An update from Rob Webster CBE

An update from Rob Webster CBE, Chief Executive of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Lead Chief Executive, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership

Dear colleagues,

The festive season is often a period of reflection and reset. It is a chance to reflect both professionally and personally. After a lot of thought, I wanted to let you know that I have decided to step down from my role as CEO of the NHS West Yorkshire ICB. I believe it is time for someone else to take the organisation forward as it transitions into a new organisation, with a new role, within a new system.

With over 35 years of national and local roles in health and care, more than half as a Chief Executive in the NHS, it is time for me to take a break and concentrate on my life outside the NHS.

I am deeply grateful for the support of my Executive colleagues, all staff and partners across the NHS, local government, the third sector and all of our communities in West Yorkshire. It has been an absolute privilege to work with everyone and many of you since May 2016 when our Partnership began to take shape. We have worked through continuous financial distress; a global pandemic; industrial action; racial and social inequity and major organisational change without ever losing sight of why we are here – to improve outcomes for the people we serve. The values and behaviours we hold have seen us through some difficult periods and driven some of our best and most impactful work on health inequalities, performance, quality and finance.

I have had many profound experiences of what we have achieved for local people, and also of the times when we have failed to make progress. These experiences will continue to shape how I see the world and how I lead in the future. Values based leadership that is based on the potential of people is something that must endure.

This has been a difficult period for everyone in the health and care system. I am proud to have worked with all of you and have seen - over and over again - how you exemplify public service. I know the new ICB will develop and adapt to become an extremely important part of the future emerging health and care landscape, building on firm foundations we have created, together.

We will be appointing a new Chair in January, and I will work with them and NHS England colleagues to agree the appropriate timing for my exit in 2026.

Wishing you all the best and thank you once again for everything you have and continue to do for our patients and communities in West Yorkshire.

With best wishes,
Rob

Statement on behalf of Professor Nadira Mirza, Acting Chair of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Acting Deputy Chair of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership

“I would like to thank Rob for his exemplary leadership of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership since its formation in 2016, and for his role in leading the Integrated Care Board since its formation in 2022.

“Rob has been instrumental in the development of our collaborative approach and our success as a Partnership. So much great work has and continues to take place across West Yorkshire, focussed clearly on addressing and reducing health inequality. Rob has always led with a very clear focus on making sure that everything we do has patients, members of the public at the heart of everything we do.

“Whilst the months ahead will be a very challenging time for the ICB, the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership and indeed the wider NHS, we must continue to work with the Board, wider partners, local communities and staff across West Yorkshire to respond to and deliver the 10 Year Health Plan, using the rich and diverse insight we have about our patients and communities across West Yorkshire.

I wish Rob well for the future.”           

Professor Mirza added: “We are appointing a new Chair in January 2026 and will work with them and NHS England colleagues to appoint Rob’s successor in the coming months.”