Proud to be the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership – Trust Governor Workshop

Posted on: 20 March 2018

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership welcomed over thirty trust governors, to a special workshop in Leeds on Friday 9 March to find out more about the work taking place across the area.

Trust governors, including those representing public, staff and stakeholders, from acute hospitals and mental health trusts heard direct from Rob Webster, Chief Executive of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership.

Matt Graham, Programme Director for West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts also updated governors on how the acute hospitals are working together to share resources, skills and expertise to benefit everyone living across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

The work of WYAAT is one of nine partnership priorities. The others include cancer, urgent care, mental health and stroke. WYAAT have established a Committee in Common to take forward their work. This involves all the acute hospitals CEOs leading on areas of work, such as pharmacy supply chain, Yorkshire imaging collaborative and economies of scale across support services.

Governors attending the workshop agreed that the time is now right to consider whether, and how, they work closer together to support the WYAAT programme and wider partnership assurance framework. This will also be discussed at a follow up event with Clinical Commissioning Group Lay Members, who already meet collectively to assure the Joint Committee of the 11 Clinical Commissioning Groups work plan, and other public involvement panels from across the partnership on 17 April.

In the first of its kind across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, Rob highlighted the importance of ensuring the public, patient experience is heard loud and clear; emphasising the crucial role that elected governors’ play in representing the interests of local communities and the valuable difference this makes during decision-making processes at a Board level.

Rob said: “Foundation trusts have a governance model that means they can feel owned by their staff and accountable to the people. Governors give their time and expertise freely to meet this aim. As a partnership, we want to ensure that their voices are heard as we develop our arrangements for the future. Thank you to the governors who came along. It’s essential that we create the right culture and infrastructure for openness and transparency and their input will allow us to do this.”

Dr Sheila Fisher, a retired maxillofacial surgeon and Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust Governor said: “It was good to attend the event today and meet other governors. Together we need to place quality of care and patient experience at the core of everything we do – both locally and across West Yorkshire and Harrogate. This will help to ensure standards are achieved at the highest level. There can be a tension between excellence and the inevitable tendency to regress towards the mean in collaboration. Together we need to ensure the system has flexibility to evolve. Today was a good start and I look forward to wider conversations”.

Ends

Notes to editor:

  • For further information or to request a media interview please contact Karen Coleman, WY&H HCP Communication & Engagement Lead at Karen.coleman2@wakefieldccg.nhs.uk
  • West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP) recently published ‘Our Next Steps to Better Health and Care for Everyone’. The document describes the progress made since the publication of the initial WY&H plan in November 2016, and sets out how the partnership will improve health and care for the 2.6 million people living across the area in 2018 and beyond. You can read it at www.wyhpartnership.gov.uk/next-steps
  • WY&H HCP includes eleven clinical commissioning groups (which buy and plan healthcare for local people), eight local councils, and services provided by a number of health and social care organisations, including hospitals, mental health care providers, the ambulance service, Healthwatch, and community organisations.
  • The partnership is built on organisations working together in the WY&H six local areas: Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate and Rural District, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield to meet the needs of the people in each of these places. Partners also work together on nine priority programmes for the whole of WY&H, including mental health, hospitals working together, stroke, urgent and emergency care.
  • WY&H HCP is the second largest health and care partnership in England with a budget of £5billion.

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