• The Leeds Health and Social Care Hub plans to create new opportunities for health and social care professionals in and around the city and provide a boost for the local economy

• It builds on Leeds’s strong reputation for tackling health and economic inequality through innovative schemes such West Yorkshire Innovation and Improvement Hub, YHealth For Growth, and Lincoln Green employment and skills project

A new Leeds and Social Care Hub will launch today [Tuesday 19 July] bringing together the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and various local partners to improve health outcomes across the region.

The hub will bring together a community of experts to improve healthcare in the region for patients. Members of the public, private, and third sector organisations, including NHS, local government, universities and other health organisations will work to address challenges including tackling health disparities and improving employment opportunities in the sector. This will ensure DHSC’s principal offices in Leeds are embedded in the region’s growing health industry and continue the work to make Leeds a national and international hub for the healthcare industry.

The aim is to position Leeds as the natural choice for professionals looking to pursue a career in health and social care spanning local government and public and private organisations, as well as for start-ups seeking to establish or expand their base in the city. This will help to retain and develop talent, all while providing a boost to the local economy. It will also promote the health and social care sector as a career of choice for local residents and graduates, so that workforces reflect the communities they serve.

Health Minister Maria Caulfield said:

“The Leeds Health and Social Care Hub provides a welcome platform for us to forge closer and stronger working relationships with our partners in Leeds and the north of England.

“It will allow us to entice more talented health and care workers, as well as organisations, to the region, boosting both the local workforce and the economy.

“Together, we will work on a comprehensive vision to improve health and social care outcomes and come up with innovative solutions to tackle health disparities across the north of England.”

This will build on existing successful collaboration across different organisations and sectors, for example, in 2019 Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust partnered with Leeds City Council and a local charity to deliver information on employment, connecting residents living in Lincoln Green and other disadvantaged communities in Leeds with job opportunities. It resulted in 49 people starting a six-week employability programme and 29 people successfully securing employment at St James’s Hospital.

The Hub will act as a focal point for healthcare activity in the region, making Leeds the city of choice for organisations and businesses. For example, the new West Yorkshire Innovation hub has been set up to ensure residents can benefit from new innovations. It recently launched 10 innovation schemes including breast cancer surgery, cancer screening uptake in minority communities, and a special programme to support older people with cancer.

The partners will include Leeds City Council, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS England, West Yorkshire Integrated care System, University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University, Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network, Leeds Health and Care Academy, Leeds and York Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

Sir Chris Wormald KCB, Permanent Secretary at Department of Health and Social Care said:

“I believe the Hub offers a unique opportunity to accelerate delivery of our shared ambitions, not to mention significant potential to be replicated across diverse sectors in different parts of the country.”

Dr Sara Munro, Chief Executive Officer, Leeds & York Partnership NHS Trust said:

“The hub brings together a diverse set of partners both locally and nationally that will be able to achieve so much more collectively.”

Tom Riordan, Leeds City Council said:

“In order to develop and deliver successful policy, you need national, regional and local perspectives working together, and this initiative is a great opportunity to do just that.”

Richard Stubbs, Chief Executive Officer, Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network said:

“The Hub is a significant opportunity to build upon the existing collaboration between health and care across Leeds and West Yorkshire, aligning conversations around health, the economy, employment, and innovation to improve health and life outcomes for the region’s citizens.”

The project will focus on three main areas:

• People and Talent: Making the health sector in the region the employer of choice for many local people from all communities. This will include:

• Making career paths between organisations clearer and facilitating movement between organisations
• Expanding and diversifying the talent pool by making our roles attractive to local residents and supporting them to join our organisations

• Developing new apprenticeships, rotation schemes and various outreach initiatives and working closely with local universities to develop higher education offerings

• Health and social care economy: Working together to develop Leeds as a location of choice for health and social care businesses, particularly innovative businesses and those in the digital health and medical technology sectors. This will include:

• Supporting the Innovation Arc, a project which aims to create a series of innovation neighbourhoods, as part of the work on developing the new hospital on the Leeds General Infirmary site and a key part of the government’s New Hospital Programme
• Supporting inclusive, collaborative partnerships between life sciences, businesses, academics, healthcare providers and policy makers

• Working to attract talent into the emerging health technology and maximising start-up opportunities

• Policy and collaboration: Bringing together the experience and insight of all partners to address health and care policy challenges with a focus on health disparities. This will include:

• Establishing new ways of working where to jointly test ideas, explore policy solutions, and gather real-time insight.
• Creating a specific working group to address health challenges and ensuring work is backed up by excellent academic input from local universities

Lincoln Green employment and skills project

Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust is one of the biggest employers in Leeds with six hospitals across the city. An anchor institution – well placed to provide employment opportunities for people living in the area.

