December2011 - ChaMPs e-Bulletin /
Welcome to the ChaMPs monthly e-Bulletin bringing you news from across Cheshire & Merseyside Public Health network. If you have any news you would like to include please email:
(Click on the title to be taken directly to the section)
ChaMPs Directors’ messages & national newsHealth & Wellbeing Boards
Alcohol
Mental health & wellbeing
Healthy weight
Screening
Sexual health- Cheshire & Merseyside Sexual Health Network (CMSHN)
Tobacco
Workforce
Partners, stakeholders & other news
Events & training
Vacancies
ChaMPs Directors’ messages & national news
Directors’ MessagesThe Cheshire & Merseyside Directors of Public Health held a strategic planning day last Friday to discuss:
- The ChaMPs key programmes and priorities for 2012-13
- Progress of the clusters
- The Cheshire & Merseyside stakeholder insight report recommendations
- Transition planning
The Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2012/13
This document outlines the business and planning arrangements for the NHS in 2012/13. It describes the national priorities, system levers and enablers needed for NHS organisations to maintain and improve the quality of services provided, while delivering transformational change and maintaining financial stability. It is available to download now.
Public Health Human Resources Concordat
Public Health Human Resources Concordat was published this week and is subject to the passage in parliament of the Health and Social Care Bill 2011. This document is available to download now , for more information see our Workforce section.
Transforming Public Health Bulletin
Transforming Public Health, the Department of Health's third issue of their Public Health Bulletinis now available to view online. This month’s issue includes:Getting engaged: Public Health Engagement Group and partnership working by Chris Bull, Chief Executive of Herefordshire Council and Spotlight on: Health Protection Agency.
New Institute to Help Narrow the HealthGap
UniversityCollegeLondon (UCL) is home to a new Institute that aims to reduce health inequalities through action on social determinants.The UCL Institute of Health Equity, which will be led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, will receive £1 million funding from the Department of Health over the next three years to take forward action that will reduce health inequalities in England.The Institute, which will be independent, will also be supported by UCL, the British Medical Association and independently commissioned projects.
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Health & Wellbeing Boards
Emerging Health and Wellbeing Boards Join National Programme to Accelerate Learning
A programme of Accelerated Learning Sets has launched to help emerging health and wellbeing boards to work together on the biggest challenges that facethem on their journey to statutory running from April 2013.Read more.
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Alcohol
/Cheshire & Merseyside Directors of Public Health Join Call For New EU Alcohol Strategy
On the 17th November, MemberState representatives met at a critical meeting of the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action as the future of the EU Alcohol Strategy remains undecided. 68 Health and Social NGOs from across Europe including the Cheshire & Merseyside Directors of Public Health have joined forces to call on European governments and the European Commission to develop a Strategy for the European Union before the current initiative ends next year. Read more
Alcohol Life Stories
As part of the North West Young People and Alcohol Programme, The North West Regional Youth Work Unit have published a piece of young people led research examining the role and meaning of Alcohol in young people’s lives across the North West. The Alcohol Life Stories Research was designed and conducted by young people, and uses a variety of real life case studies to identify attitudes towards alcohol amongst young people that are seen as normal as well as common experiences of alcohol services and education. Further information on the North West Young People and Alcohol programme is available to view online.
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Report Launched Revealing Low Prices of Alcohol in Northern England
To coincide withthe launch of the Scottish Government’s bill to implement a minimum unit price, a new report has also been launched to collectively reveal the dangerously low prices at which alcohol is still being sold in northern England.The report “The Four Steps to Alcohol Misuse” was compiled by Balance North East, Our Life, Alcohol Focus Scotland and Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems. It is the first time that agencies tasked with reducing alcohol harm have united across regional and national boundaries to highlight the easy availability of alcohol in parts of the UK where it is doing the most damage.
South East Alcohol Innovation Programme Evaluation
The objective of this evaluation report is to make a judgment on the outcomes of projects and identify their impact with regard to alcohol admissions, demonstrable outcomes for clients,financial gain, sustainability and diffusion;recommendations on mainstreaming these projects; and recommendations on lessons learnt and future learning.The South East Alcohol Innovation Programme Evaluation is now available to download.
Brief Interventions: Achieving Widespread Delivery?
Presentations and discussion at a 2011 symposium ‘Brief interventions: pushing forward to achieve widespread delivery’ addressed issues facing the routine delivery of Identification & Brief Advice (IBA) across a range of settings.Brief interventions for alcohol have been a key plank in the national objective to reduce alcohol-related harm The key discussion topics are outlined in this paper which aims to highlight key opportunities and challenges to mainstreaming IBA.
