NHS Halton CCG Members Forum

First of all I just want to say a big thank you for all the members who attended the NHS Halton CCG Members Forum on the  26^th April.

The whole afternoon was centred around quality, innovation, prevention and productivity (QIPP). The feedback we received was extremely reassuring and impressive. The clinical input and leadership generated some lots of great ideas during the facilitation sessions. Personally I felt there was a real connection to our practices and the challenges faced within Halton. This sets a platform for further collaboration and unity.

All the feedback is greatly appreciated, an email will be circulated next week with summarises the actions and feedback..

Dave Sweeney
Interim Chief Officer 

Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View

Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View

On 31^st March 2017 the Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View was published. It restates, reframes and reinforces the themes set out in the NHS Five Year Forward View in October 2014. It is and will be the blueprint for how the NHS will operate for the remainder of this Parliament. The focus remains on the reform of urgent and emergency care and of general practice, continuing to make advances in the treatment of cancer and ensuring parity in mental health services. There is also an emphasis on all part of the NHS working together to achieve better health, better care and better value for the populations they serve, dismantling organisational boundaries if this is required.

Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View can be found on the NHS England website at https://www.england.nhs.uk/five-year-forward-view/. It doesn’t take long to read, and I urge you to do so. This is Plan A, there is no Plan B.

Simon Banks 

Leaving Middle Earth, or Halton at least....

Leaving Middle Earth, or Halton at least....

At the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in the book The Return Of The King, Frodo departs for the Undying Lands in the West with Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and many Elves. Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel all carry with them the Three Eleven Rings out of Middle-Earth. With their departure, the Third Age ended.

Three of our "ring bearers" will be leaving Halton at the end of March, taking with them (like the Elves) years of experience and wisdom in the NHS (not like the Elves). We are saying goodbye to three NHS heroes, three legends in their field who have well over 100 years of service between them. Dr Cliff Richards MBE is retiring as our Chair, Jan Snoddon is stepping down as Chief Nurse and Paul Brickwood is also retiring as our Chief Finance Officer.

It has been a pleasure to work with three people who are absolutely committed to the NHS, to getting the best for patients and who are hugely talented and respected in their own professional field. They are being replaced by three highly capable and talented individuals - Dr David Lyon, Michelle Creed and David Cooper - each of whom will bring their own take on life and on the role they will fill. So, as with the end of The Return Of The King, there is an emotional ending but the future is bright and safe.

Simon Banks 

Delivering Better Births in Cheshire and Merseyside

Delivering Better Births in Cheshire and Merseyside

We were delighted to able to host a visit from Baroness Cumberlege of Newick and Professor Sir Cyril Chantler earlier this month. Baroness Cumberlege was the Chair of a review of maternity services for NHS England in 2015 and Professor Sir Cyril Chantler was Vice-Chair. Better Births, the report of the review, sets out a vision for safe and efficient models of maternity care: safer care, joined up across disciplines, reflecting women’s choices and offering continuity of care along the pathway. 

Cheshire and Merseyside has been chosen as an “early adopter” site by NHS England to implement the recommendations in Better Births, which is why Baroness Cumberlege and Professor Sir Cyril Chantler were visiting us. This work is being delivered by 27 NHS organisations working together as the Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s and Children’s Services Partnership. The Partnership is hosted and supported by NHS Halton CCG.

The visit took in maternity services across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens and Warrington. Both Baroness Cumberlege and Professor Sir Cyril Chantler were impressed by the progress we have been making in improving local maternity services and in our future plans and aspirations to establish a Local Maternity System across Cheshire and Merseyside that delivers Better Births.

A bright future for Halton Hospital

A bright future for Halton Hospital
 
There have been a lot of rumours recently about the future of Halton Hospital. There have been some stories on social media and other platforms suggesting, quite wrongly, that the site has no future. This is strange given that the local NHS has invested heavily in services on the site in recent years, including the transfer of the Cheshire and Merseyside Treatment Centre building to Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the development of additional elective services and the opening of a new Urgent Care Centre. As you may have also seen elsewhere in the media, we now want to take this to the next level, working with the Trust and Halton Borough Council.
 
