Back to Contents Over the past year , we have hosted a series of events to really drive forward the social inclusion agenda including our inaugural YHealth for Growth conference which brought together senior leaders from the NHS , local authorities , education , and industry to explore the role of health in driving economic and inclusive growth in our region .
Last December , our subsequent ‘ One Year On ’ webinar saw us welcome executives and senior leaders from across the health and care sector , higher education and local authorities , as well as business leaders in med tech and life sciences . This allowed us to highlight opportunities and develop practical approaches to embedding sustainable and inclusive economic renewal and growth across all sectors .
Lobbying the Government
In March this year , as a result of our YHealth for Growth campaign , I was invited to represent the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN at a
House of Lords Select Committee virtual evidence session . This gave us a fantastic platform to present our findings and our recommendations to those with power and influence and feed directly into the Lords ’ ‘ Levelling up and Public Services ’ inquiry .
I discussed how levelling up our local economies is reliant on increased investment in health and education services and reinforced the importance of recognising the wider social and economic determinants of health when it comes to investment in ‘ health ’ rather than ‘ healthcare ’.
The Lord Filkin CBE thanked us for our work and for providing ‘ incredibly helpful ’ insights on how public services can contribute to the levelling up agenda as well as reinforcing the vast health inequalities seen across the North of England and the impact that has on productivity .
Ahead of the Government ’ s White Paper on the ‘ levelling up ’ strategy , these insights contributed to the Committee ’ s positioning
paper which was sent to the Prime Minister calling for ‘ better targeted ’ plans that protects health , education and skills in more deprived areas of the country .
As an organisation , we recognise that greater joint working across our region is key to economic recovery . We have taken great strides in bringing together developing bodies and anchor institutions across all sectors to align their strategies to deliver inclusive growth and collaborate to engineer transformative place-wide change for the benefit of improved population health . This work will continue as we build on this momentum for change , working to make sure we , as a region , emerge from the pandemic in a better place than when we entered it .
₁ NHSA , 2018 , The Northern Powerhouse in Health Research : A Science and Innovation Audit
₂ Public Health England , 2019 ₃ Office for National Statistics , 2020 ₄ Leeds Inclusive Growth Strategy
₅ Benchmarking the Life Sciences Sector in the UK , Smart Specialisation Hub report
Yorkshire and the Humber is home to over
650 health companies compared to
350 in Oxford and Cambridge combined
Impact Report 2020-21 57