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, the NHS Director of Population Health and their teams, serving a population of 2.7 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 the NHS, 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, the NHS and local clinical networks.
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 across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Cheshire & Warrington Sub-regional Leaders Board
Cheshire and Warrington has a multi-agency Chief Executive Management and Leaders Board.
Liverpool City Region
Liverpool City Region has an established Combined Authority to provide strategic governance and support economic growth.
Governance
Leadership and decision making are facilitated through the nine Directors of Public Health and the NHS Director of Population 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 meet formally twice a year and meet for monthly strategic system leadership meetings in between with partners from the UK Health Security Agency, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and NHSE.
When asked what the Collaborative meant to them, colleagues and partners said the following:
