North Kirklees CCG to move from Huddersfield to Dewsbury

North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is in talks with the owners of Empire House about renting office space.

Its governing body had considered a number of sites in Batley and Dewsbury, but decided the 1960s office block would be the most suitable.

Chief officer Chris Dowse said: “We want to be on our patch in the midst of North Kirklees. All our staff are going to be there and we’ll have space for hot desking for other who want to come and work with us.

“Some of our GPs are on our governing body. They want to be in and out and with us working on a regular basis.

“It’s also important that our 31 GP practices can access us easily.”

The CCG became a statutory body in April 2013 when it officially took over responsibilty for buying health services on behalf of people in North Kirklees.

Since then its staff have been based in Bradley, sharing the offices of its predecessor NHS Kirklees with Greater Huddersfield CCG.

But Ms Dowse said a move to North Kirklees had always been planned.

“We made the decision well before we were even authorised that it would be one of our ambitions,” she said.

The governing body considered several sites before settling on Empire House.

They included Pioneer House, Batley Resource Centre and Beckside Court in Batley, which is also home to health provider Locala.

Ms Dowse said there were still some details to finalise.

“We believe Empire House is going to be our home and are making plans to move,” she said.

“We hope to be in by the end of the month or early next.

Empire House was put on the market for £1.5m by Malcor Estates Limited in July.

The biggest tenant is Kirklees Council, which moved around 150 staff into the seven storey building on Wakefield Old Road in summer 2012. Other tenants include health charity Healthwatch Kirklees, which represents the views of patients.