A message from our chair of the board and chief executive
Our health and care partnership is made up of partners from across the NHS, local government, voluntary, social enterprise and community sectors. It is an integrated care system that is governed by a Partnership Board and incorporates a new organisation within it – the integrated care board.
The NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board became a statutory organisation on the 1 July 2022 as part of the Government’s new Health and Care Act.
This statutory body is a new type of organisation, governed by partners and focused on collaboration as a means of driving improved outcomes for people in West Yorkshire. This sees us work at a West Yorkshire level and importantly for the 2.4million people living here, at a local level in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield District.
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Chair, NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
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Chief Executive, NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
We have been on this journey together since 2016 and have made progress in many areas, battled a global pandemic together and now must set ourselves for living with COVID-19 and climate change that will affect us all now and for future generations to come.
There are many examples of good practice we have developed in West Yorkshire. Many examples of wicked issues that we have tackled together, and issues that have required collective effort to overcome.
You can see the difference our Partnership is making on issues as diverse as learning disability, autism, cancer, mental health, informal carer support, research, workforce, innovation, vaccination, tackling racism, social care, inclusive digital transformation, building new hospitals, climate change, engagement and value for money.
Our plea to you is for to recognise that this Partnership is yours – it belongs to us all. We are a new type of organisation in a new context. Our promise is that we will always focus on the difference we are making and in putting as much of the power as close to the problem to be solved as possible. Our places, provider collaboratives, primary care networks, our organisations and local people are the vehicles for change.
We have around £5bn to invest in West Yorkshire. We are clear that this is an investment in our people and our communities. Together we can start to address the issues that face us and seize the opportunities ahead.
Cathy Elliott, Chair, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
Rob Webster CBE, Chief Executive, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
Listen to Cathy Elliott, Rob Webster and Ian Holmes on the 'We Work Together' podcast
How we make decisions
Place-based partnerships
The groups that agree what is most important in each place are called Health and Wellbeing Boards. As happens now, the Health and Wellbeing Boards in each of our places - Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield - will agree a health and wellbeing strategy for their place.
Place-based integrated care board committees
Each place-based partnership will have an integrated care board committee to make decisions, similar to the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. These committees will be made up of local health and care leaders, and they will also include independent people who do not work for health and care organisations.
Partnership Board
These local place-based strategies are based on the things that are most important to local people. They will be brought together into an integrated care strategy for West Yorkshire, which will be agreed by our Partnership Board. The board is chaired by Cllr Tim Swift. Cllr Swift has been a councillor in Calderdale for 16 years and is the leader of the council.
We also have local and West Yorkshire public involvement activities. All people’s voices are important.
Integrated care board
Our integrated care board will agree an annual plan to deliver the integrated care strategy, as agreed by the Partnership Board. Most of the decisions about spending and services will be made in local places in place-based partnerships.
To make sure that decisions are fair and clear, we have agreed a set of rules that everyone will follow. These are our ‘governance standards’. These set out important things like:
- Holding meetings in public and publishing the papers in advance
- Making sure that the voices of people are heard by involving independent members and Healthwatch.
The board of the integrated care board
The integrated care board will agree the plan and make decisions about how NHS money is spent and the services it provides. To make sure that the decisions that it takes are fair, the board will be chaired by an independent person, Cathy Elliott, who does not work for a health or care organisation. The board will also have four other non-executive members covering:
- Citizens and future generations
- Finance, audit, and innovation
- Quality
- Workforce.
Together with Healthwatch and local place-based committees, these members will make sure that the views of local people are heard.
Integrated care board committees
To support the integrated care board and to provide assurance that our health and care system is working well, we are establishing the following committees:
- Audit
- Finance, investment, and performance
- Quality
- Remuneration and nomination
- Transformation
- People (workforce).
Find out more about the business of our boards and committees on the integrated care board meetings page.
Learn more about the members of our boards and committees on the integrated care board who's who page.
Accountability
The integrated board is formally accountable to NHS England. NHS England will carry out an annual assessment of the board’s performance and will publish a report summarising its assessment. NHS England has powers to intervene if it is satisfied that the ICB is failing to discharge any of its functions.
Our constitution
The integrated care board members will oversee how money is spent and make sure that health services work well and are of high quality, bringing together hospitals and community providers, primary care (for example GPs, community services, dental services, pharmacy), local councils, hospices, voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations and Healthwatch partners in our local places. To help enable this, we have a constitution.
The constitution is an important document that sets out what the board will do and how it will work. We developed the constitution following NHS England guidance and with the support of our partners and stakeholder. The involvement period in 2021 produced responses from partners, external stakeholders, and members of the public. You can read the feedback here.
To support the constitution, there is a governance handbook [LINK}. This sets out how decisions are made, and the arrangements needed to do this. It builds on our existing collaborative work to establish more robust mutual accountability and break down barriers between our separate organisations.
Collaborative forums
Several collaborative groups support our decision making, these are made up health and leaders across our area. These include the Partnership’s system leadership executive, which brings together the senior leaders from across our health and care system. The clinical forum and finance forum ensure that all decisions are informed by clinical and finance expertise.
- West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts
- West Yorkshire Mental Health Services Collaborative
- West Yorkshire Combined Authority
- Hospice Collaborative
- Community Provider Collaborative
Text version of infogrphic diagram: West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (integrated care system) - Governance and Accountability
Our five local places: Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield District
NHS Trust Boards, Health and Wellbeing Boards, Place Integrated Care Board Committees, Overview and Scrutiny Committees
Partnership Board (Integrated care partnership)
Integrated Care Board (Board of the integrated care board)
Sector collaborative forums
- West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts
- West Yorkshire Mental Health Services Collaborative
- West Yorkshire Combined Authority
- Hospice Collaborative
- Community Provider Collaborative
West Yorkshire system collaborative forums
- Clinical Forum
- Finance Forum
- System Leadership Executive Group
West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board Committees
- Audit
- Finance investment and performance
- People
- Quality
- Remuneration and nomination
- Transformation