Exciting plans to develop a fully integrated community focused health and wellbeing campus at Halton Hospital have been unveiled. This comes as a result of the selection of the Halton Lea area that surrounds the Halton Hospital campus as one of NHS England’s Healthy New Towns demonstrator sites in March 2016. The ‘healthy new town’ concept aims to shape the health of communities and rethink how health and care services can be delivered within communities. This work is being led by Halton Borough Council, working with the NHS, and represents the efforts of a wide range of partners across the health and social care, retail and leisure, housing and regeneration sectors.
 
Our plans are still being formulated and more information is available here  This is, we believe, a once in a generation opportunity to do something different and innovative with existing NHS estate at heart of a local community. If we pull this off the future for Halton Hospital is very bright indeed.

Simon Banks

Keeping Antibiotics Working

Keeping Antibiotics Working

Antibiotic prescribing, and action to avoid antimicrobial resistance, has become an area of focus for the NHS across Cheshire and Merseyside. Working with our colleagues in local authority Public Health teams and Public Health England, we are highlighting that antibiotics don’t work for everything, they can only be used to treat or prevent some types of bacterial infection. We are spreading the message that antibiotics don’t work for viral infections and, when it comes to antibiotics, people should take the advice of their doctor. 

If we don’t act on the inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics there will be serious consequences for society. Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them encourages dangerous bacteria that live inside you to become resistant. That means that antibiotics may not work when you next need them most. This puts you and others at serious risk. The overuse of antibiotics in recent years means they're becoming less effective and has led to the emergence of "superbugs". These are strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to many different types of antibiotics. These types of infections can be serious and challenging to treat, and are becoming an increasing cause of disability and death across the world. The biggest worry is that new strains of bacteria may emerge that can't be effectively treated by any existing antibiotics. So, this is very much a case of “the doctor knows best”.

There is only One You

There is only One You

Public Health England has recently launched a campaign called One You. The campaign focuses on the changes we can all make in our lives that will help us stay healthier for longer, and provides some practical suggestions and support to help. The campaign, supported by a website and smartphone applications, looks at helping people makes changes in their lifestyle.  

Whether they are eating the wrong things, drinking more than they should, continuing to smoke despite everything they know, or just not being active enough, all of these small things can add up to an unhealthy you. The website is really easy to use and contains a health quiz so that each individual can assess what they need to do to take more control of their health.  

Read more at https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou#W1whI8XmvcCfBIWY.97

Developing accountable care in Halton

Over the last five years health and care organisations working in the borough of Halton have increasingly come together to improve the health, care and wellbeing of the population we serve. This has had most resonance and impact in services for adults in the borough, particularly for older people who are frail and require additional support. The collaborative approach that has emerged, which we refer to as One Halton, has been successful in reducing complexity and fragmentation, making better use of scarce resources and improving health outcomes and the quality of services for our population.

Since the publication of the NHS Five Year Forward View in October 2014  there has been considerable interest in “place-based systems of care” in which health and care organisations collaborate and share resources to deliver better outcomes, better care and better value for money. A recent publication by The King’s Fund strongly argues that this represents the future direction for health and care in England. There are many examples throughout the country where place-based systems of care are emerging on a more formal basis through a variety of governance frameworks. 

The development of place-based systems of care has been actively encouraged by the New Models of Care Programme established by NHS England following the NHS Five Year Forward View and is accelerating through the emerging Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) being developed in response to the shared planning guidance 2016/17.  There is considerable interest in the concept of accountable care, where a group of health and care organisations take responsibility for providing all care for a given population for a defined period of time under a contractual arrangement with a commissioner.

 

The One Halton programme has begun to deliver what could be recognised as a place-based approach to health, care and wellbeing for our borough. We met yesterday with colleagues from our provider trusts, Halton Borough Council, the voluntary sector, Healthwatch and one ofour GP Federations to take the next step in our journey together by actively exploring and committing to establishing a model of accountable care that fits with the vision, values and ethos of One Halton. We agreed that we needed to start to shape what this may mean for our borough by engaging the support of AQUA, who have done similar work in areas such as Wigan and Wirral. Accountable care arrangements take time to build, but it is arguable that our work in developing One Halton gives a good foundation for this to take place with a degree of momentum and urgency.  

