This week’s leadership message comes from Rob Webster, CEO for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and CEO Lead for the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership

Rob WebsterAs we head into the busiest, most pressured time of the year for many colleagues and organisations in our Partnership, I wanted to reflect on the last 12 months and also look ahead to 2025.

There’s no doubt that this has been another very challenging year for our system and also one where progress continues to be made. I wrote to you all in the early summer setting out our achievements in 2023/24 and how we would need to progress for the remainder of the year. We have done so in the context of a new operating model, staff turnover, change and significant external stressors. Our model, built on ambition and subsidiarity, has continued to be important. Every organisation in our partnership has contributed, and we have supported the whole system to move forward.

Looking ahead, there’s no doubt that the next few months will be particularly challenging. As well as significant winter pressures, we are operating in an extremely difficult financial context and experiencing uncertainty around what the new 10-year plan might entail and new arrangements for management and accountability in the NHS. I am confident that with our strong partnerships and system leadership, we can collectively navigate this and continue to recover services, innovate and meet our collective ambition to improve outcomes for local people.

This is a time when the new Government is stating its commitment to the NHS and the care system, backed by a relatively generous settlement for us in the budget, compared to other Whitehall spending departments, including ring-fenced capital funding. That brings with it pressure and expectation which can be transmitted from Whitehall to every organisation in the system. As we navigate what we know will continue to be a very challenging winter, plan for next financial year and help shape the 10-year health plan, we should all recognise this reality, stay true to our way of working and remain focused on what matters.

Of course, we have focused on national standard and targets. It is essential that we do. We're also a system that does the right thing for local people. We share an ambition to be trauma informed by 2030; we were the first Partnership of Sanctuary in the country; and we are the first integrated care system to commit to Keep it Local, a national movement that supports local organisations to be strong and successful. Alongside this there are developments such as the West Yorkshire Inclusion Health Unit, which brings organisations together to work on improving outcomes for some of our region’s most vulnerable people; our collaborative learning programme to address health inequalities and meet the ambitions of Core20Plus5 and the NHS England Inclusion Health framework; a digital resource for carers platform provided by Carers UK, as well as a hospital discharge toolkit to better support carers when those they care for are being discharged from hospital. Our West Yorkshire Healthier Together website, including information on the RSV vaccine in pregnancy, gender incongruence and children’s oral health has supported tens of thousands of people, and a report by the Mental Health Foundation identified our partnership as “one of the best in the country” when it comes to planning to prevent poor mental health. Work has continued with Project Hope with organisations across the health and care, VCSE and commercial sector having offered care-experienced young people opportunities for jobs across West Yorkshire over the last year; and the partnership launched a six-month pilot of an out-of-hours advice line, providing vital support for families and professionals caring for children and young people with life-threatening and life-limiting health conditions.

We understand the wider determinants of health, and we work beyond traditional health and care boundaries to help create the conditions where people can thrive. This was recognised in the recent announcement that West Yorkshire has been selected as part of a national drive to help improve the health of the population and increase economic growth by providing support to reduce the number of people who cannot work because of ill health.

Despite the challenges we’ve faced during the past year and those we will face next year, I never fail to be impressed by the work I see going on every day to improve outcomes for people and by the people who make such a difference to our communities. It makes me very proud to work for West Yorkshire.

So, thank you very much for reading and for all that you do. I hope you get to spend some time with your loved ones during the festive period, and I really look forward to working with you all next year.

Best wishes

Rob