The Cheshire and Merseyside (C&M) Directors of Public Health (DsPH) met on Friday 9th December. The key messages from the meeting are as follows:
Special note: A huge thank you from the Champs Directors of Public Health to all public health teams and partners for all the fantastic work during 2022 and best wishes for Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023.
- Population health update – The population health board met this week and heard updates on the CVD prevention strategy, Core20PLUS5 and the physical activity strategy. They also discussed the draft Integrated Care Partnership strategy and fed back their comments. The new Integrated Care System (ICS) Director of Population Health post is due to be advertised and a bid for a Population Health fellow is being submitted.
- UKHSA update – The focus of the update was on Scarlet Fever and Group A Strep following an out of season increase and sadly some deaths. The team and local authorities have been dealing with lots of enquiries from schools and members of the public and the NHS is under pressure. A new helpline is being developed for schools along with a set of frequently asked questions. There is also an increase in flu, Covid and other respiratory conditions which is also causing more pressure on services.
- DsPH strategic planning day – DsPH will meet in January with a focus on building the Champs DsPH team and to discuss live issues. The draft agenda for the day was approved by DsPH.
- Stakeholder analysis – DsPH commented on a draft C&M stakeholder analysis which will be used to inform the Champs Collaborative Communications Strategy.
- Good news and gratitude:
- At a recent meeting with Andrew Furber, Regional Director of Public Health, Champs DsPH were praised on their approach to working together successfully as a system with partners.
- Congratulations to DsPH Matthew Ashton and Thara Raj who received ADPH awards at their recent “175 years” celebration event. DsPH were delighted that Matt won the Chief Medical Officer’s Award and Thara the Mentoring Award.
- Well done to Sefton Council on a great response to the launch of their child poverty strategy which was attended by colleagues in Sir Michael Marmot’s team.
- Thanks were given to everyone who has supported The Simple Things winter wellbeing campaign, particularly Matt Ashton, Evdokia Dardamissis, Thara Raj and Chris McBrien.
- The Beyond Board (the ICS Board for children and young people) has reached the second round of shortlisting for the Barnardo’s Health Equity Collaborative for C&M. Thanks to Melissa Campbell for her public health leadership.
- Well done to Matthew Philpott from the Health Equalities Group, who presented nationally on the NHS Prevention Pledge.
- Thanks were given for a successful workshop this week, attended by local DsPH, to develop the All Together Fairer work with the Cheshire & Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership.
- Matt Ashton and Tracey Lambert updated the Liverpool City Region health and wellbeing portfolio holders on recent campaigns including the latest campaign, The Simple Things, which received very positive feedback.
- Congratulations to Katie Smith on her new consultant post with University of Lancaster and the CSU.