Cathy ElliottA thank you message from Cathy Elliott, Chair of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Deputy Chair of the Integrated Care Partnership - West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Board

Thank you for your planning, preparation, and attendance at the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) engagement session and Board on Tuesday 18 July in Batley.

The community care engagement session in the morning was extremely helpful, especially as it was ahead of the focused Board discussion in the afternoon.

The West Yorkshire Community Services Provider Collaborative received endorsement and support for practical ways forward across our Partnership. The actions from the meeting were noted, and updates will be shared at the meetings in September and November, which are also held in public.

The engagement session provided an opportunity for Board members to hear about people’s experiences of community care. This enabled an open discussion from members about the importance of caring for people at home, when safe to do so, including help for people with autism accessing health services, the role of virtual wards, and the work of urgent care response colleagues.

It was inspiring to hear how social workers, community nurses and schools join with young people, families and carers as part of their transition from childhood to adult services to plan their health and care – all with independence and choice at the heart of everything you do.
It was a helpful reminder to hear how most of our health and care service delivery takes place at home, or in our communities. We must continue to work together to change the narrative from ‘out of hospital care’ to ‘care at or closer to home’.

It was great to hear how positively your services are received from people who access care as well as colleagues who deliver it. Your ability to make judgements, to balance risk, the strength and resilience of your teams and the importance of all your roles within community care was truly inspiring. Please keep in touch about the important work you do so I can continue to be an active supporter of the Community Services Provider Collaborative for our system.

I am grateful for your contribution to the session, particularly your honesty, to further our work together on providing the best care possible in people’s homes and communities.

West Yorkshire Voice

West Yorkshire Voice - making a difference in health and careWe are passionate about making sure the voice of local people is central to our work and we have asked Healthwatch (the independent health and social care champion) across West Yorkshire to develop the West Yorkshire Voice to feed directly into decisions made about health and care. It will be developed in partnership with residents to reflect our diverse communities.

West Yorkshire Voice will be a network that will bring together individuals, groups, local panels, networks, and organisations to ensure the voice of people is at the heart of health and care decision-making in West Yorkshire.
It will complement existing involvement mechanisms that are already in place at a local and West Yorkshire level, including via the voluntary and community sector. It will be a new way of working with people, communities and organisations that will not replace or duplicate what is already there.
The intention is to add to and build on existing approaches. This might be something that you, your family and friends might be interested in joining, and to find out more and join us, you can contact Healthwatch West Yorkshire on 0113 898 0035 or email: info@westyorkshirehealthwatch.co.uk

Thank you again for attending the engagement session with NHS West Yorkshire Board members; we are grateful for the contribution you make to help to keep local people and communities healthy across West Yorkshire.

Part one, items 1-6

Part two, items 7-17