Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, working in partnership with Bradford Council has picked up a prestigious national local government award from the Municipal Journal (MJ.)
The partnership work during the COVID-19 pandemic secured the win in the ‘Innovation in Building Diversity’ category.
In March 2020 Bradford Council, Centre for Applied Education Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals and Bradford Institute for Health Research brought together their data, scientists and families to support an evidence-based response to the pandemic that helped to address the challenges faced by vulnerable people and families across the district.
The partnership created its own Bradford SAGE – the Covid Scientific Advisory Group (CSAG) to bring together its data to boost understanding of the local trends, issues and concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bradford’s CSAG worked across a range of partners, including: community champions, health care practitioners, faith leaders, academics, youth workers and council ward officers.
Working together the partnership was able to gather evidence ahead of the national debate to help support people in the district including enabling socially distanced worship and burials, providing support for Roma communities with appropriate language and messaging, helping people with mental health support through the crisis and ensuring resilience in recovery.
The partnership used evidence and ‘the voice of the community’ to recruit from the district’s diverse communities for vaccine trials (including halal and vegan vaccines) ensuring that the district was in the lead for engagement rates in the trials.
The partnership led a campaign to redress ‘Fake News’ and established hubs to boost vaccine take-up in all of the district’s diverse communities.
Awarding the partnership the judges, said: “The Council demonstrated a systematic and integrated data driven approach to understanding the needs of diverse communities in Bradford (both established and new migrant communities), using local knowledge, partners and ambassadors to engage local people. The judges took particular note of the success at recruiting ethnically diverse participants to COVID-19 trials, which is of critical importance and sadly not replicated in many other research trials.
“This entry highlighted the strength of local partnerships and leveraging research and intelligence infrastructure during the early stages of the pandemic to deliver effective data-led public health interventions that saved many lives. Judges saw this approach as having a much broader application beyond the pandemic. It is commendable how it is now being used to tackle other long-standing health inequalities in Bradford.”
Director of Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) and Chief Investigator for the Born in Bradford (BiB) study, Professor John Wright and Director of the Bradford NIHR PRC Professor Dinesh Saralaya were on hand to collect the award, along with Noreen Akhtar, Bradford West Area Coordinator (Bradford Council.)
Professor Wright said: “This is a prestigious award for Bradford and recognises the unique collaboration between BTHFT and the local authority that is the essence of our Act As One partnership.
“Our Covid Scientific Advisory Group brought together epidemiologists, scientists, clinicians and community leaders to build our own local SAGE in the city – using evidence and science to support our senior leaders in protecting the city.”
Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “I’m delighted that the work of this partnership in our district has been recognised in this way. Especially the recognition that this largely unseen work during the pandemic, helped to save many lives. All those who contributed to the partnership should be rightly proud of their achievements.”
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MJ awards
Pictured with the award (L to R) are: Professor Dinesh Saralaya, MD, FRCP, Consultant Respiratory Physician & Director of the Bradford NIHR PRC, Bradford, Noreen Akhtar, Bradford West Area Coordinator (Bradford Council) and Professor John Wright, Director, Bradford Institute for Health Research.