NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

19 July 2023

STATEMENT OF COUNCILLOR MICHAEL HARRISON

Healthy Ageing

In June we hosted a visit from the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty and his Public Health Registrar Dr Ben Holden. The focus of the visit was on healthy ageing, and how we support older adults, and had a particular focus on the challenges faced by rural locations as we have a higher proportion of older adults compared to the England average.

The day involved a round table with key partners in an Extra Care scheme in Harrogate, visits to community facilities in Darley, Dementia Forward’s community hub in Burton Leonard and a showcase of our joint working with the NHS at Harrogate Hospital where the CMO learned more about our health and social care integration work, Living Well and the work of the Quality Improvement Team.

Craven care market proposals

In June the Executive approved a report that considered care market proposals for the Craven area.  The proposals are designed to meet the emerging needs of the Craven locality, and enable delivery of the Council strategic intentions to develop new accommodation-based services in Craven.  These include continuing to grow the provision of home-based care to support people with care needs to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, replacing Neville House with new Extra Care Housing in Gargrave subject to a successful procurement exercise.

The proposals also support procuring a new Extra Care development on the Eshton Road site in Gargrave as part of a wider successful programme of Extra Care across North Yorkshire and developing supported housing on the Neville House site once it becomes available.  I recognise that these plans involve the closure of a much loved facility (Neville House), but I can assure members that I am committed to working with the staff and residents at Neville House to ensure a smooth transition to new homes and new roles.

National Institute for Health and Care Research bid

I am delighted to let you know we have been invited to submit a Stage 2 application to develop a North Yorkshire Health Determinants Research Collaboration in partnership with Hull and York Universities. If successful, this will mean £5million of investment to the Council over 5 years. The Collaborative would be set up to support research developments across the whole council and teams will be able to access staff across all three organisations as a resource to support achievement of key priorities and outcomes.  The National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) are investing in Local Authorities, to enable them to become more research active and to generate an evidence base to inform their decision making.

This new funding stream was launched by the NIHR in 2021 for the development of Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) which are intended to address the wider determinants of health across all council services to lead to better health outcomes for all.  The HDRC funding stream enables Councils to work in partnership with universities and wider partners, to develop a culture of engaging in, and using, research within a Council. It enables infrastructural change, to create a HDRC team within a Council, who will lead Council-wide research developments.

Autism accreditation for Supportive Employment

Our supportive employment team includes both established and new members of staff and worked throughout the pandemic contacting autistic people to offer support, reassurance and guidance.  The National Autistic Society has awarded the team Autism Accreditation Status at an advanced level.

The whole team were engaged and involved with the whole accreditation process which involved a review including autistic people and family members.  The team will regroup to start working on the new standards which include recommendations made within the 2023 report focusing on ensuring autistic and young people preparing for adulthood are identified and can access the service and support they need in a timely manner.

Preparation for inspection

A new duty in the Health and Care Act 2022 instructed the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to independently review and assess how Local Authorities are delivering their Care Act functions and it is anticipated that we will receive an inspection and subsequent rating as part of this process.

We expect the focus of our inspection to be on 4 key domains - working with people; providing support; ensuring safety and leadership.  It will also focus on co-production and how we involve people with lived experience in all aspects of care and support.

Planning and preparation is underway in advance of our inspection, and the Health & Adult Services Leadership Team recently completed a self-assessment and undertook a mock inspection to assist in preparing for inspection.

Nursing Times magazine awards

I am delighted to announce that three North Yorkshire services have been shortlisted for prestigious Nursing Times magazine awards: https://awards.nursingtimes.net/ntaw23/en/page/2023-shortlist

We have two nominations for the joint North Yorkshire Council/Humber and North Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board Quality Team: for hydration in care homes and the Care Olympics.  And the third nomination is for the joint REACH service in Scarborough, which is a partnership between the Council, Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, the Police, Primary Care and other services and which works with homeless people with multiple issues in their lives.

Congratulations to Sarah Fiori

Sarah Fiori leads our Quality Team and is our Principal Nurse as part of an integration pilot around care setting quality. Sarah was awarded the Chief Adult Social Care Nurse for the UK (Deborah Sturdy) Gold Award in recognition of her commitment to the continuous improvement within care settings.  Well done Sarah!

COUNCILLOR MICHAEL HARRISON