Radical shifts

Brave and compassionate leadership and a thriving workforce that can take action 

Brave and compassionate leaders value people, show kindness and build good relationships. They don’t run away or give up when things are confusing or difficult or uncertain, and they are ready to make tough decisions when needed. These leaders help others to feel happy and motivated to do their best work. They love when people come up with new ideas, and they make it easy to try these out and make things better. They get rid of unnecessary rules and old ways of thinking. They make sure that things like money and people’s time are spent on doing the right things to make Sheffield healthier and fairer. They are open and honest. They make sure everyone knows what's working well and what's not, even when it's hard to talk about. Brave and compassionate leaders encourage each other to be bold and make a difference and stand together when doing the right thing is challenged.

A thriving workforce includes people who work in jobs, volunteers, and those who take care of others without getting paid. Being able to take action means having the power to be creative and think in new ways, take the lead and make decisions, and draw on financial resources. It also means having the right skills and training and being supported by those around you. This workforce feels like their work really belongs to them, and they're motivated to share their ideas and skills to fix problems and improve the way things are done. They are flexible and can face up to challenges and keep going after setbacks. They are inclusive, and they believe that including different perspectives and experiences is crucial for coming up with the best ideas. They take hold of opportunities to keep on learning and developing, and they find meaning in their work. They treat everyone with respect and kindness. What matters to them is making Sheffield fairer and healthier. 

What will it take to make this shift?

• Choosing Good Leaders: We need to agree on the kind of leaders we want for Sheffield. This means knowing the attitudes, skills, and behaviours that will make our city healthier and fairer.
• Developing Leaders: We must invest in training and developing our current and future leaders across different organisations and within communities.
• Listening Leaders: Our leaders should listen to staff and volunteers and encourage them to share their honest thoughts. This will bring new ideas and helpful feedback.
• Creative Teams: Leaders should help teams, staff, and volunteers be creative, work well together, learn from mistakes, and share what they learn.
• Valuing People: We need to appreciate and support people who work, those who volunteer, and everyone who cares for others without pay. 
• Diversity and Fairness: We should value diversity and make sure there are fair chances for everyone to grow and succeed in different organisations and sectors.
• Health and Wellbeing: We need to invest more in the health and wellbeing of our staff and volunteers. This includes paying them a real living wage and giving more support to unpaid carers.
• Compassionate Culture: We should create a work culture that is kind and compassionate, with fewer unnecessary rules. This culture should focus on treating people with dignity and building trust through human connections, not just assessments and rules.

Commitments from the Health and Wellbeing Board

• We will create a clear picture of the attitudes, skills, and behaviours needed for good leadership to make Sheffield healthier and fairer. 
• We will push for fair development opportunities across all organisations and sectors in Sheffield.
• We will be compassionate, brave and bold leaders who move from talk to action. 
• We will value volunteers as they are very important in creating health.
• We will call for more recognition and support for unpaid carers. 
• We will listen to many different voices.
• We will explore and promote kind, creative and human ways to deliver public services.

Working together across sectors and organisations and with communities

Collaboration and partnership working are essential for making Sheffield a healthier and fairer place. When we all work together, we can make things happen that no single person or group or organisation could do alone. To work together we need to realise that we all see things differently, and we need take time to listen to each other and understand each other better. Collaboration and partnership working rely on respect, trust, being inclusive and sharing power, everyone having an equal chance to be heard, talking openly and not hiding things, and working through disagreements and differences. Collaboration means we might share things like money or data, or knowledge and skills, and we might put structures in place to help us. Sometimes working together can be hard because it means giving up control and old ways of doing things, but it's worth it.

Communities can be groups of people living in the same area or sharing similar characteristics or life stages. Collaborating with communities means that organisations treat everyone in the community as equal partners and change from doing things to people to working with them. It means ditching old ways of thinking and believing that communities have their own strengths and are good at figuring out problems and how to fix them. To do this we need to build good relationships, and make sure that everyone in our communities can have a say, be heard, and play their part in making decisions together. This is the best way to make things fairer for everyone. 

