UEAHSCP's 'Together' magazine - Autumn 2021

New Project Encourages More Care Home Staff to Get the Flu Vaccine Collaborative Study Seeks to Support Female Ambulance Staff During Menopause Learning Disabilities Group Launch

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WELCOME TO THE AUTUMN 2021 EDITION OF TOGETHER MAGAZINE PARTNERSHIP GETS GREEN LIGHT FOR NEXT 3 YEARS Autumn has seen many of the organisations that make up UEA Health and Social Care Partners’ Executive confirm their support for the next 3-year research cycle; an investment which demonstrates solid support for UEAHSCP’s future.

This comes during a period of leadership change that will herald a new phase for the Partnership.

Over the summer, Professor Dylan Edwards retired from his position as PVC for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. As UEAHSCP Executive Board Chair, Dylan championed the Partnership’s ethos and provided steadfast leadership. We thank Dylan sincerely for his efforts during his tenure and wish him all the very best in retirement.

We welcome Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, who steps into the PVC role. He brings with him an impressive research profile, and he has already pledged his support to help drive forward UEAHSCP’s strategic efforts to increase and enhance collaborative regional health and social care. Charles will chair the Executive Board and work with partners to define and deliver the next stage of development.

Lastly, Mark Hitchcock left his role as UEAHSCP Managing Director at the end of September. A driving force behind UEAHSCP since its inception, we thank Mark for his extensive contribution in growing the partnership. Mark is set to start an exciting new role as CEO of Citizen Advice Norfolk in the Autumn make sure you connect with him on LinkedIn and do drop him a line to wish him well.

In Our Autumn Issue: Project Aims to Increase Flu Vaccine Uptake in Care Home Staff....................................................p.4 Project Seeks to Support Female Ambulance Staff During Menopause...........................................p.6 New Learning Disabilities Research Group Launch.............................................................................p.8 CAP Expertise Shapes Approach Towards Concussion in Sport.......................................................p.10 Catch up on the latest webinars............................................................................................................p.11 Partnership Supports Summer Studentships.......................................................................................p.12 Upcoming webinar: "Contextual Readiness for Transforming Maternity Care"..............................p.13 Launch of new Personalised Care Interprofessional Education Framework (PerCIE)....................p.14

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VAX TO THE MAX: New project encourages more care home staff to get the flu vaccine

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M

edicines optimisation research group members are among those leading a new project aiming to encourage more care home staff n to get the flu vaccine.

Launched in September, the £1.4 million study will investigate several different ways of encouraging employees to take up the jab, such as community pharmacists vaccinating staff in the care home and offering incentives to managers.

Funded by NIHR, the methods will initially be tested in 10 care homes and pharmacies across East Anglia, London and the East Midlands during flu season. Researchers then go on to work with another 70 care homes with low vaccination levels to see whether the new methods have increased the uptake of the vaccine and, in turn, improved the health of residents.

Currently, less than half of care home staff in the UK are currently vaccinated. The research team hope the project will help to reduce the number of flu cases in care homes and ultimately save lives.

The three-year FluCare project is hosted by NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group and involves collaboration with the universities of Leicester and Liverpool, Norwich Clinical Trials Unit and organisations including NHS England and NHS Improvement, the National Care Forum, Care England, Boots UK and Day Lewis Pharmacy.

"IF WE GIVE VACCINES TO CARE HOME RESIDENTS, SOME WILL STILL NOT BE PROTECTED. THE BEST WAY TO PROTECT RESIDENTS IS THEREFORE TO VACCINATE CARE HOME STAFF AS WELL." DR AMRISH PATEL, MOG_EA MEMBER, UEA SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Medicines Optimisation (MOG_EA) group member Dr Amrish Patel, from UEA’s School of Economics, said: “Every year flu, caught from staff and visitors, causes serious illness and death in care home residents. While vaccines work in most people, there are always some for whom they do not work. That means that if we give vaccines to care home residents, some will still not be protected.

"The best way to protect residents is therefore to vaccinate care home staff as well. But while the World Health Organisation recommends that over three quarters of care home staff should be vaccinated, in the UK - less than half of staff take up the jab. And this puts residents at higher risk.”

Former MOG_EA research group lead Professor David Wright, said: “We have found three reasons for why staff do or do not get vaccinated. These are - how easily they can access vaccines, how important their manager sees staff vaccination, and their own personal attitudes and beliefs about vaccination.

“We want to find out which approaches work best to increase the number of staff being vaccinated. We hope that what we learn can also be used to improve Covid vaccine uptake.”

“This will show us how the ideas work in practice, how to best collect data and what happens in groups who carry on with service as usual.

