Issue - meetings

(3.10pm – 3.30pm)

To receive a presentation on the End of Life Partnership.

The Board received a report and presentation from Salli Jeynes, Director of Education, Cheshire Hospices Education, relating to the End of Life  Partnership, Cheshire.

Cheshire Hospices Education, the End of Life Care Service Model and Cheshire Living Well Dying Well were joining together to create a more complete and holistic approach to living well, death and loss. The merger would be more cost-effective, financially viable and sustainable in the future. It would reduce duplication of effort, maximise and develop team member’s skills and create a more joined-up, integrated, co-ordinated and outcome driven approach. The overall aim was to lead, educate and facilitate excellence and best practice in palliative and end of life care; and to influence and enable communities to live and die well, supported by the health, social and voluntary workforce. It was noted that the Work Plan was already being driven by the needs of the population, as set out in the JSNA.

A partnership board/forum would represent the local stakeholders in palliative and end of life care, including service providers, service users, commissioners and workforce developers. Local advisory/operational groups/public health teams would feed in their priorities and local intelligence to the Partnership Board. These groups were already well-established in each locality, with a membership of practitioners and care workers from all areas of care. Public/patient/user engagement would be developed as a priority and would be an integral part of the partnership in terms of feedback, identifying needs and priorities.

The End of Life Partnership would have four work streams; education and practice development; service co-ordination, development and redesign; research evaluation and systems analysis outcomes; public health approach Cheshire Living Well Dying Well programme. It was being set up to meet specific outcomes which support staff and organisations to achieve their purpose in relation to quality, effectiveness, equality and efficiency in palliative and end of life care. Core funding of the partnership was, therefore, dependent upon stakeholders. Details of the potential funding sources were set out in the report.

In considering the report the Board considered that it would be helpful to have a shared/common set of outcomes and felt that it would be useful to have a connection with the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, particularly in respect of the priority relating to a reduction in unnecessary hospital admissions.

RESOLVED

That the report be received and noted.