NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
18 March 2026
STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR HEALTH AND ADULT SERVICES
Health and Adult Services Appointments
I would like to place on record my thanks to Richard Webb as he has left the Council to take up a new position as Chief Executive of City of York Council, and congratulate Abigail Barron who has been appointed as the new Corporate Director for Health and Adult Services here at North Yorkshire Council, leading on public health, adult social care and NHS partnerships.
I am pleased to say that Chris Watson has been appointed to an Adult Social Care Assistant Director vacancy which covers prevention services (including Living Well and Occupational Therapy), the quality team which helps support care providers, our in-house care provider services and our intermediate care teams. He will be leading over a thousand colleagues.
These are internal appointments, and I look forward to continuing to work with them both.
Input into central government strategy
I was pleased to welcome Baroness Louise Casey, chair of the national commission to review adult social care and Sally Warren, new Director General for Adult Social Care at the Department of Health and Social Care to Northallerton recently. There was a range of meetings and discussions with them, involving Members, officers, people who use services and partner agencies, about key issues in social care, public health and the NHS and we were able to showcase the actions that North Yorkshire is taking.
Extra Care/Supported Housing
Over the coming months we will be bringing forward procurements for additional Extra Care capacity at a number of sites across the county in line with the approach approved by the executive in October 2025. These schemes will build on our nationally recognised programme and provide high quality accommodation with support for people across North Yorkshire.
We are currently procuring enhanced and expanded supported housing services for people with a wide range of mental health needs as well as a service to support offenders reintegrate into society. These schemes are enabled by income generated through the second homes council tax and will help to address ongoing pressures around homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation.
Trailblazer
The council has been leading the delivery of a range of projects as part of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Trailblazer programme, which is a £10M Department of Work & Pensions funded programme focused on removing health and socioeconomic barriers for people who are economically inactive, at risk of economic inactivity, and to support employers to recruit and retain people to strengthen our North Yorkshire workforce. We are on track to deliver against our targets, and at the time of writing are working with over 1,200 individuals and over 100 businesses.
Some examples of positive early results are: Working to support people with musculoskeletal problems back into work; a project matching employers and prospective employees to offer subsidised part time employment for three months; providing vacancy solutions and creating learning about how to adapt and support health and work barriers to be overcome. In addition, voluntary and community sector partners are offering a range of bespoke programmes including support for carers, supported volunteering and intergenerational skills development.
Prevention Plus
Following the executive decision to invest up to £3.6m in a 3 year Prevention Plus pilot, planning is well underway. I was encouraged by the cross-chamber support I got from members to invest in this pilot. We will start by identifying lead community organisations to take this programme forward, and I have committed to keeping members and area committees informed as plans develop further.
North Yorkshire Staff Awards Event 25/26
In January, we celebrated the Delivering for North Yorkshire Staff Awards. The event illustrated the incredible work taking place across our council and showcased our values in action. We had 59 nominations for HAS staff overall, so a huge well done to all colleagues who were nominated across all parts of the Directorate. We were delighted that HAS teams won three awards:
Our team who developed ‘Support to Unpaid Carers’, led by Kate Allanson won the ‘ambitious’ category award. Their codesigned digital support tool is a brilliant example of innovation, and ambition coming together to make a real difference for carers.
Our team who led the ‘NRS Incident Response’, led by Mike Rudd won the ‘together’ category. Mobilising a new service model in under two months to protect 2,000 vulnerable residents is an extraordinary achievement in partnership and teamwork. The team also won the ‘best video’ award.
In addition to the winners, ‘Charlotte Rudd’, our Supported Employment Manager was shortlisted in the ‘Inclusive’ category for driving major improvements in inclusive employment across the county. In the same category, the Human Resources Team with significant HAS input were celebrated for championing inclusive training and embedding lived experience through the mobilisation of the Oliver McGowan Tier 2 training programme.
COUNCILLOR MICHAEL HARRISON