19 June | WY Power of Communities Session: ‘You Can Ask’ initiative

Date: Thursday 19 June 2025
Time: 11 am-12:30 pm
Location: Online

The West Yorkshire Power of Communities Programme Board (our VCSE Strategic Alliance), have developed a series of sessions open to a wider set of VCSE representatives with direct experience or interest to shape and contribute to key strategic priorities within the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership. The next session will be led by Mark Dean (Innovation Project Manager at the Cancer Alliance) who will be providing a brief overview of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance and their ‘You Can Ask’ initiative exploring how they can strengthen how they work the VCSE sector and communities.

The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance has a focus on the cancer journey from early diagnosis, right the way through to living with and beyond cancer to help support and benefit the people of West Yorkshire and Harrogate. As part of our national cancer strategy, we are keen to improve the uptake of health prevention behaviours such as Breast Screening within certain populations.

The 2022 Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) found the median age at death was 63 for adults with a learning disability, compared to around 84 years of age. This is also reflective of death rate statistics for people with severe mental Illness. Between March 2016 and September 2020, breast screening uptake from women of Asian heritage is around 20% less than white women.

The ‘You Can Ask’ initiative focuses on using co-production with Learning Disabilities, Severe Mental Illness (SMI) and culturally diverse communities to help:

• shape and develop awareness that they can ask for reasonable adjustments
• understand their strengths, assets and barriers and how we can better enable them to access screening appointment (with a focus on breast screening) by working with the VCSE sector and other partners

During the session we will explore three key questions that might be useful for you to think about in advance:

• How can the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance work better with the VCSE sector to ensure that people with learning disabilities, severe mental illness and from culturally diverse communities access screening appointments?
• What does it look like at the moment from your experiences and what good look like?
• What support would VCSE organisations want from West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance to be able to support their communities to better access screening appointments

As well as other questions / points you would like to discuss.

Please remember that this session is open to any VCSE organisation in West Yorkshire working in communities, so please do share with anyone who might be interested in the above and ask them to get in touch for a diary invite.