A Sustainability Board has been established across Cheshire and Merseyside to ensure a joined-up approach to delivering on the objectives of the Greener NHS programme and the wider sustainability agenda in tackling climate change.
Utilising the expertise of colleagues in Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, academics and research alliances, the Board is committed to ensuring population health data is the driving force for change.
Operating with a forum of more than 50 members across Cheshire and Merseyside including local authorities, NHS providers, Clinical Commissioning Groups, voluntary and community, business and industry sectors, the Board reports into the Cheshire and Merseyside Population Health Board.
Dave Sweeney, Executive Director of Partnerships at the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership created the group and is supported by Steve Warburton, Chief Executive Officer at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, acting as Ambassador for the Sustainability Board.
Dave Sweeney said: “The Board is a place to share ideas, work together and deliver a whole system plan. The NHS is the biggest organisational polluter in the UK and we are working to ensure the service that we trust to keep us well isn’t also, inadvertently, making us sick. Our people, our economy and our planet are all interlinked, and we need to do all that we can, as a health and care system, to protect them.
“Cheshire and Merseyside is an accelerator area and is leading the way with putting sustainability at the heart of all the work that we do, and the Sustainability Board is the personification of this.”
The Board has achieved a wealth of work to date since its launch in May 2021.
Achievements include producing a Social Value Charter, which Board members have signed up to. A number of principles have been agreed including working together across sectors to achieve social value outcomes, foster innovation and reduce avoidable inequalities, and establishing a Cheshire and Merseyside Social Value Award which aims to help organisations achieve staff and volunteer recruitment and retention, deliver Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Value and recognise the organisation as an ‘Anchor Institution’.
The Group is supporting the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership with meeting the NHS Greener targets through establishing sub-groups to focus on delivering the key elements of the Greener NHS – specifically decarbonising medicine, reducing patient travel and increasing focus on electric cars and more active ways of travelling and reducing waste and single use plastics through the NHS supply chain. This way, Board members can streamline existing processes and work together as a whole system, in one joined-up approach.
In addition, the Board is working with colleagues in Greater Manchester and wider North West regions to have a joined-up approach to supporting the NHS to reach a net zero target by 2040.
The Board meet every six weeks. If you are interested in becoming a member, please contact Becky Jones on 0121 456 5662 or becky.jones@gbpartnerships.co.uk