A partnership with Health Education England (HEE) and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) North West Workforce Development teams, has secured funding for a Cheshire and Merseyside Population Health Workforce Development programme.
Champs Public Health Collaborative has taken on the role of host partner organisation, overseen by the nine Directors of Public Health.
What does the programme aim to do?
The programme aims to maximise public health knowledge and skills in the health, care and public health workforces.
Staff will be enabled to effectively promote health improvement and change behaviour, with a focus on addressing health inequalities for the Cheshire and Merseyside residents. This is also one of the strategic priorities for the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership (HCP), as it becomes an Integrated Care System (ICS) and as part of being a Marmot Community.
Cheshire and Merseyside are collaborating with the Marmot Team to tackle health inequalities at place and ICS level.
The programme will also seek to refresh the subregion’s Making Every Contact Count (MECC) resources and identify and promote workforce development opportunities including the free training and education resources available on the HEE’s Population Wellbeing Portal. This will enable staff to promote health and wellbeing when engaging with residents and patients.
Who will benefit from this programme?
The work programme is primarily aimed at the frontline health and care workforce across Cheshire and Merseyside to enable them to develop public health skills.
It will also promote existing professional development opportunities for the core public health workforce such as the UKPHR Public Health Practitioner Registration Programme, the Public Health Apprenticeship programme and specialist training offers for future consultants in Public Health.
Dr Matt Tyrer, Director of Public Health in Cheshire East and Lead Champs Director of Public Health for Workforce Development, said:
“I am delighted to see the launch of this programme, which will build public health knowledge and skills across Cheshire and Merseyside. It’s so important that we reduce health inequalities that have only increased during the pandemic and our wider workforce are in a good position to help influence this in their contact with the public.
“As Lead Director of Public Health, I also want to see our workforce progress their careers in public health and take all opportunities available to them as future leaders.”
Where can I find more information?
The programme will establish a ‘Strategic Reference Group’ to oversee system wide learning and development for the health, care and public health workforce.
Look out for further updates on the programme and the learning opportunities available on champspublichealth.com/ including an opportunity to expand your Population Health knowledge with ‘Leading Prevention in Clinical Services – a toolkit approach’.
For more information on the programme, please contact Steve Peters, Programme Manager on stephenpeters@wirral.gov.uk or 0151 666 5125.