Richard Webb is Corporate Director for Health and Adult Services for the new North Yorkshire Council and has worked in this role across the County since 2014. As such, he leads on public health and adult social care, as well as partnerships with the NHS and with supported housing.
A graduate in politics from Durham University, Richard started his working life as an NHS national management trainee in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1992, with assignments in a large teaching hospital, as well as in the commissioning of mental health and substance misuse services. He also developed an early interest in action to tackle poor health and homelessness.
He subsequently worked in service provision and commissioning in Gateshead and Stockton on Tees, spending 10 years in the latter, including 2 pioneering joint roles across local government and the NHS.
Since 2005, he has been a local government corporate director; first in Telford and Wrekin; then in Sheffield; and more recently in North Yorkshire. He was a director of housing between 2005 and 2014, including responsibility for in-sourcing services to 42000 council housing tenants and residents when the Sheffield Homes ALMO came to an end following a tenant ballot. He has also led community cohesion/safety/development, libraries, culture, leisure and regulatory services.
Nationally, he spent 9 years as a trustee for the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and is the current co-chair of the County Councils Network Directors of Adult Social Services and Directors of Public Health forum.
In North Yorkshire, he is the lead director for the County’s extra care housing programme, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023 and has seen 28 schemes built, offering more than 1500 apartments for rent or sale.