Community Partnerships

- Helping influence, address and understand needs in local communities

Cheshire West Voluntary Action (CWVA) is hosting and supporting Community Partnerships across west Cheshire.

“Community Partnerships are places that build relationships and connect capability to enable local people to flourish. Such communities are the places where change will happen and through which the Cheshire West Place vision and ambition will actually be realised.”

Cheshire West Place, which includes CWVA as representatives for the community sector, Cheshire West and Chester Council, NHS partners and Healthwatch, is committed to creating robust Community Partnerships that will tackle health inequalities at a local level.

CWVA will spearhead this initiative, with Gary Cliffe, Chief Executive of CWVA, being made Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Community Partnerships.

We’re working alongside a wide range of stakeholders, including community sector organisations, Primary Care Networks (PCNs), Let’s Talk and community health partners, and we’ve together developed a comprehensive Action Plan for Community Partnerships.

Action Plan highlights

Celebrating success: We will showcase the achievements of Community Partnerships, highlighting the benefits of cooperative efforts in addressing local health disparities.
Setting priorities: The Action Plan will outline key priorities that Cheshire West Place aims to address through Community Partnerships, ensuring alignment and focused efforts.
Providing resources: Infrastructure and resources will be given to support each Community Partnership with meeting these priorities effectively.
Collaborative opportunities: This will foster collaboration with various partners, identifying and filling gaps to maximise impact.
Local insights: Each Community Partnership will use data and local knowledge to identify and address specific priorities.

Community-focused leadership

As leadership shifts towards the community sector, it is hoped resources will be directed into communities and supporting staff to maximise impact.

Monitoring and outcomes

The Community Partnership Programme Board, supported by Programme Managers from the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, will monitor the Action Plan’s progress. An Outcomes Dashboard will be developed with each Community Partnership to track progress and align with wider Cheshire West Place priorities.

Join us in making a difference

Through this collaborative framework, we are dedicated to creating a healthier, more equitable community. By working together, we can achieve significant progress in addressing health inequalities and improving the lives of our residents.

There are seven Community Partnerships in the borough, helping influence, address and understand shared objectives in each of the local communities.

Download a presentation with storyboards for each of the Community Partnerships

Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port Community Partnership is a mature partnership chaired by Dr Emily Morton, with a monthly Connect meeting led by Social Prescriber Coordinator, Emily Lightfoot.

Current priorities include:

reducing falls and social isolation in the elderly
reducing harm from drug and alcohol addiction
encouraging healthy eating and exercise in families to improve family wellbeing.

Meetings are held bi monthly. Social Prescribers and GPs in this PCN use the Joy system to make referrals and capture data.

Frodsham, Helsby and Elton

Dr Iris Keating of Frodsham Bee Friends chairs this lively and active Community Partnership, with Jennifer Lloyd the Community Lead/Facilitator. Over the past three years, the group has delivered 13 key projects that have positively impacted the lives of hundreds of people and look forward to doing more to bring all partners together this year.

They have an ongoing series of impact studies in place and will develop this further to measure the real impact they are making on local people.

They meet monthly across the area and are exploring the development of further working groups to ensure that they meet the needs of their local communities. Their immediate priorities are:

expanding the membership of their Community Partnership
providing additional support for established groups in the area
improving communications.

Neston and Willaston

This Community Partnership is chaired by Dr Jeremy Perkins, with Rachael Furey from Neston Youth and Community Centre acting as Community Lead.

They meet monthly and have sub groups, covering:

border issues
children and families mental health
older people.

Northwich

Natalie Kendal, Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership’s Northwich Care Community Support Manager (Chair) is driving forward Northwich’s Community Partnerships priorities alongside Donna from the Northwich Primary Care Network’s Social Prescribing Team

Northwich Community Partnership brings together a wide range of people and organisations with the aim of helping make the lives of everyone living and working in the Northwich area happier and healthier. We enable Community-based organisations to work together on issues relating to the local population in the widest ways to promote health and wellbeing. It works to deliver local projects, implement national policies, and engage with local people.

We meet every other month and are working together to set priorities and currently exploring –

accessibility of support
social connectivity and navigating what is available
managing health inequalities, such as cost of living pressures.

Northwich Community Partnership | Northwich | Facebook

One Chester

This is a new Community Partnership, bringing Chester Central, Chester East and Chester South together into one Partnership.

Gary Cliffe, CEO of CWVA, chairs this partnership, with sub groups covering:

Projects (Chair – Simon Sandford)
Communications (Chair – Ryan Gould)
Data (Chair – Emma Wright).

Regular networking events will take place throughout the year to help members learn about what’s happening in the Community Partnership.

Rural Together

This Rural Together Community Partnership is being chaired by Claire Lockerbie, Social Prescriber, with admin support from Cheshire Community Action (CCA). They are currently looking afresh at the make up their steering and sub groups.

Winsford

This very mature Community Partnership is chaired by Jackie-Ann Hardman, Care Community Support Manager with Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership.

Visit the Facebook page for this Community Partnership

Meetings are held bi monthly, with sub groups and projects covering:

mental health and wellbeing
supporting young teenagers in crisis
physical activity and social isolation.

An ebulletin for Community Partnerships is shared monthly, highlighting what’s taking place in each of the areas and sharing other news that people might find useful.

If you have any questions about Community Partnerships and CWVA’s role supporting them, please contact Rosemary Harrington, Admin and Community Partnerships Officer: rosemary.harrington@cwva.org.uk.