The West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (WY ICB) is a new organisation that will start work in July 2022.
Although it is a new organisation, it replaces Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and will build on successful work by all our health and care organisations, including the CCGs over the last five years.
The ICB will be led by a Chair and a Chief Executive. Its role will be to join up health and care services, improve people’s health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. The ICB will oversee how money is spent and make sure that health services work well and are of high quality. It will bring together hospitals and community providers, primary care, local councils, hospices, voluntary community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations and Healthwatch partners in our local places: Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.
The draft ICB constitution is an important document that sets out what the ICB will do and how it will work. This document sets out some of the most important things in the constitution.
How we find out what is important for local people
The ICB will agree a plan, which will be based on the things that local people in each of our places have agreed are the most important to improve their health and wellbeing. The groups that agree what is most important in each place are called Health and Wellbeing Boards.
All this information will be looked at by our Integrated Care Partnership. This is a big meeting, which includes senior leaders from all our partners across West Yorkshire and members of the public. The Partnership will agree the most important things for the ICB to include in its plan. We already have a Partnership Board which does this.
How decisions will be made – the ICB Board
The ICB will have a Board which will make decisions about how NHS money is spent and the services it provides. To make sure that the decisions that it takes are fair and clear, the Board will be chaired by an independent person who does not work for a health or care organisation. The Board will also have other independent members. Together with Healthwatch, these members will make sure that the views of local people are heard. The Board will have members from each of our local places (Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield) and will also have members whose role will be to give the views of:
- NHS hospitals and community providers
- Local councils
- Primary care providers (general practice)
- Public health, finance, medical and nursing experts
- Voluntary, community and social enterprises
We have set out the rules for how all these people will be appointed, so that everything is clear and open. We will make sure that all members of the ICB Board follow important rules about being open, honest, and acting in the public interest. These are called the Nolan Principles of Public Life. The constitution also says what will happen if members of the Board do not have the right behaviours and values and should not carry on their role any longer.
Making decisions in our local places
Although the ICB Board will agree the plan for health and care services in West Yorkshire, most of the decisions about spending and services will be made in local places: Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.
These are called place-based partnerships.
These places will have special ICB committees to make these decisions. Like the ICB Board, these committees will be made up of senior health and care leaders, and they will also include independent people who do not work for health and care organisations. To make sure that are all our decisions are fair and clear, we have agreed a set of rules that everyone will follow. We call these our ‘governance standards’. These set out important things like:
- Holding meetings in public and publishing the papers.
- Making sure that the voice of people is heard by involving independent members and Healthwatch.
Conflicts of interest
It is very important that members and employees of the ICB people do not think about their own interests when they make decisions about how public money is spent. We have set out how we will make sure that this does not happen. This includes asking people to tell us what their interests are and putting them on a register which we will publish. We will then know if there are any decisions that they should not be involved in.
Accountability and transparency
The constitution sets out how we will tell local people about what the ICB does. This includes providing information that is clear, easy to understand and in plain language and providing feedback about decisions and explaining how public views have had an impact and made a difference.
Making decisions about who should provide health and care services
It is particularly important that decisions about which organisations should provide health and care services are fair, open and clear.
We will publish:
- Information about how we will make decisions about who provides health and care services.
- The outcome of decisions made and details of the services that will be provided.
- A record of all decisions made.
Public involvement
The ICB has adopted important principles for working with people and communities. These include:
- Putting the voices of people and communities at the centre of decision-making.
- Understanding what people think about health and care services, and talking to them to find out if things are working.
You can find out more in our Involvement Framework.