Kathy’s blog: Joint meeting with Claire Ward, Mayor of the East Midlands

I was delighted earlier this month to meet with Claire Ward, Mayor of the East Midlands, to discuss her thoughts on how we can work together to improve our population’s health across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire. 

Claire was elected in May and heads up the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA), which brings together the City and County Councils across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire, as well as working closely with the District and Borough Councils.  EMCCA has a remit to work, in partnership with other bodies, to harness the potential of the East Midlands, making it the best place to live, to work and to learn. 

Directly elected Mayors and Combined Authorities are a key part of the new Government’s plans for the country, supporting the drive for economic growth and tackling inequalities.  There are lots of ways that our two ICBs will want to work together with the Mayor and the Combined Authority, in particular thinking about how our work on health inequalities can be linked to economic growth.  I’m also very excited about how we can take advantage of my role as Chair of both ICBs which means that Mayor Claire and I have completely aligned geographic responsibilities. 

With all that in mind, it was great to meet with Claire alongside Amanda Sullivan (Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB CEO) and Chris Clayton (Derby and Derbyshire ICB CEO) to discuss where our priorities might align.  Mayor Claire was keen to impress upon us the importance of health, in its widest sense, running through all of EMCCA’s priorities.  As we know, the majority of things which influence our population’s physical and mental health are outside the control of the NHS – so work that the Mayor and the CCA will be doing on topics like transport, housing and skills will all have a huge impact on the health of our citizens. 

The Mayor is already thinking innovatively about how this could all work together and we discussed some new ideas around how our teams could join up to support our population to be ready for the economy and jobs market of the future.  We also explored the opportunity represented by the establishment of an Inclusive Growth Commission charged with writing an Inclusive Growth Strategy – I am pleased that health partners will be invited to contribute to that. 

I was keen to share information with the Mayor about the many assets and resources that the health and care system has at its disposal, in particular the depth and breadth of data available through our System Analytics and Intelligence Unit (SAIU) in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.  We will want to explore how data that the Mayor may have access to such as on skills and educational levels and housing stock condition could usefully be drawn into the remit of our business intelligence teams. 

We agreed that we would continue to meet regularly and in particular focus on how we can align our strategies and plans.  We will also want to discuss how we can work with other partners, including the Universities, across the total area to most efficiently collaborate and benefit from the Mayor’s convening powers. 

This will be the first of what will be regular meetings with the Mayor and her team, building our already established partnership working across the two ICBs and thinking more broadly about how we can deliver on our Integrated Care Strategies.  If you’ve not had a chance to listen then the recent podcast that I hosted on our transformation programmes might be of interest – have a listen here: ICS transformation podcast – NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS – NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS (healthandcarenotts.co.uk)

It’s through this strategic thinking and work with new partners like the Mayor and the Combined Authority that we will be able to make the biggest difference to our population.