New Kirklees partnership appoints senior roles to committee
The West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) is a new statutory organisation that will be established on 1 July 2022. It will be part of the West Yorkshire Integrated Care System (ICS) – known as the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership.
Most decisions will be made at Place level, in support of local Health and Wellbeing Board priorities and multi-agency partnerships working in communities, including NHS, local authority and voluntary & community sector partners. The Kirklees place-based partnership will be known as the Kirklees Health and Wellbeing Partnership.
After an open and transparent recruitment process, an independent chair and two independent members have been appointed to an ICB Committee with delegated authority from the ICB to make decisions about the use of NHS resources in Kirklees.
Place-based committee independent chair – Dr Liz Mear
Liz has extensive experience of working at a local, regional and national level in health and local government. She is in her second term as a Non-Executive Director at Health Education England and is stepping down from this role in order to undertake the duties of the Kirklees Chair role. She currently works as a Senior Consultant, Coach and Business Advisor and is the national Chair for the NHS Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding panels. Prior to going into consultancy, Liz had a 36-year career across health, local government and academia where she held several leadership roles.
In response to her appointment, Liz said: “I’m delighted to be taking up the Independent Chair role at a time when collaboration is so important for improved outcomes of health and care service users and staff. I look forward to working with colleagues to continue to make a positive difference to the lives of Kirklees residents”.
Independent member – Hilary Thompson
After a long career in private sector management, Hilary took on a role within Kirklees Council, later moving into the third sector where she held a number of senior leadership roles including CEO of Age UK Calderdale & Kirklees. Since stepping down, she has worked to support the 15 Age UK brand members across Yorkshire and the Humber and been very involved in the third sector in Kirklees. Hilary has also held several roles on health sector boards including lay member of the North Kirklees and Greater Huddersfield CCGs’ Governing Bodies and continuing when the organisations merged to become Kirklees CCG as Lay Member: Finance and Remuneration, deputy chair of the Governing Body and chair of the Finance, Performance and Contracting Committee.
She said, “I enjoy the challenge of working for the NHS and am looking forward to contributing in this new role. My experience across the three sectors enables me to offer a balanced yet impartial perspective.”
Independent member – Nadeem Raja
Nadeem has extensive international experience working in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He started his UK career at Kirklees Council and has also worked as Projects Manager for Age Concern as well as serving as chair for their BME National Network. Nadeem is currently the General Manager of the Indian Muslim Welfare Society, one of the largest charities in West Yorkshire.
He said, “It’s a great honour to join the ICB Kirklees Committee. I believe in encouraging, supporting and helping individuals and community groups to become part of a solution and I believe this can be achieved by strong partnership working.”
Members of the Kirklees ICB Committee will share responsibility for ensuring that it exercises its functions effectively, efficiently, economically, with good governance and in accordance with the terms of the West Yorkshire ICB Constitution.
Carol McKenna, Chief Officer of Kirklees CCG and Designate Place Lead for Kirklees said: “I’m really proud to have worked in Kirklees for over 20 years and am delighted to take on the role of Place Lead for the Kirklees partnership. We’ve always worked closely with partners, both in Kirklees and across West Yorkshire, and I believe this new partnership will allow us to build on that work and really drive change in the region.”
Cathy Elliott, Chair-Designate for the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said: “I’d like to congratulate Liz, Hilary and Nadeem on their appointments to the Kirklees ICB Place-based Committee. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will be invaluable in leading the way to improved health for local people. We have a strong history of collaboration across West Yorkshire, and I am looking forward to continuing this tradition and working alongside them all as we move forward into our new statutory organisation.”