Mel Barrett, Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council, has been appointed as Lead for Nottingham City Place Based Partnership (PBP). He will take over from Dr Hugh Porter as Interim Lead on 1 April 2022.
The Nottingham City PBP, formerly known as the Integrated Care Partnership, was established in 2019 to bring together health and care services including GPs, local authority services, community services and hospitals, as well as wider services provided by the community, voluntary and social enterprise sector.
All partners of the Nottingham City PBP have a key role to play in supporting the health and wellbeing of citizens, working together to provide care and support to people, regardless of background, circumstances or where people live in the city.
Mel Barrett’s role leading both the City Council and the PBP will strengthen his ambition to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities in Nottingham.
He said: “The response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Nottingham has proven what is possible when a group of organisations corral together around a shared purpose and set of objectives and I am keen that we continue to build on this. However, what the pandemic has also done is bring into sharp focus the acute inequalities that exist in Nottingham.
“The fact that a woman in Hyson Green can have the second-lowest healthy life expectancy in the country is something we must address, and we will only improve this by addressing it together in genuine co-production with our citizens.
“I believe that by working together at pace with our citizens, we are stronger than any individual partner acting alone. By continuing this journey together, we have not just the opportunity but the responsibility to deliver on our shared ambition to give every person living in Nottingham equal access to care and support that meets their needs, regardless of their background, circumstances or where they live in the city. I am confident that we have what it takes.”
The Nottingham City PBP is one of four ‘place-based’ partnerships in the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System. Subject to parliamentary process for the Health and Care Bill on 1 July, the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS will establish an Integrated Care Board (ICB) that will be responsible for NHS services.
The Nottingham City PBP will be responsible for the delivery of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2022-2025.
Dr Kathy McLean, Chair of the Integrated Care System, said:
“This is an exciting time to be leading and working in health and care and we welcome Mel into his new role as lead for Nottingham City Place Based Partnership. We are in a position of real opportunity to truly make positive change through the integration of people, teams, organisations, professions and citizens with one key aim for the benefit of our public and patients.
“Mel’s skills and leadership will be a huge asset to the city Place Based Partnership as it moves into this next phase of development, driving the work on reducing health inequalities and improving care. I know Mel will focus on real change that will address the needs and views of local citizens.”
Dr Hugh Porter, Interim Lead for the Nottingham City PBP, said:
“It’s been an honour to act as Interim Lead in addition to my role as Clinical Director for the PBP over the last two years. With the support from many colleagues, the partnership with its new ways of working has gone from strength to strength.
“The partnership has played an important role during the pandemic and the challenges we have all faced have provided learning opportunities. We know as we come out of the pandemic other challenges remain, especially addressing the health inequalities across our city and its communities.
“The new City Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the partnership’s agreed role in delivering this, together with the advent of the new Health and Care Bill that will see the formation of Integrated Care Systems as statutory bodies, means the partnership now needs to progress into its next phase of development.
“I’m therefore delighted to welcome Mel as the new Lead, who will bring the skills and expertise to really help make this next phase of the partnership flourish and start to broaden its role across the city. I’m looking forward to continuing in my role as Clinical Director, working closely with Mel and colleagues to make the next phase as successful as the first.”
Cllr Adele Williams, Portfolio Holder for Adults and Health in Nottingham and Chair of the Nottingham City Health and Wellbeing Board, said:
“Reducing health inequality is a top priority for Nottingham. We are determined that the gap in healthy life expectancy between the different neighbourhoods of our city and with Nottingham as a whole compared to other similar cities must close.
“We want Nottingham to be a healthy and inclusive city, where people are able to live well and keep active throughout their lives. We will do this by working together with our partners and with Nottingham to ensure people are supported at the right time and in the right place to live their lives as they would want to, but also by working to ensure that together we use our resources to support good local employment and procurement, and that we use our leadership to build on the progress Nottingham has made to improve air quality and other determinants of good health such as education.”
The partners of the Nottingham City PBP are Nottingham City Council, CityCare, Nottingham City General Practice Alliance, NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Nottingham Community and Voluntary Service, Framework, Nottingham City Homes, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
