hospital, investing millions in a new, world’s first ‘Child Health Technology Centre’ (opens external website).

In a ground-breaking collaboration, South Yorkshire's Mayor, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have joined forces with Google to pioneer research, apprenticeships, and digital skills training.

Together, we are establishing the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub (opens external website), a dynamic centre of digital innovation set to address health inequalities and propel economic growth in the region through a series of pioneering research opportunities.

Following the independent investigation on the state of the NHS in England and Lord Darzi's subsequent report, this project will meet the Darzi report's call to leverage technology to shift the NHS from a "diagnose and treat" to a "predict and prevent" model.

Nine UK mayors have backed Jamie Oliver’s ‘AdEnough’ campaign to stop the relentless bombardment of outdoor junk-food advertising, with a commitment to banning junk food marketing across the areas they control and to protect the health and well-being of their communities.

South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, said: 

“My ambition is to make South Yorkshire the healthiest region in the country, and working alongside other mayors I’m determined to put the health of our communities at the forefront of everything I do.

“As Mayors take greater control of our transport networks, we have the power to make sure they serve our communities – and benefit them in every way possible. That’s why we’ve already taken steps to help people make better, healthier choices, and I look forward to working with Jamie Oliver and Mayors across the country to stop junk-food advertising on our public transport network and to prioritise children’s health."

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