“Learning from this, we will refine the service and decide which mixture of approaches to study on a larger scale. We will do this by carefully listening to those involved and by looking at the quality of information we received.”

“We will also look at the economic impact of the interventions we propose to see if they will help save money for the NHS,” added Dr Patel.

“And we will listen to people involved to find out what did and did not work to learn how to improve the service.

“Finally, we will use our findings to develop a toolkit.

This will tell people about our new service and encourage them to use it. While we do this research, we will work closely with residents and relatives.

They will help us design and manage the studies, collect information, look at the results and present them to the outside world.”

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TO THE RESCUE!: Partnership project seeks to better support female ambulance staff during menopause

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T

he menopause is being increasingly recognised as an important workplace issue. In health and social care, the n response setting is considered a emergency unique and demanding work environment with what currently appears to be little menopause-related support for female ambulance staff.

UEAHSCP’s Workforce Sustainability research group’s exploratory study, ‘CESSATION’, seeks to evaluate menopause awareness and the impact of the menopause transition for female staff working in the ambulance setting.

The mixed-methods project was developed following findings from a pilot service evaluation that worked with female ambulance staff from the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Research group lead Professor Kristy Sanderson said that supporting older women’s health and wellbeing in the workforce is one of the group’s main priorities: “A key focus for the workplace sustainability research group is looking at how we can better support older workers with a specific focus on older women as we know that menopause is a particular challenge for workplaces”.

CESSATION will comprise of three phases:

Phase 1: descriptive analysis of all UK ambulance services’ Health, Wellbeing and Sickness policies and guidance that refer to menopause transition.

Phase 2: an anonymous nationwide online survey for female ambulance service staff (response target: 3000) Phase 3: twenty semi-structured online or telephone interviews involving a convenience sample of female ambulance staff from across UK ambulance services.

Supported in part by the College of Paramedics, planned study outcomes are to initially improve menopause awareness and identify potential service developments/interventions that may best support female ambulance staff during the menopause transition for larger-scale research evaluation. It is anticipated that the methods and findings are likely to be of interest to other settings.

Researchers anticipate that data collection for CESSATION will start shortly, and all UK ambulance services are being invited to participate.

Please email Theresa.Foster@eastamb.nhs.uk for further information.

UEAHSPC’s Workforce Sustainability research group explore ways to promote both a physically and mentally healthy workplace for improved staff and student wellbeing, care quality, and patient outcomes, and is committed to making change for health & social care staff. Lead by UEA’S Professor in Applied Health Research Kristy Sanderson, membership represents leading health & social care organisations across our region including East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

A KEY FOCUS FOR THE RESEARCH GROUP IS LOOKING AT HOW WE CAN BETTER SUPPORT OLDER WORKERS AS WE KNOW THAT MENOPAUSE IS A PARTICULAR CHALLENGE FOR WORKPLACES KRISTY SANDERSON, WORKFORCE SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH GROUP LEAD

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NEW LEARNING DISABILITIES GROUP

U

EAHSCP have launched a new group, Learning Disabilities, co-led by Neil James, Associate Professor in Nursing Sciencese(Learning Disabilities) in UEA’s School of Health Sciences, and Lynne Fanning, Head of Clinical Education and Research at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

With almost 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK, collaborative research is a vital tool in the improvement of service delivery, therapies and support.

The group are keen to address pressing research priorities in Learning Disability and Autism and will seek to identify service improvement initiatives to enhance health and social care support provided to people in our local community with a learning disability and their carers. Looking ahead, the group aims to work in close partnership with people with Learning Disability/Autism and their carers in shaping the research agenda.

In its first phase, the group’s research activity will focus primarily on evidence dissemination and sharing projects that can lead to future collaborations in respect of research ideas, project collaboration and service development.

According to the ONS, existing research has shown that people with learning disabilities were much more likely to get infected with COVID-19 than other people during the first phase of the pandemic, a function of people's social and economic circumstances, insecure working conditions in social care, and a lack of provision of basic infection control equipment.

Exploring the real-world impact the pandemic has had on the lives of people with a learning disability and their carers will therefore be a key priority for the group. Researchers will also explore the rapid response made by regional health and social care services to continue with delivery and personcentred approaches to provide support during the challenges presented by the pandemic.

Researchers will ensure the challenges of health inequalities and the need for effective inclusivity remain at the forefront of thinking of any projects and programmes. To this end, several projects and speakers are being considered for future meetings.

Consideration is being given to responding to calls for research into the impact of COVID on LD services and service users. Future meetings will be aiming to invite speakers in key roles and/or undertaking linked projects to the focus of the group. The group will also be looking to prioritise future activity.