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

This is my first message of 2017 and is obviously a good opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  January is the time that people make resolutions to abstain from certain activities or behaviours, or at least do them with a greater degree of moderation.  It can also the time to be positive and take up new hobbies or activities that enhance your health and wellbeing.  There are lots of opportunities that are on offer in Halton to give up smoking, use Dry January to cut back on your alcohol consumption, lose weight, learn a new skill or take on a new challenge – for example, volunteering for a local charity or community group.  Some of these may involve a financial contribution, some may not.  All require a commitment of time and effort from the individual, whether on their own or as part of a group.  So, if you are thinking about stopping something and need some help, or taking something up and need some support, there are many organisations in the borough who can help you.  Whatever you chose to do, good luck!      

Simon Banks

Christmas 2016 - Looking ahead

Looking ahead

As we head into the Christmas period I want to take the opportunity thank everyone who has supported NHS Halton CCG in 2016.  I also want to acknowledge the contribution of everyone who has provided health and social care support to people in Halton - whether paid or unpaid - for their effort and commitment every day of the year.

There are many challenges that face health and care in the year ahead.  We have to deliver better health, better care and better value within increasingly scarce resources and against a background of rising demand and expectation.  There will be a need to take some difficult decisions and make some difficult choices about how we prioritise our spending as a commissioner.  There is also an opportunity to engage with local people about this and continue to work on ways in which we can encourage more self-care and promote wellbeing.

In April 2017 NHS Halton CCG will have been a statutory organisation for four years, and in November 2017 will have been active for six years.  Inevitably this means that changes will happen.  Next year we will say goodbye to our Chair, Chief Nurse and Chief Finance Officer who have decades of NHS experience between them and will be missed.  We have already appointed a new Chief Nurse and Chief Finance Officer, more on that in 2017.  Our member practices have also elected a new Chair, Dr David Lyon, who will take up post in April 2017.  Congratulations to David on his election, I look forward to continuing to work with him, albeit in a new role, in 2017.

NHS England consultation: Action to reduce sales of sugar-sweetened drinks on NHS premises

NHS England consultation: Action to reduce sales of sugar-sweetened drinks on NHS premises

On the 9 November Simon Stevens NHS England’s Chief Executive announced details of proposed new action to cut obesity and reduce the sales and consumption of sugary drinks sold in hospitals.

England would become the first country in the world to take action across its health service in this way. A formal consultation launched earlier in the month gives details of a proposed new fee to be paid by vendors, or alternatively seeks views on an outright ban.

As Europe’s largest employer, with over 1.3 million staff, the NHS committed in its overall strategy, the Five Year Forward View, to improve the health of its workforce.

A recent survey found obesity to be the most significant self-reported health problem amongst NHS staff, with nearly 700,000 NHS staff estimated to be overweight or obese.

Rising rates of obesity amongst NHS staff are not only bad for their personal health, but also affect sickness absence and the NHS’s ability to give patients credible and effective advice about their health.

NHS premises also receive heavy footfall from the communities of which they are a part, with over 1 million patients every 24 hours, 22 million A&E attendances and 85 million outpatient appointments each year. The food sold in these locations can send a powerful message to the public about healthy food and drink consumption.

Simon Stevens has said that it’s time for the NHS to practice what it preaches. Nurses, visitors and patients all tell us they increasingly want healthy, tasty and affordable food and drink options. So like a number of other countries we’re now calling time on hospitals as marketing outlets for junk food and fizzy drinks. By ploughing the proceeds of any vendor fees back into staff health and patient charities these proposals are a genuine win/win opportunity to both improve health and cut future illness cost burdens for the NHS.

The consultation proposes levying a fee for any vendor of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) on NHS premises. It is complementary to the government’s proposed sugar tax, but would begin sooner – in 2017 – and based on best evidence would cover the full range of sugar sweetened drinks. Subject to consultation the drinks affected would be any drink with added sugar including fruit juices, sweetened milk-based drinks and sweetened coffees.

Proceeds from the fee would be used directly to fund expanded local staff health and wellbeing programmes and/or the trust’s patient charities. It also seeks views on an outright ban on certain products being sold on NHS premises, an approach now beginning to be taken by hospitals in several other countries.

