Champs business plan 2015-2017

WelcomeWelcome from Margaret Carney, Chief Executiveof Sefton Council and Lead Chief Executive forCheshire & Merseyside Public Health Collaborativeand Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health, St HelensCouncil and Chair of the Cheshire & MerseysideDirectors of Public Health Executive Board.The last two years have been a time of changeand challenge for local authorities with increasingdemand for services and finite resources, however,the transition of public health into local governmenthas been a positive step which is now reaping rewardsfor our residents.The public health workforce is now fully embeddedwithin our organisations and we are working well withall parts of the system, including Public Health Englandand the NHS, to achieve better health and wellbeingfor our populations. There are many great examples ofwhere the expertise of public health professionals andthe local “on the ground” knowledge of councils havecome together to create effective interventions toimprove health and wellbeing. However despite theseachievements, there is still more to do.Working together across the sub-region throughthe Champs collaborative has complemented andstrengthened our local work and this collaborationhas been a steady ship in sometimes choppy waters.Under the leadership of the Directors of Public Health,collaborative working groups provided expertiseacross the three domains of public health; publichealth health care, health improvement and healthprotection and delivered joint pieces of work where itmade sense to work together on a public health issue.Moving forward, the Champs collaborative model hasbeen revised to focus on a smaller number of locallydetermined priorities and we welcome this approachto ensure we make an impact on the most importantpublic health issues we face.Local authorities will be under increasing financialpressure in the future and working collaboratively isone of the ways we can streamline our approach anddeliver more for less. A healthy population remains ourmain aim and we welcome the NHS Five Year ForwardView and its call for more focus on tackling the rootcauses of ill health and hard-hitting action on obesity,alcohol and other major health risks.The Champs Public Health Collaborative business plan2015–17 gives an overview of our recent achievementsand sets out how we will work together in the futureto deliver on our key priorities to improve health andreduce health inequalities for our communities.Margaret CarneyLead Chief Executive of ChampsPublic Health Collaborative andChief Executive of Sefton CouncilLiz GaultonChair of Directors of Public HealthExecutive Board and Director ofPublic Health of St Helens Council2