Champs Public Health Collaborative System Leadership Meeting | Key messages | December 2024

The Cheshire and Merseyside Directors of Public and Population Health met for their system leadership meeting on Friday, 13th December.  The key messages from the meeting are below along with items of good news and gratitude:

The Champs Directors would like to thank all colleagues and partners for their hard work this year, locally and collaboratively and wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a healthy 2025.

  1. Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) visit – Greg Fell, ADPH President and Nicola Close, ADPH Chief Executive and colleagues joined the Champs Directors for a discussion around finance, devolution and strengthening the public health workforce for the future.
  2. Child and family poverty – Eustace de Sousa updated that the child and family poverty report findings have been presented to all leaders across Cheshire and Merseyside and next steps include maximising household income, supporting children and families and building inclusive places. It was agreed that a Cheshire and Merseyside joint statement with Directors of Children’s Services would be drafted with key national policy asks that can help alleviate poverty.
  3. Population health update – Professor Ian Ashworth shared that a recent Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership meeting took place recently with updates on health and housing and the green plan. Child and family poverty is a focus for the February Health and Care Partnership meeting.
  4. UK Health Security Agency update – There is an increase in winter illnesses, including flu, with outbreaks in some care homes and schools. UKHSA has worked with the ICB on Mpox vaccine pathways in Cheshire and Merseyside. The UKHSA conference will be held in Manchester next year and the theme will be Health Protection and Health Inequalities.
  5. Good news and gratitude:
    1. There was good representation across the region for the North West Aspiring Directors of Public Health course.
    2. Well done to colleagues in St Helens who produced the recent stigma video with those in recovery from drug or alcohol related problems.
    3. Beth Milton, Consultant in Public Health, will be joining the Knowsley team replacing Ross Keat who left recently.
    4. The Chief Medical Officer’s annual report for 2024 featured a case study from Liverpool.
    5. Halton Council has agreed to implement the Health Advertising Policy, becoming the sixth council in Cheshire and Merseyside to agree the policy.
    6. Wirral Council have won a LARIA research impact award for their fuel poverty research, congratulations.
    7. A case study on Sefton’s work on child poverty has appeared on the UCL Marmot website.
    8. Thank you to all colleagues working on the All Together Smiling supervised toothbrushing programme.
    9. The new Simple Things winter health campaign was launched across Cheshire and Merseyside and gained coverage on Granada Reports.
    10. The recent health protection event on indoor air quality was held with great success. Watch the highlights video.
    11. A new website for professionals supporting those who may be at risk of suicide and self-harm was launched this month. This replaces the No More Suicide website.
    12. The Directors also thanked all the services that assisted the public during Storm Darragh.