The consultation will ask for the views of patients, carers, NHS staff, the public and suppliers and will close on January 18 when feedback will be considered and a decision taken about how this should be taken forward into the NHS standard contract

LOOK AFTER YOURSELF!

As winter approaches it is more important than ever that you look after your own health and wellbeing.  Winter is traditionally the time of coughs, colds and fevers, it is also the time when the NHS is under the most pressure.  This is why NHS Halton CCG is supporting three key initiatives over the coming weeks that reinforce the importance of looking after yourself, of self-care and of getting the right treatment.

We are promoting the flu jab at the moment.  Flu occurs every year, usually in the winter, which is why it’s sometimes called seasonal flu. It’s a highly infectious disease with symptoms that come on very quickly.  Certain people can have, should have, a flu jab that will provide the best protection available against an unpredictable virus that can cause severe illness.  More information for flu clinics in Halton and further advice can be found at http://www.haltonccg.nhs.uk/your-health/seasonal-advice.

The second initiative that we are supporting is Self Care Week, which runs from 14^th November 2016 to 18^th November 2016 and is promoted by the Self Care Forum (http://www.selfcareforum.org/).  Self-care works when people are empowered with the confidence and information to look after themselves when they can, and visit the GP when they need to, gives people greater control of their own health and encourages healthy behaviours that help prevent ill health in the long-term.  In many cases people can take care of their minor ailments, reducing the number of GP consultations and enabling GPs to focus on caring for higher risk patients, such as those with comorbidities, the very young and elderly, managing long-term conditions and providing new services.  More cost-effective use of stretched NHS resources allows money to be spent where it’s most needed and improve health outcomes. Furthermore, increased personal responsibility around healthcare helps improve people’s health and wellbeing and better manage long-term conditions when they do develop. This will ultimately ensure the long-term sustainability of the NHS.  Have a look at the Self Care Forum website, which has lots of practical tips and support.

The third initiative that we are supporting is World Antibiotic Awareness Week, which is also from 14^th November 2016 to 18^th November 2016.  Antibiotic resistance represents one of the greatest threats to human health today.  Inappropriate and over use of antibiotics is a major driver of antibiotic resistance. As antibiotic resistance is increasing, the development of new antibiotics is declining.  Few new antibiotics have been developed in recent years; meaning many of the medical advances that rely on antibiotics to control infection (such as organ transplantation, surgery and neonatal care) may be under threat.  Antibiotics are only effective in bacterial infections.  Our GPs and other healthcare professionals have a range of tools through which they can determine whether the prescribing of an antibiotic is appropriate or not.  So, don’t expect that you will get antibiotics and don’t be surprised if you are not given them.

Simon Banks

Building Boxes, Building Futures

Building Boxes, Building Futures

For just over a year I have been the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s & Children’s Services Partnership, in addition to my duties as Chief Officer of NHS Halton CCG.  The Partnership has brought together 28 organisations with the shared aim making women’s and children’s services financially and clinically sustainable and also improving the quality of those services and the experience of the people who use them.  The Partnership operates under the brand of Improving Me (http://www.improvingme.org.uk/).  On 7^th October 2016 we launched the first Baby Box programme in the North of the United Kingdom and the first to roll out to new mums at scale across multiple boroughs and NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The Partnership will be issuing 30,000 Baby Boxes to women in pregnancy over the course of the initial pilot starting in Halton.  The Baby Boxes will encourage early engagement with maternity services and access to care for all pregnant women. It will form part of their antenatal pathway and be supported by Halton’s midwifery service, which is part of Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The Baby Box tradition, which originates from Finland, has been credited with reducing the infant mortality rate in the country from 65 infant deaths per 1,000 births in 1938 to 2.26 per 1,000 births in 2015.  The UK has some of highest rates of infant mortality in Europe, ranking 22nd out of the 50 European countries with 4.19 deaths per 1,000 births.

The boxes, which are made from a very thick cardboard and come with a firm foam mattress, waterproof mattress cover and a cotton sheet, are traditionally used in Finland as a baby’s bed for up to the first eight months of their life.  They replace need for the traditional Moses basket or cot, it is thought the small size of the Baby Box prevents babies from rolling onto their tummies, which experts think can contribute to sudden infant death syndrome.

