The Champs Public Health Collaborative has developed a comprehensive and systematic approach to improving public health priorities by large scale action and working together as system leaders across Cheshire and Merseyside.
The Collaborative is a long-standing formal partnership of Cheshire and Merseyside’s nine Directors of Public Health and their teams, serving a population of 2.6 million people. The Collaborative also has a strategic influencing role within the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and the Cheshire & Warrington sub-region.
Working to the ethos of ‘collaborative action, local impact’, the Collaborative tackles a number of priorities, agreed with the UK Health Security Agency, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership and NHS England, that are common to every area and where progress can be best made through collective action.
The Collaborative’s purpose is to energise the whole system and influence strategic partnerships to focus on prevention, health inequalities and use of the best data and evidence. Directors of Public Health have also adopted lead roles, working on behalf of each other across the subregion.
System Leadership/Partners
In addition to their lead roles on various priorities and workstreams, the Directors of Public Health act as system leaders for public health, taking lead roles on behalf of each other, working with partners such as the UK Health Security Agency, NHS England and North West Coast Strategic Clinical Network.
Strategic Partnerships
The Cheshire and Merseyside Directors of Public Health Executive Board reports to the nine local authority Chief Executives. Andrew Lewis is Lead Chief Executive for health and wellbeing in Liverpool City Region.
Cheshire & Warrington Sub-regional Leaders Board
Cheshire and Warrington has a multi-agency Chief Executive Management and Leaders Board supported by the Public Service Transformation (PST) Board. Cheshire and Warrington Directors of Public Health have a place on the PST Board and provide regular updates and also to the Chief Executive Management and Leaders Board, advising on key public health issues.
Liverpool City Region
Liverpool City Region has an established Combined Authority to provide strategic governance and support economic growth. Liverpool City Region Directors of Public Health meet regularly with the lead Chief Executive, Andrew Lewis, to discuss progress and strategic opportunities for collaboration.
Governance
Leadership and decision making are facilitated through the nine Directors of Public Health, who make up an Executive Board. The Executive Board is chaired by each of the Directors of Public Health in rotation.
The Executive Board is supported by a Leadership Group, chaired jointly by the Director of Public Health for the host organisation, Wirral Council and the Chair of the Executive Board, which oversees the business functions of the Collaborative.
The Executive Board meet three times per year and meet for monthly system leadership meetings in between where partners from the UK Health Security Agency, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership and NHS England are also in attendance.