Research co-lead Neil James is pleased to be taking this research agenda forward: “This group is a very exciting development and has an exciting membership that will look to make a positive and meaningful impact on service delivery and the experiences of people with a learning disability/autism.

“Looking at ways to further enhance services so that they are able to meet the complex needs of these individuals will be at the forefront of our thinking and planning. What we aim to support is equitable and inclusive access to all services and activities.”

The group is made up of representatives from EEAST, NCC, NCHC; NNUH, UEA, WSH, NSFT, JPUH, NHS Norfolk and Waveney CCG and Hertfordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Contact ueahscp@uea.ac.uk if you would like to find out more about being involved with this group.

References: [1] Henderson A, Fleming M, Cooper S-A, Pell J, Melville C, MacKay D, Hatton C, Kinnear D. COVID-19 infection and outcomes in a populationbased cohort of 17,173 adults with intellectual disabilities compared with the general population. medRxiv 2021.02.08.21250525; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.08.21250525 [2] ONS. Updated estimates of coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by disability status, England: 24 January to 20 November 2020. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandm arri...

“This group is a very exciting development and has an exciting membership that will look to make a positive and meaningful impact on service delivery and the experiences of people with a learning disability/autism."

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HEADS IN THE GAME: CAP Expertise shaping approach towards concussion in sport

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CAP REFERENCED IN DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT (DCMS) COMMITTEE’S CONCUSSION IN SPORT REPORT The expertise of the Concussion Action Programme was recognised by being featured in July’s DCMS Concussion in Sport report which found failings including a lack of government action on previous safety recommendations.

CAP group lead Dr Michael Grey gave evidence during the committee’s March inquiry which examined acquired brain injury, and parts of his expert evidence are quoted on p. 10 of the report: “In the east of England we have the Concussion Action Programme and we have recently looked at this issue and produced a report. With respect to the NHS, we found that there is a large variation in the content and quality of discharge information that people are given if they attend A&E with a mild traumatic brain injury.

That information is typically these red flag issues but there is nothing given typically on return to play, return to learn or return to work issues.”

Click here to read the full report.

CATCH UP ON THE LATEST WEBINARS Catch up on the latest webinars from our ImpACT research group and the Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing.

Our ImpACT research group’s new webinar series, Reinvigorating Health and Care Systems, explores COVID recovery and workforce transformation. Watch experts within the field discuss learning cultures and systems integration for sustainable person-centred practice. The series builds upon their previous series on the Venus Model for Person Centred Sustainable Transformation.

Reinvigorating the System for COVID Recovery Finding Nemo: How to Lead and Facilitate Culture Change Can we Overcome Rhetoric and Address the Tensions of Workplace Wellbeing Developing shared values which are central to Effective Workplace Cultures

Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing's new series of monthly seminars features scientific and academic content from a broad spectrum of speakers across the areas of healthy ageing. Topics covered include dementia trends and prevention, more effective diabetes control, the benefits of intergenerational relationships and friends, the link between childhood nutrition and wellbeing, and more.

Safety First – ageing well with diabetes Changing Minds about changing behaviour Diet quality and mental wellbeing in Norfolk Children Developing Approaches to Prevent Musculoskeletal Decline

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PARTNERSHIP SUPPORTS SUMMER STUDENTSHIPS PARTNERSHIP STUDENTSHIPS

SUPPORTS

SUMMER

We partnered with Young Academics UEA to provide two paid summer research project positions to UEA Medical students. Thank you to the students and their supervisors who worked on the following two projects over the summer: Research Lead: Max Yates Young Researcher: Ahmar Iftikhar Talib Group: Rheumatic Diseases Anglia Research Group Project: EPIC2NOAR Link This piece of work looks at the co-localisation of both the Norfolk Arthritis Register, and European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), and offers a unique opportunity to investigate environmental and dietary exposures and their associated risk to new onset inflammatory arthritis. This has previously resulted in a high impact publication in 2014 with cases identified up to March 2010.

With a further 10 years now elapsed we are looking to repeat the study and ascertain new estimates for the risk factors. As part of the project, the Young Academic will carry out case ascertainment, definition, and validation work, to ensure those with inflammatory arthritis can be identified within EPIC, taking account of the EPIC2NOAR link.

Analysis of the data will be used to generate risk association estimates and findings from this study are planned to be presented at an international conference and ultimately submitted for peer-review publication.

Research Lead: Simon Hammond Young Researcher: Freya Boswell Group: LANTERN Project: Internet Matters This project focuses on the online lives, mental health, and mental health support available to vulnerable children and young people in the United Kingdom. It will explore how professionals experience and respond to “vulnerable” children and young people’s online lives within the context of their role, and how this is experienced by young people and their families/carers.