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Mental health & wellbeing
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ChaMPs CPD Event - Applying Wellbeing Data
Presentations and an event summary are now available to view online following on from the Applying Wellbeing Data event hosted by ChaMPs on the 23rd November 2011. /
National Wellbeing Measures
This paper discusses proposals for domains and headline measures of national wellbeing and is published in order to obtain views. The proposals build on the responses to the national debate on measuring national well-being in 2010-11, research into well-being and related international initiatives. The proposals are part of the Office for National Statistics Measuring National Wellbeing (MNW) Programme. The consultation will be open until 23rd January 2012. You can view this paper online now.
Greater Manchester Arts Health Network
For up to date information on arts events, and other regional activities, please visit the Greater Manchester Arts Health Network.
Radio 4 Discusses Mental Health & Wellbeing Issues
Claudia Hammond talks to a Behavioural Insights Team about where they believe they can really make a difference and finds out whether the psychological research to date, justifies the belief that major policy challenges like the economy and public health, can be tackled using behavioural science.
‘The Life Scientific’ looks towards Marmot’s theory of Status Syndrome in the context of today’s global society. /
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Healthy weight
/New Courses for HENRY
The HENRY National Team have recently launched 3 new one day courses to offer more flexibility for services to select the most appropriate training in terms of content and time commitment for their workforce. The courses supplement the existing courses, they do not replace them. Further details of these can be found via the ChaMPS website. /
HENRY Training Dates
Click here to view the upcoming training dates for the HENRY core training course.
HENRY on Facebook
‘HENRY has now launched on Facebook and has 16 people signed up as likes. Why not join them! This is now being used as a way to keep in touch with participants after the course is over and has led to some positive feedback, including the following comment from one course participant:
“Just completed the 2 day HENRY course today with Abby and Kay. Loads of fantastic ideas to take back to work. It was also lovely to meet so many nice people.”
“Best training I've been on in a long time, Thanks Abby and Kay. Looking forward to putting it into practice”
/ Food and Nutrition Programme
In 2013 the criteria for free school meal eligibility will be changing with the introduction of the new Universal Credit welfare system. Heart of Mersey, like many others will be advocating ensuring that all children whose families receive the new Universal Credit benefit are entitled to free school meals. The Government has emphasised the importance of addressing inequalities in health for some time and this fairer system would help to contribute to this.
Consultation response will be available from the Heart of Mersey website. For more information contact Catherine Donnelly,Food and Nutrition Programme Officer, .
Food Charter Evaluation in Knowsley
Heart of Mersey (HoM) has completed an evaluation of the Food Charter in the Knowsley area. The Food Charter aims to acknowledge food service providers, such as restaurants and cafes that offer healthier alternatives to their customers. The Food Charter also takes into account food hygiene and food safety.
HoM has been working with Knowsley Environmental Health to promote and administrate the Food Charter in their area. Findings from the evaluation indicate that food service providers are pleased to have an award that helps to recognise their commitments to healthier eating. Some of the changes that have been made as a result of the Charter include; reformulation of recipes, increasing the amount of healthier options on offer and increasing the amount of seasonal produce being used just to name a few. For more information please contact .
NHS North West Corporate Games
A Summary of the first ever NHS North West Corporate Games is now available via the North West eWIN website. This new portal aims to support North West NHS organisations to deliver the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) agenda and other challenges, in particular by improving workforce quality and productivity.
London 2012 Torch Relay Route and Timetable for The North West
90 communities in the North West have been announced on the Olympic Torch Relay route. The Olympic Flame will be in the North West from 29thMay – 2nd June and 20th – 24thJune 2012 and will visit every countyalong the way. People in the North West are invited to start planning their welcome.Over 95% of the UK population will be within 10 miles of the Olympic Flame.
The ChaMPs website has a dedicated webpage which will be regularly updated with London 2012 news, including the torch relay routetimetable for the North West. /
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Screening
/Bowel Cancer Awareness Campaign
The Government is running a National Bowel Cancer Symptoms Awareness Campaign for 8 weeks from the end of January 2012, following the success of a pilot in England and full roll-out of the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.The campaign will include TV media.
Diabetic Retinopathy Screening – Policy Consultation
The National Team of the English National Screening Programme for Diabetic Retinopathy is seeking the views of key stakeholders on the revision of two key policies:
- Exclusions, suspensions and the management of ungradable images
- Arbitration on differences between a primary and secondary grade of R1/R0
English National Screening Programme for Diabetic Retinopathy
The new Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Internal Quality Assurance Guidance and Best Practice Toolkit have been published and are available to download now.
Bowel Cancer Screening Sensory Impairment Research in Cheshire & Merseyside
Funded by Director of National Cancer Screening Programmes, ChaMPs commissioned the University of Chester to undertake a research study to look at the barriers faced by people with a sensory impairment (sight and hearing).
