East Cheshire NHS Trust

East Cheshire Trust employs 120 doctors who are required to undergo a strengthened medical appraisal from the 1st April 2012 to support the GMC’s appraisal and revalidation requirements. As a result the Trust has carried out a comprehensive review of its current appraisal systems and procedures to ensure they are fit for purpose, and has have explored innovative and cost effective solutions for gathering and storing confidential appraisal information and data.

Cheshire HR Service, founded in 2006, provides a blueprint for NHS HR shared services. Hosted by East Cheshire NHS Trust it provides the full range of HR services through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) Partnership Arrangement, to East Cheshire NHS Trust, Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT and NHS Western Cheshire and is currently looking to extend its coverage and build a broader customer base. With no obligation on NHS organizations to go down the shared service route there is a need to ensure value for money and the economies of scale that a shared service brings.   

Cheshire HR Service set out to increase HR efficiency and to maximise resources on behalf of its NHS partner organisations. It also recognised the value of adopting a common strategy and approach to improve the health and wellbeing of staff across Cheshire. This case study looks  at the development and delivery of a staff Health and Wellbeing Strategy for customer organisations within an HR shared service organisation. 

In August 2010 East Cheshire NHS Trust set up an innovative Supervisor of Midwives (SOM) clinic which includes offering advice to pregnant women regarding birth planning to help support normal births.As well as helping mothers and babies this initiative has led to greater job satisfaction for the midwives and an overall reduction in NHS costs.    

In 2011 East Cheshire NHS Trust, together with Eastern Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (ECCCG), Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Cheshire East Council formed a partnership to facilitate integrated care for the population of East Cheshire.The Eastern Cheshire ‘Transforming Workforce in Partnership’ (TWIP) project now forms the initial work programme of the over arching Leadership, OD & Workforce workstream of the integrated care programme.