NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
21 MAY 2025
STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR HEALTH AND ADULT SERVICES
Adult Social Care Assurance Inspection Programme/Care Quality Commission
As part of the national Adult Social Care Assurance inspection programme for all councils, North Yorkshire will have its Care Quality Commission (CQC) on-site inspection week commencing 2 June. This is the first time the council has been inspected under these arrangements, and a detailed self-assessment has been completed, highlighting both strengths and areas for development. As well as interviewing some members of the council, inspectors will be interviewing frontline practitioners, partner agencies, people who use services and a range of managers. Regular updates have been provided to members of the Care and Independence Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and I will update all councillors on the outcome of the inspection in due course.
Public Health Peer Review
A peer review for Public Health took place in February as part of sector led improvement work. This was a voluntary exercise and involved six peer reviewers spending three days in North Yorkshire, talking to more than 150 people and gathering information and views from a wide source. The feedback was very positive and highlighted public health as having a strong value base with a mixed skill set across senior roles. A real strength highlighted was the engagement work with partners but also in the community, and that their work is clearly evidenced based and focused on health inequalities.
The Peer Review Team made several recommendations including exploring the capacity, synergies and opportunities to gather, analyse and interpret data and intelligence at a place, population and granular level, exploring relationships with our Integrated Care Boards and continuing to explore the reach of public health through joint appointments.
Extra care
The procurement for proposed Extra Care provision at both Harrogate and Gargrave is now live, the procurement opportunity has been published on the Council’s Extra Care framework and a decision on the way forward is expected in August. If successful, the schemes will bring much needed Extra Care provision into these two key areas of North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire Autism Strategy
The NY Autism strategy's journey began in 2023, marked by numerous engagement and involvement sessions across the county, and was formally launched in March. The strategy presents a high-level vision and identifies eight priority areas with ambitious goals for North Yorkshire, while also recognising the broader national challenges in supporting those people with autism and their families. Our partners, including individuals with lived experience, acknowledge that the journey to achieve the aims is ongoing. The full strategy can be found on this link:
North Yorkshire Health Collaborative
Work continues to develop the North Yorkshire Health Collaborative (Joint Committee), which will be chaired by our Chief Executive and will bring together NHS Chief Executives and various Council and VCSE senior officers to oversee £600m of council and NHS prevention and community services annual expenditure. The changes in NHS England and NHS Integrated Care Boards mean that we will now be consulting on the Collaborative’s legal arrangements in the late spring. Currently, the Joint Committee is meeting in shadow form.
Health & Adult Service Strategy
Our plan to help people live longer, healthier, independent lives forms the basis of our HAS 2030 plan. This plan has recently been published and sets out how North Yorkshire’s Health and Adult Services (HAS) will change by 2030, including developing new services, improving existing services and making savings in line with the Council’s medium term financial strategy. The strategy can be found on this link:
https://www.nypartnerships.org.uk/has-2030
Staff Recognition
I would like to take this opportunity to put on record my thanks to Rachel Bowes, who after 8 years as an Assistant Director for HAS is leaving at the end of June to become Corporate Director for Adults and Health at Wakefield Metropolitan Borough Council. Among other achievements, Rachel has played a pivotal role in improving our in-house Care Provider Services and expanding the Quality Team “flying squad” which, in the last year alone, helped turn around 28 care providers, meaning that nearly 900 residents were able to stay in their current care homes. She was also awarded an MBE for her contribution to the COVID-19 response.
I would also like to pay tribute to Dot Hope, from the Council’s Station View care home in Starbeck, who retired recently after working for 53 years in social care services in North Yorkshire. She started as a home help for West Riding Council, then worked for North Yorkshire County Council and finally for NYC. I would like to thank Dot for her hard work and to wish her the very best for her retirement.
COUNCILLOR MICHAEL HARRISON