Caring Together in Eastern Cheshire

The public in Eastern Cheshire is being invited to help shape the future of local health and social care services in the area by playing its part in a ‘big conversation’ kicking off today.

The opportunity has been created by Caring Together - an alliance of all of the area’s health and social care providers – which is working to create a joined-up service across the whole of Eastern Cheshire, with the aim of improving everyone’s wellbeing. 

Before any changes are proposed or made, people’s views and aspirations for health and social care are being sought. Today sees the publication of a short flyer document seeking people’s views: Seizing the opportunity for better care sets out the challenges facing those providing our services and asks for the public’s input on the best way to respond.  

Caring Together will supplement the document with other steps to get the public and staff to participate in this dialogue and, before 30 April, wants to hear from as many people as possible by phone, email, Freepost, Facebook, Twitter or in person at meetings and events. More information and a simple questionnaire is to be made available online at http://caringtogether.info/.  

The feedback and insights gleaned will be fed into options for the way ahead, which will be the subject of a more formal public consultation exercise expected later in the year.

GP Dr Paul Bowen, Chair of NHS Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said

“The best way of improving care is to listen to those who use it, may need it, or work delivering it. As a GP, and local resident, I would like services that are of the highest quality and that are delivered as locally as possible. People now have an opportunity to help us design care services that are fit and sustainable for our future. 

“To make that happen, we need to understand the national standards we must aspire to, the experiences of those receiving and delivering care, and the financial challenge and risks involved in doing nothing.

“We’re living longer, and many people can now be treated in their own homes. Medical advances and the need to treat patients safely also mean that the way hospital services are provided is evolving. GPs, social, community and specialist staff could work so much more jointly to improve care.

“We believe that patients should sit at the heart of a everything we do and that local people should also be supported to take responsibility for their own health as much as possible.

" Seizing the opportunity for better care is our way of asking the public what it wants, needs and expects from health and care services in the future, given the challenges and opportunities we face.” 

Bill Swann, Lay Member for Public & Patient Involvement on the NHS East Cheshire CCG Governing Body, and the Patient-Carer Representative on the Caring Together Board, said:

“My experience as a carer is one which reflects the frustration and difficulty that patients can encounter when dealing with an often-fragmented system that struggles to meet complex care needs. I have made a strong personal commitment in my own life to making sure that people’s views are taken into account in how services are provided.

“That’s why I welcome Caring Together as an initiative that will look to set the seal on providing seamless services to patients. I really would encourage everybody in Eastern Cheshire to make whatever contribution they can to this important conversation about the future or our health and care services.”

Jerry Hawker, Chief Officer of the NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG, added:

“There is much to be proud of our health and social care services in Eastern Cheshire. Staff work hard to provide good care, local people are relatively fit and healthy compared to other parts of the country, and local organisations work well together.

“But we believe services need to evolve if they are to meet the changing needs of local people. Caring Together aims to increase the number of people having a positive experience of care in part by pooling our resources and making more of what we have.

“If we stay as we are, we will not be adapting to the changing needs of local people. That is why it is so important that the public tells us what they feel about the services they currently use and what their hopes are for the future.”

Lorraine Butcher, Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning, Cheshire East Council, said: 

“I am delighted that we, as a local authority, are committing to working even more closely with our partners in the health service. Our focus is on providing community-based care services working in teams across neighbourhoods in East Cheshire. So our close contact with the public is going to be a tremendous asset in seeking out people’s views on how we work in future.

“The financial pressures on local government are very real, increasing our need to work collaboratively with other organisations as a single team. We will be particularly interested in people’s ideas for how we can work more effectively in partnership to deliver better services and better value.”

Dr Robert Stead, Medical Director of East Cheshire NHS Trust, said:

“Clinical input into how we design our services in future, working with others, is absolutely key – and we want to supplement that with the views of the people who use our services. 

“Caring Together is an enormous opportunity to make our services safer and better for the public at large, while responding to the significant financial challenge that we face as an organisation, which is just one of the factor driving the need to change the way we work for the public.”

John Wilbraham, Chief Executive of the East Cheshire NHS Trust, said:

“We provide good quality services for the local population and our ambition is to maintain this quality against the backdrop of increasing standards and tightening finances. 

“We recognise that this will mean working with partners but we also need to hear from the public about how they want to receive care in the future.”

Sheena Cumiskey, Chief Executive of the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Foundation Trust, which provides inpatient and community mental health services across Cheshire and Wirral, said: 

“One in six people have some sort of mental health need, so getting our services properly integrated is at the heart of improving the public’s experience as patients, carers and family members.

“Caring Together is a wonderful opportunity to bring mental health services into the mainstream. As part of this process, we will be seeking out the views of those who use mental health services and their families, so that we can take the fullest possible account of what they think in framing the way we work in future.”

Heather Grimbaldeston, Cheshire East’s Director of Public Health said:

“Prevention is important and we need to invest in services that will stop people becoming ill in the first place or that will intervene early to prevent more serious problems arising.

“The importance of keeping as healthy as possible for as long as possible cannot be overstated. People in Eastern Cheshire still have, on average, 10 years of poor health. This can be improved. So Caring Together rises to the challenge of improving wellbeing and of limiting the impact of any illness.

“We would like residents to tell us how we can build on the more established preventive, lifestyle and early detection programmes - such as immunisation, the stop smoking service, GP health checks and the screening service - to ensure that all local people can live the healthiest possible lives.”

The first Stakeholder Panel event has been NOW BEEN CONFIRMED AS 14TH MARCH 2014.

This is a full day's event 10am until 4pm in Macclesfield.  If you would like to attend or would like further information, please either call 01625 242 511  or email join@caringtogether.info.

Click here for the full invitation and Stakeholder Panel terms of reference.

Excellent news!!  Connecting Cheshire has been chosen as 1 of 14 integrated care pioneers.  Take a look at the presentation and video explaining the objectives of the Connecting Cheshire Pioneer Programme for integrated care.