The Wirral Place Based Partnership Board met to discuss key performance issues, updates to NHS commissioning, and the implementation of a neighbourhood health model. The board noted reports on quality and performance, unscheduled care improvements, NHS changes, and primary care developments. The board also reviewed and approved its work programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

Quality and Performance

The board reviewed the Wirral PBPB Quality and Performance Report September 2025, which provided an overview of performance across Wirral Place since the last reporting period. The report highlighted several key areas:

• Referral to Treatment (RTT): Wirral exceeded its local target, with 62.7% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks, surpassing the 58% target. However, there was a small decline in performance for patients waiting more than 52 weeks, with 2.94% of patients waiting, against a target of 3.2%.
• Diagnostics: 11.4% of patients were waiting longer than six weeks for a diagnostic test, exceeding the 5% target. Commissioners are meeting with the Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC), radiology, and cancer leads to address performance and plan improvements.
• Cancer: Wirral reported below both the local and national plan for the 28-day combined cancer metric, with May 2025 reporting showing 67.2%, against a target of 77.5%. Pressures were noted within breast, head and neck, and gynaecology tumour groups, caused by consultant absence, vacancies, and lead times for diagnostics.
• Dementia: Wirral reported a 66.2% dementia diagnosis rate (DDR) in May 2025, slightly lower than the 66.7% target, due to an increase in referrals and some staffing issues within the Wirral Memory Service.
• Talking Therapies: Wirral reported 45% for reliable recovery in April 2025, below the 48% target, but reported 70% for reliable improvement, exceeding the 67% target.
• Healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs): A C. difficile strategy has been co-designed with Wirral University Teaching Hospital, Wirral Community Health and Care Trust, Wirral Health Protection, and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside.

Unscheduled Care Improvement Programme

The board received an Unscheduled Care Improvement Programme Update from Janelle Holmes, Joint Chief Executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, which highlighted progress in delivering key programme milestones across four workstreams: pre-hospital, hospital, post-hospital, and mental health.

The report noted that Wirral continues to perform well against other places within the Cheshire and Merseyside region for no criteria to reside (NCTR) performance. The pre-hospital workstream continues to focus delivery on admission avoidance. Key highlights included:

• Improvements to call before convey activity following engagement with ambulance crews.
• A team in the Emergency Department (ED) reviewing patients to facilitate early discharge.
• Implementation of bookable slots for telephone review by the urgent treatment centre (UTC).
• Sustained delivery of ambulance handover within 30 minutes.
• Reconfiguration of the Emergency Department (ED) whilst maintaining service delivery.

NHS Changes

The board received an Update on NHS Changes September 2025 from Simon Banks, Place Director (Wirral), NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, regarding proposed changes to NHS Cheshire and Merseyside following the publication of Working Together in 2025/26 to lay the foundations for reform.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside needs to reduce costs, including staffing, estates, and other overheads, to meet a national target to fulfil their future functions effectively and within a running costs cap of £19.00 per head of population. This means NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is required to reduce running costs by 31%. It is anticipated that this will mean a 25% reduction in current staffing costs - excluding vacancies.

The report also highlighted the key elements of the Fit for the Future plan, a 10-year strategy for the NHS in England, which aims to modernise the healthcare system through three major shifts: from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

Neighbourhood Health Model

Sayyed Osman, Director of Adults, Health, and Strategic Commissioning (DASS) Adult Care and Health, Wirral Council, presented a Neighbourhood Health Model Highlight Report September 2025, providing an update on the progress of establishing a Neighbourhood Health Model in Wirral.

The report noted that there is an urgent need to transform the health and care system to deliver more care at home or closer to home, improve people's access, experience and outcomes, and ensure the sustainability of health and social care delivery.

NHS England's guidance on neighbourhoods emphasises that we need to move to a neighbourhood health service that will deliver more care at home or closer to home, improve people's access, experience and outcomes, and ensure the sustainability of health and social care delivery. It sets out six initial core components of a neighbourhood approach:

• Population Health Management
• Modern General Practice
• Standardising Community Health Services
• Neighbourhood Multi-Disciplinary Teams
• Integrated intermediate care with a 'Home First' approach
• Urgent neighbourhood services

The report also included an Application for National Neighbourhood Implementation Programme.

Primary Care Group Report

The board received a PCG Highlight Report September 2025 from Iain Stewart, Head of Transformation and Partnerships, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside (Wirral), providing an update on the work of the Primary Care Group (PCG).

The Group reviewed the current risks and agreed to remove the risk relating to GP Collective Action as no longer any active areas after new GP contract settlement for 2025/26.

Iain Stewart provided an update on the application process for the Neighbourhood Implementation Programme. The aim is to submit a Wirral Place application with all partner organisations involvement and support.

Wirral Place Based Partnership Work Programme

The board reviewed the Wirral Place Based Partnership Board Work Programme and agreed to add reports on Transforming Care and Personal Health Budgets (PHB) and the Personalised Care Agenda to the work programme.