Hi everyone
As CEO for Kirklees Council I’m very proud to also have lived and worked in the area for a good number of years.
Kirklees is a hugely varied area with a rich legacy of innovation and doing things differently. Much of this still exists, but we are not always very good at talking about and selling what we do well.

We are the biggest district in England that’s not a city – with over 400,000 people. We have some great towns and villages in our area; from Holmfirth, Honley and Huddersfield to Dewsbury, Batley and Birstall. We have some excellent stories to tell, old and new; including a textile industry which still produces some of finest fabrics in the world, an internationally renowned university and choral society plus great markets and civic architecture, folk and art festivals, museums, galleries and canal walks, the Peak District National Park and 35 micro-breweries in Huddersfield alone.

The home of Rugby League and of course Huddersfield Town Football Club, who have this week, maintained its premier league status, and for those of you who are Trekkies, Sir Patrick Stewart comes from Mirfield. The list is endless.

Kirklees has a diverse population and communities covering both urban and rural areas; with this comes high levels of deprivation and a number of health inequality challenges. Addressing these challenges is our priority. I believe that we need to have a plan that sets out our strategic ambition and intent for the whole of Kirklees, but which enables delivery that reflects the differences in each of our communities. Having a Kirklees wide plan helps guard against losing sight of the standards we should expect for everyone and local delivery allows us to build on the things that work well and are important to each community.

Our focus over the past few years has been on joining up health and care services across our area and our biggest step change is the commissioning of an integrated model for community services; in particular providing care closer to home for people. Local leaders across the Kirklees health and care system would recognise that Kirklees has quietly delivered some real innovation but haven’t told our story well.

Being part of West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership is important to us. We want to share our good practice and learn from others. Working together across the area gives us the opportunity to do this, as well as helping to ensure we give people the best care and support possible, which is after all what makes us get up on a morning and come to work.

If you’re reading this and work in local government services, you will know that councils have been under increasing pressure to do this over the past 10 years. Government funding for local authorities has fallen by an estimated 50% since April 2011 with 66.2% of local authorities with social care responsibilities dipping into their financial reserves in 2016-17.

This makes partnership working extremely important and joining up the way we work to avoid duplication, cost and effort to deliver quality care have never been more critical. It also means that early help and preventing ill health is at the heart of our work – whether this is through working closer with Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing, community organisations or the police; we know that health and care services don’t keep people healthy alone. Life choice, where you live and whether you are in employment or have good education are important factors too. This is part of the long term shift in our approach….it isn’t about trying to ride out a short term financial pressure, it is about long term sustainable transformation to enable people to be as independent and healthy as possible.

Our ambition (not just in Kirklees, but across West Yorkshire and Harrogate) has to be about system-wide change at the local level. This requires strong relationships, trust and an ethos of mutual interest. Our focus in 2018/19 is about building on our innovation and integrated practice and making sure that we are better at telling the Kirklees story.

I hope that helps to give you a bit of an update on what we are doing and also gives you an incentive to come and visit our great towns and attractions – whilst telling people where we are geographically placed.

Have a good weekend, Jacqui

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What else has been happening this week?

Shadow Executive Leadership Group

The Shadow Executive Leadership Group met this week for their second module on finance. The group’s role involves reviewing the papers ahead of the next leadership meeting on Tuesday 5 June.

The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity System Board (LMS)

The Board met today [Friday] to discuss the LMS governance structure, maternity from the ambulance perspective and the budget. There was also a discussion around the work taking place in Leeds. You can read the Local Maternity System Board plan here.

Personalised care demonstrator workshop

The Personalised Care Demonstrators Workshop was held on 15 May 2018 with colleagues from NHS England and our local places (Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield). Personalised care means people having choice and control over decisions that affect their health and wellbeing. A person receiving personalised care is at the centre of the way that care is planned and delivered, based on individual needs, preferences and priorities. There is the opportunity for West Yorkshire and Harrogate to become a “demonstrator site”, which would mean £340k funding and up to two days per week of on-site support in 2018/19 to use the national learning in this area to scale up personalised care across the WY&H Health and Care Partnership.

Academic Health Science Network (ASHN)

In recent weeks we have been working with the AHSN to develop a structured approach to identifying and providing this support into our priorities. The AHSN has developed a high level ‘basket’ of programmes that reflect the national priorities set by NHS England as well as a number of other priorities that have been developed from innovations in the region. This week Ian Holmes, our Partnership Director, and colleagues have been considering the opportunities available such as ‘Waitless’ (an App to divert people away from A&E departments unless needed) and a quality improvement programme for GP practices with the most opportunity to prevent atrial fibrillation related strokes. You can read more here

Joint VCSE Review

Given the changing health and care environment, a second phase of the Joint Voluntary and Social Enterprise Review was launched on 16 May 2018 to refocus local and national action around a revised set of recommendations. You can read the report here There is also a blog which Rob Webster, our CEO Partnership Lead and Alex Fox, CEO for Shared Live Plus available on the HSJ website here.

What’s happening next week?

  • The Urgent Care and Emergency Programme Board meet on Monday.
  • The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Business Intelligence programme meets on Monday.
  • The Joint Committee Lay Members Group meets on Monday.
  • On Friday the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Directors of Finance meet.