Agenda item

16.1

The report which outlined the work of Compassionate Sheffield, was presented by Dr Sam Kyeremateng (Medical Director of St Luke’s Hospice and Strategic Lead for Compassionate Sheffield), Dr Eleanor Rutter (Assistant Director of Public Health and Strategic Lead for Compassionate Sheffield), Nick Deayton (Compassionate Sheffield Programme Manager), Cally Bowman (Compassionate Sheffield Community Engagement and Communications Officer), Caroline Plenty (Compassionate Sheffield Community Development Officer) and Usman Yousaf (Compassionate Sheffield Community Development Officer). The panel expanded on the presentation which had been published with the agenda.

16.2

Nick Deayton stated that the team aimed to build confidence, as death had become increasingly taboo. Impactful sessions had taken place with staff in acute care whose reflections on their conversations with dying people had led to changes in their practice. Sessions were created to give people the opportunity to explore the topic of death. Sometimes these were called “Death Cafés, “Life, Loss and Death Cafés, or “Journey of the Soul”.  The aim was to build confidence to enable such sessions to be delivered independently.

16.3

Usman Yousaf described sessions which had been facilitated at a mosque every Monday after prayers, in partnership with the Iman of the mosque, and which aimed to have culturally relevant and appropriate conversations about death. This enabled the team to learn what was important to the community, so that they could advocate on the community’s behalf.

16.4

Cally Bowman described the “Life, Loss and Death Festival” which had been run in May 2024 for the second year running. 43 events had taken place across the city in a variety of venues. Topics covered included how to have conversations with loved ones about where they wanted to die, how managers could be more compassionate to employees who were grieving, celebration of the Day of the Dead traditions, and a talk from the Coroner.  Plans were already being made for next year’s festival and experts and organisations were already asking to be involved.

16.5

Caroline Plenty described “Townships 1”, which had taken an asset-based community development approach and applied it to a Primary Care Network of 5 GP practices.

16.6

The Chair thanked the Compassionate Sheffield team for their presentation and requested that Board Members engaged with the questions in the presentation outside the meeting.

16.7

RESOLVED: That the Sheffield Health and Wellbeing Board:

(a)  Endorses a Sheffield approach to end of life, focused on developing communities as a foundation for improving people’s experience and system outcome; and

(b)  Agrees to receive and consider a refreshed Mission Statement and Memorandum of Understanding underpinning the Compassionate Sheffield partnership at the December 2024 meeting.