News

Yesterday (22 October), Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber held an event at the House of Commons to discuss how the recommendations in the YHealth for Growth white paper ‘Empowering local places for health and prosperity: new perspectives from  Yorkshire and the Humber’ can support the ambitions of the new government to tackle health and economic inequalities as well as regional leaders’ strategic priorities for their places.

The event was hosted by Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North East, and speakers from all three YHealth for Growth partners – Yorkshire Universities, NHS Confederation and Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber – took to the stage to articulate how the recommendations in the white paper align with three of the government’s key missions: kickstarting economic growth, building an NHS fit for the future and breaking down barriers to individual opportunity.

The emphasis on devolution of powers is a fundamental tool to help kickstart economic growth. There is compelling evidence that locally led interventions deliver better outcomes enabling local leaders across sectors to work together and find more creative and tailored solutions to the specific challenges faced by their diverse communities.

The recent Darzi report has further underlined the critical role of the NHS in contributing to a prosperous and inclusive economy. A place-based approach underpinned by greater collaborative working will be essential to making progress against the three reforms highlighted by the Prime Minister in the wake of the report focusing on prevention, greater adoption of health technologies and more care delivered directly in the community.

Attended by regional leaders, cross-party MPs, NHS executives, and representatives of influential national bodies, the event was an ideal platform to discuss actions to improve people’s health and grow the economy. Achieving these goals requires true partnership work and a place-based approach, which we’ve outlined in our updated white paper.

Richard Stubbs, chief executive, Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber said:

“Our report focuses on People, Place, Partnerships, Purpose – the 4Ps that we believe can really support the current direction of travel, putting more tools in the hands of local leaders.

“With our diverse economy, and as one of only a handful of regions to be fully covered by mayoral devolution deals from next year, Yorkshire and the Humber offers the perfect test bed for trialling new devolved powers and ways of working that could close health and economic disparities and make a significant contribution to the government’s missions.

It’s an important time to be influencing health and policy in the UK and we look forward to integrating our work into the government’s 10 year plan for the NHS and its industrial strategy.”

As well as putting forward the recommendations to national leaders, the parliamentary event also provided an opportunity for national policymakers to learn first-hand about how our region is leading the way on collaborative, cross-sector approaches to improving health and economic growth, through a showcase of innovative initiatives already underway, including:

• The Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network (Y-PERN), which was established through UK Research and Innovation funding secured by Yorkshire Universities and is driving collaboration between academics, combined and local authorities.
• Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber’s Propel@YH programme, which is supporting regional digital healthcare businesses to fuel company growth and market expansion and helping international innovators to establish themselves in the region.
• The National Health and Innovation Campus at the University of Huddersfield, which is at the heart of West Yorkshire’s life sciences investment zone and will help to develop the NHS workforce of the future, through the rapid expansion of training courses in nursing, midwifery and related fields.
• The Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park – the only Olympic legacy park ever established outside a host city, which is increasing community participation in sport and enabling partnerships between researchers, industry and government in food and drink manufacturing and advanced wellbeing research.

Read the white paper in full.

Get in touch if you have any questions or you would like to collaborate with us by emailing info@healthinnovationyh.org.uk