Introduction
Communities of Practice bring together colleagues and partners from across Cheshire and Merseyside who work on shared public health programmes.
They provide a space for people with shared interests, challenges or responsibilities to connect, share learning and work through issues together. By bringing expertise together across organisations, Communities of Practice help strengthen relationships, improve consistency and support better outcomes for local communities.
Communities of Practice also help ensure learning is shared across the system and provide valuable insight to Champs Directors on emerging issues, barriers and opportunities. They are an important part of Connect, Learn, Thrive, helping create opportunities for learning, collaboration and peer support across Cheshire and Merseyside’s public health community.
What Communities of Practice do
Our Communities of Practice support public health work across Cheshire and Merseyside by:
- Sharing learning, evidence and good practice
- Building relationships across organisations and teams
- Providing peer support and a space to discuss challenges
- Improving consistency in approaches and delivery
- Supporting workforce development and leadership
- Helping shape priorities through shared insight and experience
Our Communities of Practice
Our Communities of Practice span a wide range of public health priorities and professional networks across Cheshire and Merseyside. These include commissioning, health protection, reducing inequalities, communications and wider workforce collaboration. Current Communities of Practice include:
- Children and Young People Commissioners
- Sexual Health Commissioners
- Substance Misuse Commissioners
- Health Protection Practitioners
- Health Care Public Health
- All Together Fairer Leads
- Child Poverty Advisory Group
- Cheshire and Merseyside Combatting Drugs Partnership
- Healthy Advertising Leads
- Communications and Social Marketing Network
How Communities of Practice work
Each Community of Practice is shaped around a clear shared purpose and led by colleagues working in that field. Groups meet regularly to share learning, discuss challenges and develop collaborative approaches to common priorities.
Their work helps strengthen public health leadership, support professional development and encourage more joined-up ways of working across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Get involved
Communities of Practice are shaped by the people involved in them. If you would like to find out more about an existing group, join a network or discuss a new area of shared interest, we’d love to hear from you.