In line with our agreed approach to stakeholder involvement, we published our draft constitution on 8 November 2021 and presented it to the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Board in December 2021. The involvement period ended on 14 January 2022. Our principles of subsidiarity mean that the Integrated Care Board (ICB) will primarily discharge its duties through delegation to ICB place committees, alongside work that is delivered at West Yorkshire level. Most decisions will be made at place level, in support of local Health and Wellbeing Board priorities.
Involvement on the constitution produced over 30 responses from partners, external stakeholders and members of the public. In addition, we have presented our proposals to a number of place and West Yorkshire level forums including Health and Wellbeing Boards, health overview and scrutiny committees, partner boards and governing bodies, patient and public reference groups and partnership collaborative forums.
Download the Draft Constitution Involvement Report (Microsoft Word)
Read or download the Draft Constitution Involvement Report (PDF)
Feedback and changes
The feedback on the constitution was constructive and has covered a wide range of areas. The issues receiving most responses were:
• the size and composition of the ICB Board
• the arrangements for delegating the ICBs functions to our places
• public and patient involvement in our Integrated Care System (ICS).
Some of the main changes that we have made to the constitution include:
• clarifying our objectives to promote a comprehensive health service for our residents, reduce health inequalities and improving wellbeing
• strengthening independent challenge by an additional independent non-executive member of the board with a specific focus on citizen involvement and sustainability
• strengthening our focus on people and workforce issues by adding a Director of People to the Board and establishing an ICB People Committee
• confirming that all board members are full members of a unitary board, responsible for stewardship of NHS funds and bound by individual and collective accountability for decisions
• enabling a broader range of representation on the board from providers of community health services and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector
• building into our arrangements an annual review of Board effectiveness.
Download the Draft Constitution Involvement Report (Microsoft Word)
Read or download the Draft Constitution Involvement Report (PDF)
The draft Partnership Board Paper was presented on 1 March 2022 at the Board meeting.
Background
West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership continues to make progress with the development and implementation of the new statutory Integrated Care System (ICS), which will come into effect in April 2022, subject to Parliamentary approval. The Health and Care Bill 2021, which contains a series of measures to formally establish ICSs, is currently at committee stage. The Bill contains measures to bring health and care services closer together, and modernise the legal framework to make the health and care system fit for the future and put in place targeted improvements for the delivery of public health and social care. It will support local health and care systems to deliver higher quality care to their communities, in a way that is less legally bureaucratic, more accountable and more joined up, by bringing together the NHS, local government and partners together to tackle the needs of their communities as a whole. The proposals build on the NHS’ recommendations for legislative change in the NHS Long Term Plan.
In readiness for the changes the Partnership conducted a review of current involvement to see what needed to be done to prepare us for the future.
We shared this report and recommendations in two workshops with communication and engagement colleagues and also with citizens and carers who are already involved with our partners. This report outlines their thoughts about the review and ideas about the recommendations.
Report of feedback about the independent involvement review and recommendations.
The Bill introduces the creation of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). These Boards will hold a substantial budget for commissioning high quality care. Our ICB will develop a plan to meet the health needs of the population and secure the provision of health services and will be directly accountable for NHS spend and performance in West Yorkshire.
To support this, we drafted an ICB constitution, which sets out what the ICB will do and how it will work. The draft has been developed with representation from each areas (Bradford District and Crave, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield) representative.
Involvement activity will be about the content of the draft constitution, not about whether Integrated Care Boards should be established. We are expecting to start the involvement with interested stakeholders from the 8 November and it should finish on 14 January 2022.
The closing date for comments on our draft constitution of 14 January 2022 has now passed. Thank you to everyone who has shared their views and comments. We will be updating this web page with people’s feedback and the next steps in the coming weeks.
West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership want to ensure that all our local partners and stakeholders can comment on the draft constitution. Here is how you can do this:
- Contact Westyorkshire.
stp to invite us to your meeting to discuss the draft Constitution@nhs.net - Use the resources available below to read the constitution, summary, and answers to frequently asked questions to discuss this with colleagues and use the comment portal to share your views.
- Leave your comments on the feedback from at the bottom of the constitution web page, when the page goes live on our website soon.
- Email your comments to Westyorkshire.
stp @nhs.net
The draft constitution, together with relevant documents, can be found on the ICB constitution page