Who we work with

We work closely with a number of other organisations to make sure your health services are the best they can be. You can find out about some of our closest partners below, and what part of your health services they are responsible for.

NHS England

Together with NHS England, we work to ensure health services for south Sefton residents meet national and local standards. Whilst NHS England is the lead commissioner for primary care services, we were awarded "joint commissioning‟ status from 1 April 2017. It means we are able to develop primary care in line with our vision.

Locally, the Cheshire and Merseyside Area Team oversees standards and holds the contracts for GP surgeries, dentists, pharmacists and opticians, as well as some screening and immunisation programmes. Other local teams commission some additional services our residents may need from time to time, such as specialist, prison and armed forces healthcare.

Our other NHS partners

Most of your local health services - such as hospital care, district nursing, blood testing and other community services - are provided by a range of NHS organisations on our behalf.

Sometimes we work with neighbouring clinical commissioning groups to plan and buy services when there is a benefit for south Sefton residents. 

Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership

We are working with Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership as a part of the emerging Integrated Care Board for the region. Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership addresses local challenges around population health, quality of care and the increasing financial pressures on these services. Our universal goal is to improve health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities across Cheshire and Merseyside.

Sefton Partnership

We are working with organisations across Sefton to establish a new health and care partnership that will strengthen the way they work together for the benefit of borough residents. Sefton Partnership is focused on integrating health and care systems for the borough and will work as part of the wider Integrated Care System in Cheshire and Merseyside.

Sefton Health and Wellbeing Board

We are members of Sefton Health and Wellbeing Board. This committee of the council brings together everyone with a responsibility for health and social care in the borough.

Together, we have devised a Sefton wide strategy for health and wellbeing. This was based on our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) that brings together all the information we have about current services, to highlight where we need to do more in the future. This is particularly important as we continue to work together on addressing the inequalities in health that exist in different parts of the borough.

Visit the Sefton Council website to find out more about the Health and Wellbeing Board and see a copy of our strategy and the JSNA.

Sefton Council

We work closely with our council commissioning colleagues across many areas including social care, mental health and children's services. Our co-created Sefton Health and Wellbeing Strategy describes our commitment and work towards further integration, which we believe will have great benefits for our residents by making their health and social care more seamless and effective.

The local authority is responsible for promoting and protecting good health amongst all its residents.  It works closely with the national body, Public Health England to do this in partnership with NHS England and ourselves. This helps to steer our work to reduce health inequalities in line with the aims of our joint health and wellbeing strategy.

You can find out more about the council's work to improve public health on its website. 

Healthwatch Sefton

Healthwatch works on your behalf to ensure health and social care services are safe, effective and right for you.

Healthwatch Sefton gathers and represents the views of people living in the borough. Because it is independent, Healthwatch can challenge those who provide services but it can also work in partnership with the CCG and others to improve frontline health and social care. The chair of Healthwatch Sefton is a co-opted member of our Governing Body. The organisation also has representation on some of our other committees and working groups, including our Engagement and Patient Experience Group.

VCF organisations

We work closely with our local voluntary, community and faith organisations - or VCF sector - and Sefton CVS helps us to link with many of these groups. We recognise the valuable role these groups play in achieving better health and wellbeing for our residents. This is reinforced by what local people consistently tell us, that these groups are important in providing them with support. So, we commission a range of services from the VCF sector towards improving wellbeing and addressing inequalities in health. We also work with the local VCF Advisory Group to support greater partnership working with the local VCF groups.