This week’s leadership message, the first for 2020, comes from our Partnership CEO Lead Rob Webster.

Hello my name is Rob

Happy New Year

At this time of year, people often reflect on the past and look forward to a future with new purpose and a bit of hope. As we enter 2020, we are looking into a new year, a new decade, and a context where we have a significant majority government for the first time in a decade. This brings an opportunity to have political consistency and clarity nationally in what is clearly a tough context for all of us.

All of the signs are that partnerships like ours will be the vehicle for transforming services to better meet the needs of local people, as well as being asked to develop mutual accountability for delivering services every day. The Queen’s speech indicates that legislation will be passed that makes it easier to collaborate and reduces reliance on competition in the health and care system. Critically, integrated care systems like ours will not become statutory bodies – a victory for system thinking over structure. Partnerships will be expected to meet in public and publish annual reports. Local Government, the NHS, third sector, independent organisations and communities can work together better to meet the needs of people.

All of this feels entirely consistent with our Partnership approach and I am optimistic for the year ahead.

This is because of the strength of our partnership and the difference we are making. Our work is rooted in the principles that guide us and the collective ambitions we have for the people we serve and the staff we employ. It is governed by good rules and a group of leaders who are committed to system working in ways that support collective success.

Over the coming weeks, we will see a number of national pieces of guidance and new commitments – not least the NHS People Plan and Operational Planning Guidance. We are well set to respond to these proactively, given the contribution we have made to their development and the progress we have made on our draft Five Year Plan, which we aim to publish in various formats in the coming weeks. This will be supported by a refined memorandum of understanding to keep us firmly on track to deliver all the ambitions

I know this will all be happening at a time when we face huge pressures on services – and our people remain at the forefront of our minds. We need to support colleagues working under tremendous pressure, whether they are paid employees across the whole of health and care or unpaid carers and volunteers. In the depths of a difficult winter, we will need to ensure they can see a way through and feel the benefit of the partnership’s working. That is why I am delighted our Winter Delivery Agreement is in place, providing practical support in what are tough times, and that systems are supporting home care, care homes, third sector organisations, general practices, mental health, community, learning disability and acute providers.

Our workforce programmes will be led by Brendan Brown (CEO for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust) in partnership with the Local Workforce Action Board who has set up a new West Yorkshire and Harrogate People Board. They will continue the excellent work we have developed on apprenticeships, staff passports, international recruitment, recruitment and retention of more staff. They will also ensure we can deliver the NHS people plan, plus improvements across the workforce of all partners.

This is reflected in our Plan, which will highlight the work we need to do to improve care for and with people and importantly how we will support and develop over 100,000 colleagues working in health and care across the area.  The 260,000 unpaid carers, and volunteers are also an essential part of that future.

One of our big ambitions is to have more diverse leadership across that accurately reflects the broad range of talent we have and one that is representative of our communities. In January we will be bringing together colleagues to develop the next steps in how we can achieve this successfully through the Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff networks. You may recall the leadership session which took place as part of Black History Month in October. If not you can read the blog and watch the films here.

Our draft plan sets out ten big ambitions for the future, alongside the very detailed commitments on individual priorities. These are set out below.

I believe these are a great set of ambitions that help define what we are about as we tackle health inequalities, manage unwarranted variation and maximise the impact of our resources together. West Yorkshire and Harrogate is a special place – and we want it to be healthy place to live and a great place to work.

I am proud that we are striving for ambitions that will begin to address the issues of today. These include poor outcomes for people with a learning disability, those in poverty and those with mental health conditions; poor representation from BAME communities in leadership; and the lingering impact of suicide as the biggest killer of youngish men.

I am also proud that we are striving to harness the issues of the future. A green economy and a global exemplar on sustainability would mean jobs and improvements in air quality. Good jobs to drive good health through technology and our world renowned, health tech sector, research and development is within our reach. And a commitment to ensuring we manage our changing populations through better insight and understanding as locally as possible. Our population health management insights, engagement and emerging primary care networks will help.

The Partnership belongs to all of us, it is our servant. In the last meeting in public of the Partnership Board there was real momentum among partners and a sense of determination to work together to achieve more. I’m really looking forward to working alongside you all in 2020.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and the wonderful work you do. I hope you have a very Happy New Year.

Rob