The Voluntary and Community sector are really important partners in making Sheffield fairer and healthier. They're good at working with communities because they've been around for a long time, and people trust them. They know a lot about what's good and what's needed in the local area. They're flexible and come up with new ideas, and they help people learn how to make changes in their own communities. The Voluntary and Community Sector also speak up for fairness and make sure everyone's voice is heard, especially those who might not normally get a chance to speak up. They help make sure our communities are strong and inclusive, so everyone can thrive.

What will it take to make this shift?

• Commitment across Sheffield to work together to achieve our big goals, because we believe we can go further together than we can go on our own.
• Making sure everyone's voice is heard and respected by facing-up to the fact that some people have more power and working to make things fairer. This also means being open to different ideas and talking in ways everyone can understand.
• New ways of working with communities to make things better, drawing on everyone's strengths. Listening to what people need and want and making sure everyone has a say in what happens in their community 
• Valuing the Voluntary and Community Sector – not just talking about how important it is, but also giving it more support to make sure it's strong, successful and sustainable, and finding better ways to fund it for the future without making groups compete against each other.
• Business leaders getting involved because they understand how they can help people stay healthy, and then work together with others in Sheffield to ensure that everyone in our communities thrives.
• People and communities having more power to influence what happens and how money is spent
• Building trusting relationships by investing time and effort
• Developing tools to work together better across different organisations and sectors. This includes sharing data and information, coordinating staff and organisational development, and having shared accountability and governance.

Commitments from the Health and Wellbeing Board

• We will review who is on the Board to make sure that we have the right people to represent organisations and sectors from across the City.
• We will make it clear what the Health & Wellbeing Board, the Health and Care Partnership Board and the City Goals partnership groups do, and how they can work together best. 
• When people are presenting at Board meetings, we will challenge them to work with other organisations and communities on important health and wellbeing issues. 
• We will champion approaches to creating health and wellbeing that depend on organisations working together with empowered communities and people.
• We will help everyone understand the diversity of Voluntary, Community and Voice organisations in Sheffield, and how we can make them strong, successful and sustainable.
• We will build strong relationships within the Health & Wellbeing Board and learn how to work together well so we can do the best for Sheffield. 
• We will champion diverse public involvement and engagement approaches, for individuals, groups and communities.
• We will be honest about power differences within our partnerships. 
• We will look for opportunities to share knowledge and skills across organisations and sectors to make Sheffield healthier and fairer.

Greater and fairer investment in creating health and wellbeing and preventing illness 

Making sure we use our resources to make health and wellbeing fair for everyone means we need to be smart about where we put our money and efforts. Instead of just focusing on fixing problems after they happen, we should spend more on stopping them from happening in the first place. Even though health services are really important, they cost a lot of money and there are more people needing more help than ever before. This shows that the way we're doing things now can't keep going. If we put more money and effort into things like making sure people have enough money, decent homes and neighbourhoods, good schools, better jobs, clean air and strong community connections, we can stop lots of illnesses from happening. We can also focus our efforts on catching disease early and stopping it before it gets worse. This means people can live better and longer lives without needing NHS and social care services so much.

Fairer investment really matters because some people in Sheffield have been pushed down and left behind and don’t have the same opportunities to have a long and healthy life. Levelling up the playing field means putting more of our money and effort into making things better for people and neighbourhoods that need it the most. To do this, we need to listen to people in our communities to understand what they need, and make sure they are involved in deciding how to spend the money. Making things fairer will take time, so we need to make sure we are spending money in the right way for enough time to make a difference.

What will it take to make this shift?

• City-wide agreement: Everyone in Sheffield agrees that investing fairly in health and preventing illness is important and the right thing to do.
• Brave leadership: Leaders need to face challenges, have tough talks, and move from planning to action. We must be open about how we spend our money and make sure it meets health needs fairly.
• Smart spending: Find the best ways to use our money and effort to improve health and create fairness. Cut out unnecessary spending and focus on what gives the most benefit to those with the greatest need. Find better ways to fund voluntary, community and voice organisations to ensure they are strong and sustainable.
• Shared investment: Organisations work in new ways to pool financial resources, and work together on shared budgets and financial risks. 
• Citizen involvement: Involve people in decisions about spending and let communities have a say in what happens in their areas.

