About Us
What is Improving Me?
Improving Me is the women’s health and maternity programme for Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, aiming to improve the experiences of women and children. The associated Women’s Health and Maternity (WHaM) programme is focused on developing a safe, high quality, clinically and financially sustainable whole system model of care for women’s services across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Our Main Goals
- The Women’s and Children’s Services Partnership will develop a safe, high quality, clinically and financially sustainable whole system model of care for women’s and children’s services across Cheshire and Merseyside.
- Engaging in decision making about the services that are offered to meet the needs of women, their babies, children, young people and their families at the right time, in the right place by the right people. Care should be centered around personal choice and individual needs.
- To reduce unwarranted variations in outcomes and experiences by working together with local NHS, public and third-sector partners.
- To enrich maternity teams through effective leadership, recruitment, retention, training and support for continuous development.
Our History
Early Adopter & Pioneer - Maternity Choice and Personalisation Care
In 2016 Improving Me was identified as a Maternity Transformation Programme Early Adopter site and a Maternity Choice and Personalisation Care Pioneer Programme – one of only two sites nationally to achieve both statuses.
What is an Early Adopter site?
A key recommendation of the Better Births report was that NHS England should: “seek volunteer localities to act as early adopters” to drive improvement for change and test new ways to deliver care. Cheshire and Merseyside is one of only seven sites nationwide chosen to lead the way in maternity transformation.
The experiences of the Early Adopters will pave the way for national rollout of initiatives that deliver safer, more personalised care for all women and every baby, improve outcomes, and reduce inequalities. More information.
See the Cheshire Merseyside Early Adopter Service Delivery Diagram
What is the Pioneer programme?
The Maternity Choice and Personalisation Pioneers were developed to test ways of improving choice and personalisation for women accessing maternity services.
In Cheshire and Merseyside, Improving Me were one of seven sites chosen to improve the choices available to women across clinical commissioning group (CCG) boundaries. This involves empowering women to take control in decisions about the care they receive to better meet their needs and preferences.
Pioneers worked rapidly over an 18 month period to develop and test ways of improving choice and personalisation of maternity services for women in their localities. NHS England drew on this work to promote for national adoption and adaptation as the Pioneers progressed, to support all areas of the country to offer personalised maternity care tailored to women’s needs and preferences.
We work with seven maternity providers across the Cheshire and Merseyside areas. Click on the providers below to visit your their websites to find out more information.
- Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust
- Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust
- St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Services NHS Trust
- Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
JSNA
Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) was commissioned by Cheshire and Merseyside Directors of Public Health of the Champs Public Health Collaborative to conduct a maternity services needs assessment for Cheshire, Merseyside and West Lancashire. This was published in January 2016. View the Maternity Services Needs Assessment Report