Leeds City Council collaborated with Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust, Learning Partnerships and a local charity to deliver information sessions and innovative employability courses, aimed at connecting residents living in Lincoln Green and other disadvantaged communities in Leeds with job opportunities. The project has been a great success:

• 49 people started the 6-week employability programme and 29 people successfully secured employment at St James’s Hospital.
• The learning from the Lincoln Green project has been taken and used to help the Narrowing Inequalities through Health and Care Careers programme which expands the model across different partners, and different careers.
• Since the pilot in 2019 there are a number of individuals that have taken advantage of the development opportunities to progress from the initial facilities technician (ward housekeeper / porter) roles to clinical positions.
• Due to the success of the pilot programme, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has committed to support three programmes a year.

Additional information:

Structure and priorities

• The Hub has established a Steering Group, chaired by the DHSC Permanent Secretary, which will provide strategic direction and oversight.  The group include representations from across the health and social care sector in Leeds and the West Yorkshire region.
• Additionally, it has set up a Working Group with representatives from education, health, public health, local government who will oversee the hub’s planned activities.

About the city of Leeds:

• Leeds is an important part of the UK’s health and care infrastructure with a thriving voluntary community and social enterprise networks across the region.
• Leeds is the second Headquarters of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), including the newly established Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
• The city has a strong national presence with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, NHS Digital and other health bodies.
• Leeds and the wider region have become a key focus of the digital health, medical technology, and health data sectors.
• Leeds has a thriving voluntary community and enterprise sector with 1,180 registered charities.

Get involved:

• If you are a member of staff working for one of the partners, a business or innovator, we want to hear from you and know how we can work together to achieve our vision. Please get in touch LeedsHealthandCareHub@dhsc.gov.uk

• Government today accepts recommendations in full from the independent NHS pay review bodies
• Over one million NHS staff – including nurses, paramedics and midwives – to get a pay rise of at least £1,400 with lowest earners to receive up to 9.3%
• Eligible dentists and doctors will receive a 4.5% pay rise
• Pay rise recognises the contribution of NHS staff while balancing the need to protect taxpayers, manage public spending and not drive up inflation

The government has today accepted the recommendations from the independent NHS pay review bodies in full.

The pay review bodies considered a range of evidence from various organisations including government, the NHS and trade unions.

All NHS staff under the remit of this year’s pay review will receive a pay rise. Over one million staff under the Agenda for Change contract, including nurses, paramedics and midwives, will benefit from a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year backdated to April 2022. This is on top of the 3% pay rise they received last year, despite a wider public sector pay pause.

This means that the lowest earners such as porters and cleaners will see a 9.3% increase in their basic pay this year, compared to last year. The average basic pay for nurses will increase from around £35,600 as of March 2022 to around £37,000 and the basic pay for newly qualified nurses will increase by 5.5%, from £25,655 last year to £27,055.

Dentists and doctors within the Doctors and Dentists’ Remuneration Body (DDRB) remit this year will receive a 4.5% pay rise as the government accepts the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB) and the DDRB in full.

Across the public sector, these are the highest uplifts in nearly twenty years, reflecting the vital contributions public sector workers make to the country and the cost of living pressures facing households.

Last year, NHS staff received a 3% pay rise while the government temporarily paused pay rises for wider public sector workers with salaries over £24,000. This means that over the last five years, the non-medical workforce (including nurses and paramedics) has on average received a cumulative pay rise of over 18% and consultants have received a cumulative pay rise of around 15%.

The average nurse’s salary has increased from £32,385 in 2018/19 to £37,000 in 2022/23, following this latest pay rise.

Some staff will also continue to benefit from performance pay, overtime, pay progression and pay rises from promotion, alongside the pay uplift.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:

This government hugely values and appreciates the dedication and contribution of NHS staff which is why we will give over one million NHS workers a pay rise of £1,400 this year, on top of the 3% they received last year when pay rises were temporarily paused in the wider public sector.

We asked the independent pay review bodies for their recommendations and I am pleased to accept them in full.

We want a fair deal for staff. Very high inflation-driven settlements would have a worse impact on pay packets in the long run than proportionate and balanced increases now, and it is welcome that the pay review bodies agree with this approach.

Pay awards this year strike a careful balance between recognising the vital importance of public sector workers, whilst delivering value for the taxpayer, not increasing the country’s debt further and being careful not to drive even higher prices in the future. Sustained higher levels of inflation due to very high inflation-driven settlements would have a worse impact on pay in the long run than proportionate and balanced increases now.

Those already in multi-year deals were not in scope of the pay review body’s recommendations this year. In 2018, the government and BMA agreed to a multi-year pay deal for junior doctors. Now in its final year, this guaranteed an 8.2% rise in pay over four years. It came alongside £90 million of additional investment, providing the most experienced junior doctors with higher pay, increasing allowances for those working the most frequently at weekends and increasing rates of pay for shifts finishing between midnight and 4am.