Most importantly, families receiving a Baby Box will have access to the Baby Box University, a comprehensive maternal and childcare education platform, available from pregnancy onwards. Developed with leading medical experts around the world, Baby Box University enables each of its healthcare partners to customise the educational content to suit local need. Available in a variety of languages, the content transcends the language barriers that can be a problem in diverse populations.
 

I am really proud that we have been able to launch this initiative in Halton.  It is a fantastic opportunity to show local mums that their NHS commissioners and providers of maternity services care about them and their babies at all stages of pregnancy.  This is an important investment in our future population that encourages healthier outcomes for families.  Well done to all involved, particularly Cath McClennan, Programme Director with Improving Me, who was instrumental in bringing this initiative to Cheshire and Merseyside.

Simon Banks

You’ve Got To Be In It To (Try And) Win It

For the second year running NHS Halton CCG has been shortlisted in three categories for a prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) award.  The categories we have been shortlisted in are:

·         Improving Environmental and Social Sustainability category for ‘Lead the Change’ (with Wellbeing Enterprises CIC and UnLtd).

·         Specialist Service Redesign category for ‘transforming St Luke’s care home’ (with Community Integrated Care and Halton Borough Council)

·         CCG of the Year

The winners will be announced at the finals, which will be held on 23 November 2016 at the Intercontinental O2, London.

We are extremely proud to be shortlisted for 3 HSJ Awards for the second year running.  The awards are judged by industry leaders, making them one of the most prestigious awards on the health calendar; so it is a huge honour for our work to be recognised in this way.  For 35 years the HSJ Awards, have recognised, celebrated, and promoted the finest achievements in NHS, and showcased them to the service’s most influential leaders.  Over that time the HSJ Awards have grown to become the most sought after accolade in British healthcare – and very probably the largest awards programme of its type in the world.  NHS Halton CCG, with  Wellbeing Enterprises CIC, won a HSJ Award in 2015 for Innovation in Primary Care.

Simon Banks

A Walk In The Park

My last message talked about the benefits to health and wellbeing of being outdoors and enjoying the green spaces of our borough.  Our Annual General Meeting this year will be using one of the many green spaces in our borough, Victoria Park in Widnes.

Our AGM begins at 1pm on 26^th September 2016 at Victoria Park, Birchfield Road, Widnes, WA8 7SU.  Our AGM is an opportunity for local people to hear more about the local NHS and join in a healthy discussion about the future of health and wellbeing in Halton.  We will also be offering a range of taster activities aimed at improving you wellbeing including a Green Gym, Tai Chi, walking rugby, bowling, pram fitness and mock-tails.

Please come and see us on 26^th September 2016.  The activities start at 1pm and the AGM at 3pm.  If you have any special requirements, including transportation, call our office on 01928 593 455, text 0700 108 565 or email talk2us@haltonccg.nhs.uk.

Simon Banks

For more information please see: www.haltonccg.nhs.uk

Getting out and about

Sometimes I get the chance to write a message that is not necessarily directly connected with NHS business. Whilst the next few lines are not necessarily about NHS business they are about health and wellbeing.

Our borough, Halton, our two towns, have a proud industrial history. Many local people and their forebears worked in local industries, particularly in the chemical industry, some people still do. Whilst the borough does have this heritage when you look around and take notice there is also significant amount of green space, some natural and some man made. You cannot go far in the borough without finding a park, a stretch of water or some woodland.

Our offices, in Runcorn Town Hall, are surrounded by green space. When I go home of an evening I look across the River Mersey, a mighty tidal river with wonderful bird life. Sometimes I have a run along the Bridgewater Canal, avoiding being accosted by a family of swans, and it is peaceful and still. Our parks are magnets for people from all over the area, Victoria Park has often been a "go to" place with my kids. The open spaces in the borough attract people walking, running, skateboarding, cycling, or just being. One of our local Widnes Vikings stars, Hep Cahill, is using some of these spaces for communal exercise programmes, as do our local Health Improvement Team.

So, as I write this, the sun is shining and I am watching the River Mersey and the Ship Canal flow by I am feeling good.  My health and wellbeing has been improved by stopping for a bit, taking notice and taking in the environment. You don't have to go far in Halton to do this, it will improve your health and wellbeing, and this actually helps us in the NHS because if you feel well you can stay well for longer.

