Cheshire West Health and Care Partnership Committee Update

Papers available here:

Agenda for Cheshire West Health and Care Partnership Committee on Thursday, 13th November, 2025, 9.30 am – Cheshire West & Cheshire Council 

Chair: Councillor Sheila Little, Cheshire West and Chester Local Authority

Innovations – Insights from Northwich Community Partnership

Regular updates from each Community Partnership are shared at these meetings and this month’s update was from Northwich Community Partnership.

The partnership serves a population of 72,000 and brings together health providers, local authorities, social prescribers, VCFSE organisations, and patient representatives. Meetings are effective and there is strong engagement with partners.

Key priorities include falls prevention, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cost of living support, and improving accessibility and transport. Recent achievements include launching a community hub, growing social media presence, delivering dementia-friendly initiatives, and increasing collaboration across sectors.

Next steps focus on expanding hubs, strengthening digital inclusion, delivering cost-of-living workshops face-to-face, and continuing preventative work for falls and CVD. It was noted that the Partnership doesn’t have a separate priority around Children and Young People but they are included within the priorities described.

For a copy of the report please see here

Devolution Update

Natalie Abraham, Director of Strategy and Transformation from Cheshire West and Chester Council provided a verbal update on Devolution.

The first Shadow Combined Authority Board met on 31 October with delegated decision-making powers from the three councils. Councillor Louise Gittins was appointed Chair, Councillor Nick Mannion Deputy Chair, and Steve Purdham Chair of the Business Advisory Board. The Police and Crime Commissioner attended as a non-constituent member.

The focus is on establishing the combined authority and recruiting key roles before the mayoral election in May 2027. Proposals included advertising next week for Interim Chief Executive and Interim Growth Director. Other statutory roles such as Monitoring Officer and Section 73 Officer will be filled via secondments.

Cheshire West will host the mayoral election. Communication with residents is a priority and will be supported by PR agencies and stakeholder engagement to reduce confusion. The next meeting is scheduled for 28 November, with monthly meetings planned to help progress recruitment and key agenda items. Further updates on recruitment will follow.

Laura Marsh, Place Director from Cheshire West Place shared an update.

The Cheshire and Merseyside ICB met on 25 September and confirmed new interim appointments: Sir David Henshaw as Chair and Andrea McGee as Executive Director of Finance.

It has now been announced that the voluntary redundancies process is going ahead.  It was acknowledged that this is a very unsettling and difficult time for staff and the scale of the change is more significant than ever seen before.

Key updates include:

• The Board received the Gold Award for supporting the Armed Forces community.
• Sefton and St Helens Places were named as national pioneers for Neighbourhood Health Development.
• A joint SEND inspection by Ofsted and CQC began on 3 November and will run for three weeks, within Cheshire West.
• Cheshire West has secured seed funding to develop a neighbourhood approach for children and young people.
• Work continues on developing an Integrated Neighbourhoods Plan in Cheshire West, including a roadmap to be signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board by March 2026.
• The 2025/26 Winter Plan has been submitted to ensure system resilience during winter. National guidance requires that Trusts have robust plans in place to help avoid critical incidents and work collaboratively to maintain patient flow across physical and mental health services. Communications to the public will focus on promoting ways to stay well and signposting alternatives to Emergency Departments, with multiple options available for support e.g. Pharmacy First, using 111, GP online consultations.
• Primary Care is mobilising a new ADHD local enhanced service and has also introduced a local enhanced service for Tirzepatide for weight management.
• Preparations and communication plans have been implemented to mitigate any potential disruption from the forthcoming doctors’ strike.
• The ICB faces a £178m deficit across the ICB and 17 providers, with significant financial risk and has been notified of formal undertakings by NHS England.  Cheshire West Place forecasts a small overspend on the planned budget position.
• Future planning for 2026/27 has commenced with the development of ICB commissioning intentions. Discussions have also commenced with NHS Providers regarding contracts including a focus on elective recovery and performance improvement for non-elective care.
• The council is currently £10m overspent on a £430m budget, mainly due to adult social care, while other areas such as homelessness are performing well. Success on the health agenda means people are living longer, adding £6m to adult social care costs, with a further £4m spent on flow and delivery. Savings have been achieved in many other areas.
• Next year, government funding will remain static and be redistributed to more deprived areas. The projected funding gap is £62m, with £18.5m expected from council tax and business rates. Over £30m of savings have already been identified, and a further £15m is being sought.

Laura Marsh, Place Director from Cheshire West Place shared feedback from the Integrated Neighbourhood Teams Workshop.

The workshop focused on bringing the Health and Wellbeing Board together with Primary Care Network representatives to address a perceived disconnect and ensure alignment on readiness for integrated neighbourhoods. Examples of current work were shared, and participants were encouraged to consider what integrated neighbourhoods mean, who should be involved and their own roles in the medium and long term.

Discussion highlighted the importance of including health coaching, social prescribing, navigators, housing, and employment forums, with stronger integration of health and care data. Visuals developed will form part of a roadmap to ensure the approach resonates with stakeholders. Feedback will be used to define the purpose, vision, objectives, and delivery plan. The roadmap will be tested with the population and signed off by the end of March, aiming for implementation from April 2026.

Priorities for the first two years include improving the SEND and school attendance offer through an integrated approach, addressing frailty, and strengthening prevention starting with cardiovascular disease. Children and young people’s work will be led by the local authority, frailty by health partners and prevention by the voluntary sector. Mental health will also be embedded across these themes. Success will require commitment to a different approach and strong partnership working.

Changeology Work on Discharge/Pathway 1

Laura Marsh, Place Director from Cheshire West Place shared an update on the Changeology Work regarding discharge home from hospital – also referred to as “Pathway 1”.

Changeology has been supporting this work, to help people to return home from hospital with appropriate care. The work has aimed to bring the current pathway offers together and embed the community response hub to ensure a single approach. This has been challenging due to differing initial views on concepts such as “home first” and “discharge to assess.” Governance has evolved, and quick wins include creating shared spaces for documentation and joint decision-making.

A capacity and demand tracker has been introduced to provide visibility for all partners, reducing the need for multiple meetings and enabling better decisions about discharge and support packages.

The system is entering an innovation fortnight at the Countess and MADE events at Mid Cheshire, focusing on discharge ahead of winter. Learning from Changeology will be used to improve flow. The longer term aim is to ensure pathway 1 functions as a single team with joint management, despite the complexity of involving multiple organisations. Outcome measures will include readmission rates, length of stay and patient experience and should see reduced reliance on bedded intermediate care.

For a copy of the report please see here

Digital workstream colleagues did not feel able to provide an update at this time. It was agreed that once the roadmap is finalised, they will determine how they can support the progression of integrated neighbourhoods. Currently, there is no dedicated capacity for this work, as it is being managed by individuals alongside their day jobs, and there is no funding available for posts to support these roles. Although digital transformation is recognised as a priority, there are insufficient resources dedicated to progression of Place digital priorities. This presents a significant challenge from a neighbourhood health perspective. It will be necessary to consider how resources can be realigned to meet this challenge going forward.