Our priorities

These are reflected in our work programmes and include:

1. An early focus on population health through an ambitious programme of public engagement, screening and workforce development to better prevent, detect and manage the biggest causes of premature mortality in the North East and North Cumbria: cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease.
2. Improving outcomes for people who experience periods of poor mental health and specifically those with severe and enduring mental illness, and doing more to improve the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.
3. Optimising health services by identifying joint solutions to service vulnerabilities, and working as an ICS to develop a clinical blueprint and clinical standards that ensure equitable access to safe and effective services for all our communities.
4. Improving our digital care offer, based around the needs of practitioners, patients and the public, and empower individuals to make appointments, manage prescriptions and view health records online.
5. Building a motivated and flexible workforce, looking after their health and wellbeing and ensuring they have the skills and support they need, while developing new workforce models to recruit and retain staff in priority areas.
6. Learning Disabilities  - Moving from a focus on beds to a focus on lives - reducing reliance on hospital beds through a place-based approach to building flexible community services and crisis care.

Programme leadership

Each of these programmes is led by a senior responsible officer and programme board, reporting into a health strategy group. These are:

• Workforce transformation: Ken Bremner (chief executive of South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust) and Amanda Hume (executive lead for system transformation and strategic commissioning development, North East and North Cumbria)
• Population health and prevention: Stephen Childs (managing director of NECS) and Peter Kelly (centre director for Public Health England North East)
• Optimising health services (clinical standards and sustainability): Ken Bremner (chief executive of South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust) 
• Digital transformation: Graham Evans (chief digital officer for the emerging ICS) and Dr Mark Dornan (chair of NHS Newcastle Gateshead CCG)
• Mental health: John Lawlor (chief executive of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr David Hambleton (Chief Officer of NHS South Tyneside CCG)
• Learning Disabilities: Nicola Bailey (chief officer for the CCGs in the south of the region)

In this bulletin there are also updates from the communications and engagement network, and we will include more information about other work programmes in future issues.