On 6th October, Cheshire and Merseyside Directors of Public Health and senior public health leaders from local teams together with representatives from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England were joined by colleagues from The King’s Fund for a workshop to reconnect as a public health family and look at strengthening local system working.
Following significant organisational change and the COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop gave an opportunity to learn from national examples presented by The King’s Fund and consider current challenges and opportunities for the local system.
It was the first time colleagues had met in person in nearly three years and the discussions centred around how the public health family can work effectively together alongside the newly formed Integrated Care System (ICS).
Some of the next steps include creating shared principles, contributing to the developing ICS five-year strategy, a shared prioritisation exercise and commissioning a workforce wellbeing pilot.