Commitments from the Health and Wellbeing Board

• We will find the best ways to spend money to create health and wellbeing and prevent illness. 
• We will find ways to save money where the same things are being done more than once.
• We will find out where we can stop spending money on things that don’t help people much.
• We will support better ways to fund voluntary, community and voice organisations by:
  • Not making groups compete for money
  • Combining budgets instead of having lots of small funding streams
  • Giving them more core funding and long-term investment 

Measuring and reporting what matters, and being answerable for our commitments

Measuring and reporting what matters means keeping track of important things and telling others about them. This involves gathering information about how well something is working or how people are doing, and then sharing that information with others in a clear and understandable way. By doing this, we can all see what's important and make decisions based on it. It is important that we listen to Sheffield communities to really understand what is important to measure and report. Sometimes we might set targets, but we need to be careful that these don’t distract us from doing what really matters, and that we don’t just tick a box.  Sharing more information across organisations can help us to have a better understanding of what's happening, what’s going well and what needs to improve, and can help us make better decisions about where to focus our efforts. It is important that we only share what is necessary and we follow the law to protect people’s personal information. The information we collect can include numbers as well as stories that people share about their thoughts, feelings and experiences. Both types of information are important.

Being answerable for our commitments means taking responsibility for what we've said we'll do. It's about being ready to explain our actions if someone asks us about them. So, if we've promised to do something, we make sure we actually do it, and if we can't, we explain why. To make sure we’re doing what we promised, we need to be clear and keep a record of our commitments. Then, we should check in regularly to see if we’re doing what we said we would. We need to be honest, and not hide things that are difficult to talk about. If we haven’t done what we promised, we should talk to each other about it in a kind and respectful way and see what help or support may be needed. This will mean we can stay on track and sort out any problems together, and people will be able to trust us. Sometimes organisations are answerable for different commitments to different masters, and these seem to be fighting against each other. It is important that leaders in Sheffield stand together and support each other to find a way through and make sure we are doing the right things to make Sheffield fairer and healthier. 

What will it take to make this shift

• Clear commitments: Clearly saying what the Health and Wellbeing Board, its members, and their organisations will do
• Follow through: Make sure we do what we have promised
• Track progress: Regularly check on how we are doing and if we’re on track
• Accept challenges: Be open to feedback and challenges from others
• Be honest: Keep things open and honest in our work
• Involve people: Listen to people in Sheffield help decide what to measure, report, and hold us accountable
• Share responsibility: Take joint responsibility for our goals and support each other
• Value stories: Appreciate personal stories as well as numerical data
• Share information: Develop ways to share useful information, like data-sharing agreements and common systems
• Be bold and brave:  Be brave in sharing data and managing risks, building on what we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Stand together: Leaders need to work together, even when they answer to different groups or have competing commitments

Commitments from the Health and Wellbeing Board

• We will publish our commitments.
• We will follow through on what we have promised to do. 
• We will check how we're doing regularly to keep track of our commitments.
• We will make sure our commitments are spread throughout our organisations and sectors.
• We will take shared responsibility for our commitments, support each other to achieve them, and challenge where we think they aren’t being met.
• We will be open and honest about our progress and where the challenges are.
• We will welcome challenge from each other and the public. 
• We will find better ways to share information across organisations to help us fulfil our commitments.
• We will value people’s stories as well as data in numbers.
• We will have conversations with and listen to people in Sheffield in various ways so that everyone can be included.
• We will ask people in Sheffield to help decide what to measure and report about making Sheffield healthier and fairer.
• We will stand together as Board members, when doing the right things for a healthier and fairer Sheffield are challenged by regional or national bodies.