Ensuring Leeds is a beacon for exchange of best practice internationally is an important way to promote the City, and the work we do, on the world stage. Departments across the Council often host international study visits and this week it was the turn of our Adults and Health team, who welcomed a visiting delegation from Singapore, and our Libraries team who hosted a delegation from Antwerp, Belgium.
The delegation from Singapore, which was made up of practitioners from a healthcare cluster visited Leeds as part of a wider visit to the UK to learn about various initiatives that integrate health and social care.
Best practices shared included Leeds’ Asset Based Community (ABCD) approach which looks to build on assets that are found in the community to encourage people and organisations to come together to realise and develop their strengths. The delegation also heard from Leeds City Council’s Chief Officer for Public Health, Lucy Jackson, who spoke about Collective Care and Support Planning in Leeds.
The second day of the visit saw the delegation visit the Action for Gipton Elderly network and the New Wortley Community Centre, where the group attended an ABCD practitioners networking meeting.
In the same week the Libraries team welcomed visitors from Antwerp who were visiting Leeds to find out more about our ‘100% Digital Leeds’ approach.The visiting delegation are working on a project that aims to improve the reading engagement of children, young people and adults in Flanders and Brussels, and were interested in learning about how Leeds Libraries are leading on digital inclusion for the city and the role they have in bringing partners together and creating local networks around a common purpose.