As a result of continued investment in recruitment and retention of the health and social care workforce, there are over 4,000 more doctors and over 9,600 more nurses working in the NHS compared to last year and the NHS will publish a 15-year workforce plan in due course demonstrating its continued commitment to recruiting, developing and retaining the best staff.

The pipeline for domestic doctors is being significantly expanded and the number of funded medical school places has increased by 1,500 (25%). The first wave of these students will begin to enter foundation training from this year. This expansion has also delivered five new medical schools in England.

Alongside this, all eligible nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students will benefit from a training grant worth at least £5,000 a year, with up to £3,000 extra available for childcare and those studying certain specialisms.

As part of a £210 million investment in professional development, every nurse, midwife and allied health professional working across NHS hospital and community care and general practice has access to a personal training budget of more than £1,000 over three years to support their personal learning and development needs.

The government has targeted wider support for the cost of living to those most in need. The pay awards should be viewed in parallel with the £37 billion package of support that has been provided. Most overall pay awards in the public sector are similar to those in the private sector. The median private sector pay settlement, which is the metric most comparable to these Pay Review Body decisions, was 4% in the three months to May.

Additional information:

• The NHS Pay Review Body (covering all non-medical staff such as nurses, allied health professionals, admin, porters etc) recommended a £1,400 consolidated uplift to full-time equivalent salaries, enhanced for the top of Band 6 and Band 7 so it is equal to a 4% uplift.
• The Review Body for Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (covering doctors and dentists not in multi-year deals) recommended a 4.5% increase.
• The Senior Salaries Review Body (covering Very Senior Managers in the NHS and Executive Senior Managers in DHSC’s arm’s length bodies) recommended a 3% increase, with a further 0.5% to ameliorate the erosion of differentials and facilitate the introduction of the new Very Senior Managers framework. We have accepted this recommendation in full, although funding for these staff groups comes out of local budgets.
• The 9.3% increase in basic pay for lowest earners is in comparison to 2021/22 pay scales and includes a interim top-up received in April.
• The government is committed to living within its means and delivering value for the taxpayer, and therefore we are reprioritising within existing Departmental funding whilst minimising the impact on front line services.

Following a dry spring, river flows and some groundwater levels are ‘below normal’ in parts of the rivers Great Ouse and Old Bedford in Bedfordshire and West Cambridgeshire.

Prolonged dry weather is a natural event. It occurs as a result of low rainfall for an extended period of time. Once prolonged dry weather is declared actions are taken to minimise impacts on the environment and the risk of further deterioration.

Impacts of this weather are already being felt in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire with river flows becoming lower, causing problems for wildlife and river users.

The Environment Agency has been monitoring the situation and reviewing the range of dry weather indicators, including groundwater levels, river flows and soil conditions.

It also has teams ready to respond to reports of low dissolved oxygen levels in watercourses to help protect fish populations.

Abstraction licence holders in the affected areas are likely to receive notice to restrict the amount of water they take as described in their licence conditions. This may include taking reduced quantities or only abstracting at particular times, depending on local circumstances.

Helen Smith, a drought manager for Environment Agency in East Anglia, said:

We continue to monitor our key river, groundwater and reservoir sites using telemetry, and are liaising with water companies to understand any emerging concerns.

We are also working with farmers, businesses and other abstractors to manage water availability and ensure that they get the water they need to be resilient while maintaining our protection of the environment.

We are closely monitoring the developing incident and produce regular reports on the water situation, available on www.gov.uk.

In the lead up to this announcement the Environment Agency has been monitoring weather forecasts, hydrology, and the impacts on the environment.

Field teams have been busy sampling to check for the impacts of dry weather on the ecology.

We have also been meeting with water companies so we can share information and request action to be taken in accordance with their drought plans.

We can all do our part to use water wisely and manage this precious resource. If you are using water in the garden, take some simple steps such as fitting a trigger to your hose or using a bucket to wash the car or water plants. For more water saving tips visit Waterwise.

If people see any environmental impacts due to dry weather, such as fish in distress, please report it to the Environment Agency 24/7 on 0800 80 70 60.

Additional information

• The last time East Anglia moved to prolonged dry weather status was in 2020 for the Cam and Ely Ouse area.

• The last time East Anglia declared drought was in May 2019. This drought resulted from three years of exceptionally dry weather across the southeast. It was declared as an environmental drought. The winter rainfall replenished groundwater levels but the dry spring has seen levels drop in some areas.

• The Environment Agency’s regulatory role involves issuing and regulating abstraction licences and drought permits, imposing abstraction restrictions and scrutinising water company drought plans to ensure they are robust and fit for purpose.

• Water companies plan for the expected increase in demand and reduction in effective rainfall over the warmer months and decide themselves on proposing water restrictions. We work closely with the companies to ensure they follow their drought plans.