Council leads the way in new national peer review scheme
Public Health work in Cheshire West has been praised following the first peer review of its kind in England.
Cheshire West and Chester Council has been praised for its approach to improving health and wellbeing after becoming the first council in England to take part in a new national programme.
The first Public Health peer review in England saw a panel of Local Government Association (LGA) experts spend three days with the Council and partners in September.
Their newly published report found that the Council is fulfilling its public health responsibilities well and has demonstrated a strong commitment to reducing health inequalities in the borough.
We were pleased to be the first council in the country to take part in this new process.
Cllr Lisa Denson, Cabinet Member for A Fairer Future (Poverty, Public Health and Mental Health), said: “We were pleased to be the first council in the country to take part in this new process.
“We’re really proud of the work we do to improve health and wellbeing for people in the borough – particularly trying to break down the inequalities we see across different areas in our borough.
“There’s always more to do, and having that independent assessment of our work to help celebrate what we’re doing well, as well as help us to refine how we can improve, is vital to help us help our residents.”
The review was improvement-focused rather than an inspection.
It considered six areas, including leadership, vision and priorities, partnership working, use of data, resources and commissioning and statutory responsibilities.
The report praised strong political leadership, senior officer commitment and effective partnership working across the organisation.
Areas for development noted in the report included reviewing public health priorities for the Council as a whole, strengthening workforce planning, improving influence across the wider health system and using more feedback from residents to inform decisions and demonstrate value.
The LGA’s Public Health Peer Review is part of the LGA’s new public health improvement offer.
It responds directly to the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England commitment that every upper-tier and unitary council will undergo a Public Health Peer Review on a regular cycle.