The West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) data linked model combines data from across the NHS, primary care and social care, but also includes data from non-NHS sources such as education and housing.

It has gone even further by now beginning to incorporate data from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector - with Age UK Wakefield District becoming the first in the region to contribute to the NHS data warehouse.

Wakefield will be the first place in West Yorkshire to mobilise the model. By having multiple pseudonymised data sources linked, there is comprehensive information in one place for Wakefield District, which provides greater insight than ever before about the state of population health locally.

This will be used to inform planning and delivery of health and social care services and identify groups at risk of escalating health needs that would benefit from more proactive, preventative and holistic care.

The district already has a targeted, data-led approach in many areas, such as the evidence-based Healthy Hearts Community Hubs, which aims to tackle hypertension and prevent heart disease in communities away from medical settings. The data linked model can help expand much further on such work.

Colin Speers, a local GP and medical director for integrated community services, said: ‘We now have a linked data model in Wakefield which is one of the most advanced in the country.

‘By having a really detailed picture of people's health locally we are able to make informed decisions at a strategic, transformational and clinical level and help plan services that allow the people of Wakefield District to start well, live well and age well.'

Like many places across the country, Wakefield District faces a number of health and social care challenges: there is an 8.1 year disparity in life expectancy between people living in the district's most deprived and affluent neighbourhoods, the proportion of people with two or more long-term conditions is at 25.2% and 7.3% of the adult population have cardiovascular diseases.

Having access to as much information as possible leading to current outcomes can help health and social care leaders tackle these issues, while the model also takes into account a variety of risk factors, such as deprivation, smoking and ageing, which could influence a particular outcome such as emergency admissions.