The full report is now published and can be accessed via the ChaMPs website. For further details please contact
AAA Screening Annual Report
The latest annual report for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm screening across England is now available and can bedownloaded now.
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Sexual health- Cheshire & Merseyside Sexual Health Network (CMSHN)
/“Who should be offered a HIV Test?”
It is estimated that there are approximately 86,000 people living with HIV in the UK and a third of those are undiagnosed. On average, of all those who die as a result of HIV infection every year, three out of five are diagnosed late – that is after the point where treatment should have begun. Late diagnosis is associated with poorer prognosis for the patient and increased costs to the NHS. There are excellent treatment options but these are most effective if the infection is diagnosed early.We would like to draw your attention to a short but important document produced by the Cheshire & Merseyside Sexual Health Network, “Who should be offered a HIV Test?”
If you require further help in implementing this guidance, please contact Simon Henning via or 0151 201 4155.
Stakeholder Workshops - North West Sexual Health Tariffs and Pathways
On the 16th of November Cheshire & Merseyside Sexual Health Network (CMSHN) hosted the provider workshop for the validation and hopefully the roll out of the sexual health pathways and tariffs developed in London. There was an excellent turn out from across Cheshire and Merseyside Community and Sexual Health (CASH) and Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) services. The meeting went very well and there was a huge amount of excitement in being involved in the process, some of the benefits to clients, service providers and commissioners include:
- It will enhance choice for clients who may feel more comfortable accessing their care at particular services
- It will provide a clear and transparent structure and payment system for acute based and community providers of sexual health services (excluding abortion services and HIV treatment and care as these are/will be covered by national tariffs.
- It will encourage services to provide integrated care to meet the needs of clients accessing their services; it will also mean the lessening of onward referrals at greater cost to the NHS.
- Commissioning of sexual health services will be made easier as commissioners will be able to identify what good value for sexual health looks like and will signal the end of existing “block contracts”
- As services become “de-hosted” they will charge the PCT of residence for the care they have provided – this will sort out cross charging problems and will end post code lotteries
- It encourages services to look at how they provide their services, improving efficiencies and delivering whole packages of care wherever possible.
Teenage Pregnancy Rate Continues to Decline
The Office for National Statistics released under-18conception data for3rd Quarter 2010on 22nd November; showing the national rate continues to decline. Across all regions, the rolling quarterly average under -18 conception rateis at its lowest level since the start of quarterly data records in 1998. In the North West of England the rate of under-18 conceptions fell by 7.4% from Quarter 3 2009. The rolling quarterly average shows a continuing decline in conception rates. Most local authority areas in Cheshire and Merseyside have seen a decrease in conception rate, for a breakdown of your local data please contact your Teenage Pregnancy lead or
Call For Examples – Support in Schools for Young Mothers Who Are Breastfeeding
Do you have any examples to demonstrate how young people can be supported whilst breastfeeding and still at school? i.e. what arrangements are or couldbemade so the young person continues to breastfeed, facing no barriers because she isatschool. Please send any examples to
Condom Distribution & C-Card Schemes
The CMSHN team have supported a group of C-Card Coordinators and Managers to develop an online community to share good practice and raise queries about best practice. This group is available to anyone involved in schemes across the country; you can now join this communityand search for ‘CMSHN Condom Distribution Schemes’
Supported by the CMSHN team each lead in C&M are sharing details about their schemes to identify areas of joint working and best practice; a small workshop will be going ahead in January to explore these issues further.
For further information please contact
Learning Disabilities and Relationships and Sex Education – Parent Course Development
A group of sexual health professionals and parents of young people with learning disabilities have developed a toolkit to support the delivery of parent’s courses to aid communication of relationships and sexual health issues.
The CMSHN team have formatted and collated the toolkit and uploaded to an online community –group members can access and suggest amends to the toolkit. An evaluation is underway of two pilot courses and this will feed into the development of the toolkit. Once a final copy is produced by Spring 2012 the toolkit will be available to share with colleagues. For further information please contact
UK Sexual Health Awards 2012
The first ever UK Sexual Health Awards led by two leading sexual health charities, Brook and FPA have been launched. These awards will showcase outstanding and innovative work in sexual health across the UK and nominations are open for individuals or organisations in any of these categories:
- UK sexual health professional of the year
- UK young person sexual health project of the year
- UK adult sexual health service/project of the year
- JLS young person of the year (backed by award-winning boy band JLS)
Pamela Sheridan innovation in sex and relationships education - Rosemary Goodchild Award for excellence in sexual health journalism
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Tobacco