£12million mental health funding boost announced

People across West Yorkshire and Harrogate will benefit from over £230million additional funding to benefit three large schemes across the area.

The funding is part of the £963million of capital funding, announced by Matt Hancock, Health and Social Care Secretary on Friday 7 December to boost health facilities across England. It is being allocated to a number of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships and Integrated Care Systems across England as part of a major investment in the long-term future of the NHS.

The three West Yorkshire and Harrogate schemes approved are:

  1. Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust – £196million funding has been approved. The commitment is to fully fund the changes needed to improve and make sustainable hospital services while also delivering more care in the community and in our patient’s homes. This will require further work with local people, staff and partners and business case approval. Some £22million is being available in the current financial year.
  2. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) consolidation of acute pathology services – £27million in funding has been approved.  Bringing pathology services together into a high quality consolidated new facility provides significant opportunities to improve staffing and skill sharing as well as equipment efficiencies.
  3. Mental health rehabilitation and recovery repatriation – £12million in funding has been approved. This will support the provision of genuine alternatives to inpatient care for locked rehabilitation service users.

In May 2018, organisations in West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP) were given additional freedom and flexibility to manage the delivery of local services in Bradford District and Craven; Calderdale, Harrogate, Leeds, Kirklees and Wakefield when it joined the Integrated Care System Development Programme.

This additional funding means the Partnership has attracted over £300million of additional revenue and capital funding to support transformation work since it began in 2016.

Rob Webster CEO Lead for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership said:  “This much needed further investment will support our drive to improve the health and care of the 2.6million people living across our area. It is the result of a collaborative effort across the Partnership. Notification of the funding is positive news and reflects our collective priorities for people living across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.”

Photo of Trust Chief Executive, Dr Sara MunroDr Sara Munro (pictured), Chief Executive at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is great news for our Partnership and most importantly people with complex mental health problems. The funding will help us transform and reshape both in-patient and community care, whilst delivering improved access to a wider choice of services and improved health outcomes for people – which is after all what we are all about. We are proud to be leading this work for the Partnership.”

 

Background notes

Working alongside community organisations and communities, the Partnership brings together health and social care organisations, including the voluntary sector and other care providers across the area to give people the best start in life with support to stay healthy and live longer. An important part of the work is tackling health inequalities whilst improving the lives of the poorest, the fastest.

A first wave of eight shadow Integrated Care Systems was announced by NHS England and NHS Improvement in June 2017. They were placed into a development programme, along with the two health devolution areas (Greater Manchester and Surrey Downs). This brings a total of 12 Integrated Care Systems out of 44 across the country.

You can find out more about the local plans and the WY&H priority areas which include cancer, mental health, stroke; maternity care; urgent and emergency care at www.wyhpartnership.co.uk

You can also read Our next steps to better health and care for everyone. This describes the progress made since the publication of the initial WY&H plan in November 2016, and sets out how the partnership will improve health and care for the 2.6 million people living across the area in 2018 and beyond.