As part of this project, the Young Academic will aide producing a public facing report to be used

by Internet Matters to lobby political figures to promote better support in the area of vulnerable children and young people, mental health and their online lives. They will assist with qualitative data collection (interviews and focus groups) and analysis, and will also contribute to a rapid evidence synthesis style literature review and end of project report.

Young Academics UEA is a brand-new affiliated society at UEA, working as a subbranch of Young Academics (YA). YA is a medical student and junior doctor run multi-university platform whose aim is to make it easier for medical students to get involved in research.

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Maternity Transformation: Contextual Contextual Readiness Readiness for for Transforming Transforming Maternity Maternity Care Care 16 16November Novemberwill willsee seethe thelatest latestininan anonline onlineseries series hosted by UEA Health and Social Care Partners' hosted by UEA Health and Social Care Partners' ImpACT ImpACTresearch researchgroup, group,which whichlooks looksat atsharing sharingbest best practice practiceto toreinvigorate reinvigoratehealth healthand andsocial socialcare caresettings, settings, seeking seekingto toenable enableflourishing flourishingsystems, systems,workforce workforceand and communities. communities.

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Register here

Subscribe to the ImpACT research group's YouTube channel, where you can catch up on the previous online seminars in this series.

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The PerCIE Framework can be used to enable educators 2 and organizations to:

Personalised Care Interprofessional Education (PerCIE)

C

arrie Jackson, Director of the ImpACT Research Group, has been part of a national team led by Dr Michelle Howarth, University ofUniversityMichelle Salford, that has co-created a new Personalised Care Interprofessional Education (PerCIE) Framework designed to guide and support Universities and practice education facilitators (PEFs) to enable health and social care students to learn about strengthsbased approaches to health and wellbeing delivered by services that provide a social prescribing offer.

It has been co-created by a network of experts from a broad range of professional backgrounds from seven universities (HEIs), Private Independent and Voluntary Organisations (PIVO sector also known as Voluntary Community Social Enterprise VCSE), 1 National Social Prescribing Network Special Interest Group (SigSpn), Health Education England (Greater Manchester), and the NHS England (NHSe) Personalised Care team. It is underpinned by contemporary practice-based theory, and evidence of impact from a range of successful UK projects.

The PerCIE Framework is designed to enable universities to work in VCSE/PIVO to create collaborative and inclusive test beds for social action. It can help to support the generation of new socially connected learning opportunities that could provide rich and meaningful insight into health and health inequalities, our BAME communities, and marginalised groups. It recognises and builds upon the power of community resilience through asset-based working.

Support a professional sociocultural shift from a medically dominated, disease-based curriculum to a values-based, person-centred model of care Focus on what matters to the wellbeing of citizens and communities using collaborative, inclusive principles that support mutual learning Enable health and social care students to feel they can actively make a difference to the health of their communities whilst they learn Evidence learning and benefits within portfolios of learning and professional development Enable students to explore their interests and develop new ones to broaden their perspectives on health, illness and wellbeing Promote student altruism and empathy Support students’ exposure to diverse communities (including but not limited to BAME groups) to gain a wider understanding of their associated inequalities as well as their health and social needs.

In addition to the potential for UEA students to experience this model, the ImpACT Research Group are also working with Liverpool John Moore University and the North West Clinical Placement Expansion Programme to design online learning materials for students undertaking their Leadership placements in nursing, midwifery and allied health professional settings.

The materials are based on the Venus model for person centred sustainable transformation published by Manley and Jackson in 2020.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the report or in discussing how to implement the framework please get in touch with carolyn.jackson@uea.ac.uk.

How can we work together?

With an established network across health and social care organisations within Norfolk, Suffolk and North East Essex, UEAHSCP makes it easier for you to do more research and innovation with clinicians and health and social care professionals.

The Partnership’s focus is on increasing collaboration to improve care and support to both service users and professional staff. Membership includes clinicians, academics, health and social care professionals, service user representatives and associates.

Get in touch to see how we can work together ueahscp@uea.ac.uk.

Our partners East of England Ambulance Service East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk, NHS West Suffolk and NHS North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Groups NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Norfolk County Council Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust The Queen Elizabeth King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust University of East Anglia West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

CENTRED ON POPULATION NEEDS

COLLABORATION AT OUR CORE

Thank you!

Thank you to those of you who submitted an application for this year’s round of our Strategic Programme Funding: Addressing our Health and Social Care Challenges Through the Power of Collaborative Research.

We’ve had so many fantastic applications, and we’re looking forward to sharing the award results in the coming weeks, so watch this space.

#PowerofCollaborativeResearch

WE HELP MOBILISE IDEAS

REPUTATIONAL IMPACT