Posted on: 28 July 2022
Hello, my name is Cathy.
It’s great to be writing the Partnership’s leadership message this week, following an extremely busy July for so many colleagues. Thank you to everyone who is working hard around the clock to keep people safe and well.
From 1 July 2022, our Partnership established a new statutory organisation within it called the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). The organisation is part of the Government legislation set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, which focuses on improving outcomes for people by addressing health inequalities, the difference in care received and effective use of budgets across the area.
As a Partnership we see the Health and Care Act as our next step in working much more closely together as we work hard to further join up care around people’s needs and focus on better access to care with a much greater emphasis on preventing illness and the importance of public health.
We continue to have strong local place partnerships in Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield District, and effective care provider collaboratives, such as The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts, the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Collaborative, Community Care Collaborative and hospices working together. All are important to the way we work together to improve people’s lives locally and across West Yorkshire. Working together is not new to us. We have been working in this way since 2016. You can find out more by watching this film animation.
What is new is the Board of the new NHS West Yorkshire ICB, and I’m delighted that alongside representation from our health and care sectors we have recruited four new non-executive members. We worked closely with the Partnership’s Race Equality Network throughout the recruitment process, and I would like to thank them and other colleagues for their involvement and support. Our new NHS West Yorkshire ICB non-executive members are:
We are also fortunate to welcome Haris Sultan, in his development through the NHS national NExT director programme, focusing on young people and future generations, working closely with Becky. Having five talented, committed, and skilled non-executive members with people and communities at the centre of all we do is essential in contributing to the way we continue to work.
As part of my own Partnership journey, I have the pleasure of visiting colleagues in their working environment to understand the pressure, challenges they and our communities face. This has included visiting Mid-Yorkshire Hospital NHS Trusts and community pharmacy colleagues earlier this year.
More recently I have attended the Bradford District and Craven ‘Act as One Festival Recognition Day’ virtual event, the West Yorkshire Adversity, Trauma and Resilience virtual conference in partnership with the West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, and the online
two-day celebration of our Health Inequalities Academy for its first birthday.
This month I visited in-person Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to learn first-hand about their capital build plans, health tech innovations and management of emergency care. Please let me know of any opportunities in-person or virtually to visit and support services and events across West Yorkshire. I’m keen to visit colleagues and teams across our area.
As we further grow and develop, we will continue to focus on how we collaborate and learn with communities to improve their health, so we really understand what they need to live well. This is about health in and with communities, helping people to live a good life. We will be working with local colleagues to share good examples of where this is working well and are especially keen to hear about the principles and practices of Asset-Based Community Development, also known as ABCD. This approach supports inclusive, bottom up, community driven change. Many of our local places are already following this approach - creating the conditions where any neighbourhood can identify, connect, and mobilise its assets to the benefit of the whole community. Please do share your examples with me via email at: wycommsand.engagement@nhs.net
Our next ICB meeting will take place on 20 September, and as always, we will be holding the meeting in public with the meeting documents published the week before on our website should anyone have any questions to ask the Board.
Thank you for all you’re contributing to our Partnership and communities.
Cathy