Simon Banks
www.activehalton.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walking-for-Health-Halton/482818178431169
@HaltonCCG

Game Changer

It was the hottest day of the year so far on 19th July 2016 and I spent the morning back at primary school, with the Widnes Vikings squad, outside in the sun. The purpose of the morning was to launch Game Changer, an innovative  project that has come from our CCG's work with the Cheshire and Merseyside Women's and Children's Services Partnership and with Widnes Vikings. The programme works with children of a primary school age and was launched at Weston Primary School. Game Changer has a specific focus on using the power of sport to engage with the most deprived and disadvantaged groups with a core focus on providing physical activity and social engagement opportunities to those most at need. We are starting with rugby league but the concept is replicable into any sporting arena.

The Game Changer programme aims to make children fitter and healthier, promote inclusiveness and reduce isolation and increase mental resilience. The specifics of delivery are developed with each school and tailored to their needs but the main thrust of the programme is to encourage children to be physically active for 8o minutes each day and take up healthy options for food drink. By using the brand of the local sports club and their players and coaching staff, in this case Widnes Vikings, this increases engagement and the club is able to give something to the local community.

Thanks very much to Weston Primary School for hosting the launch of Game Changer, there were some very excited and engaged children throughout the day. Thanks also to James Rule, Chief Executive, Widnes Vikings and to Denis Betts, Head Coach, Widnes Vikings and their coaching staff and players for their support for this project.  

Simon Banks

Halton People’s Health Forum

Every three months or so we host the Halton People’s Health Forum.  These meetings are planned by a steering group of local residents and are one of the ways in which we engage with our local communities.  The steering group sets the agenda, asks key speakers to attend and, with our support as a CCG, run the events.

The Halton People’s Health Forum has been running for around four years now.  The next meetings are on Tuesday 12^th July 2016, starting at 5pm, in The Brindley, Runcorn and Thursday 14^th July 2016 in Halton Stadium, staring at 1pm.  These meetings are open to the public.

The forthcoming meetings will focus on our work as a CCG with arts and culture in the borough, we will also hear from our local Director of Public Health on the refresh of the borough’s health and wellbeing strategy.  Finally, there will also be a session on our One Halton programme and the work we are undertaking with our partners to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Halton.

For more information on the Health Forums please contact Alex.schofield@haltonccg.nhs.uk

Contributions recognised

Congratulations to our Chair, Dr Cliff Richards, was named in the list of Members of the Order of the British Empire in the Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Honours List on 11^th June 2016.  Dr Richards received the award for service to healthcare.

Congratulations also to Owen Ashworth, Administrative Assistant (Communication & Engagement), NHS Halton CCG. Owen was ‘crowned’ as Innovation Champion in the Widening Engagement category of the Adult Learner’s Week North West Awards in Health and Care 2016.  These awards are supported by the Innovation Agency (Academic Health Science Network for the West Coast) and NHS Health Education England. Owen is an integral and much respected team member who firmly believes disability rights should be at the top of the NHS’s agenda and is helping make this happen by example.

We are really proud to work with both Cliff and Owen. Well done.

Owen receiving his award, photo justjaqphotography@gmail.com

Dr Cliff Richards MBE

Maternity Choice and Personalisation Pioneers

NHS Halton CCG is leading work with 26 other organisations in Cheshire and Merseyside to ensure that women’s and children’s services (e.g. gynaecology, maternity, neonatal and paediatric services) are clinically and financially sustainable for the future.  Since September 2015 this work has been sponsored by NHS England as part of the New Care Models Acute Care Collaboration programme and has been taken forward as the Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s and Children’s Services Partnership .

This collaborative work has enabled us to put in an expression of interest to become a pioneer site to develop models for choice and personalisation in maternity services.  Last month we found out that our expression of interest, submitted on behalf of the Cheshire and Merseyside Women’s and Children’s Services Partnership, had been successful.  Becoming one of seven pioneer sites will support our ambition to improve maternity services and provide more informed choice to women within our population, and to share this learning with others across England..

We hope to work at pace to take forward the choice and personalisation project.  We also intend to do the same with the wider reform agenda around women’s and children’s services, with some clear cases for change appearing by the end of this year.

www.haltonccg.nhs.uk