First meeting of new-look Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership

Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership – the sub-region’s new statutory Integrated Care Partnership – met for the first time at the Partnership for Learning conference centre in Halewood, Knowsley on November 8th 2022.

Consisting of representatives across the NHS, local authorities, voluntary sector, housing, police and fire and rescue, the Partnership Board provides a multi-agency forum to assess the health, public health and social care needs of people across Cheshire and Merseyside – and develop a combined strategy to address them.

Councillor Louise Gittins, the leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, was unanimously confirmed as Chair, with Raj Jain – the Chair of NHS Cheshire and Merseyside – confirmed as vice-chair. A process to appoint a second vice-chair, to represent the voluntary sector, is already underway.

Cllr Gittins described her appointment as “an honour” and the inception of the multi-agency partnership as “a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a real difference across our communities”. As a “Marmot community”, she said the Partnership must come together to help tackle health inequalities across Cheshire and Merseyside.

At the end of the meeting partners outlined their collective commitment to work across traditional organisational boundaries and hold each other to account for delivery as well as to further develop their shared purpose – ensuring residents, service users and patients are at the centre of everything the Partnership does.

Details of future meetings available here.