The diabetes team is busy preparing for the launch this autumn of its new digital toolkit to help people manage their diabetes.
Called 'Diabetes My Way', the website and app has the potential to be a real game-changer, helping people easily make big improvements to their lives.
From their smart phone, tablet, Mac or PC, the 150,000 people in the city region who live with type 2 diabetes will be able to receive 1-1 specialist dietician support, personal lifestyle coaching, have access to their NHS diabetes care record, as well as upload their glucose monitoring results and share them with clinicians.
The team wants to sign-up as many people as possible to the free service and will be sending out promotional packs and further information shortly to GP practices.
We'll bring you an update in the next newsletter about Diabetes My Way. If you would like any information in the meantime, please contact Hannah Bishop.
Pictured above: Denise and Christine from the team model the Diabetes My Way t-shirts.
Maternity network
Expo hears about LMS achievements in improving safety
The work the maternity team carries out as part of the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Local Maternity System (LMS) was highlighted at the NHS Health & Care Innovation Expo this month.
The session underlined the opportunities and challenges of system-level planning and the panel included clinical leads and service user representatives.
The GMEC LMS is a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and non-clinicians involved with either providing, receiving or commissioning maternity care with the aim of ensuring person-centred, safe and high quality care to mothers, babies and families through pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period.
The discussion was around the journey towards the LMS, how service users have been involved, partnership working and the achievements that have resulted, with the panel featuring Cathy Brewster and Natalie Qureshi from Maternity Voices Partnership in Greater Manchester, Dr Richard Preece, Executive Lead for Quality and Medical Director of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSC Partnership), Ms Karen Bancroft, the network’s maternity clinical lead and Eileen Stringer, the network’s midwife clinical lead.
There was great audience engagement, lots of questions and some inspirational words from Baroness Julia Cumberlege about how Better Births, the Government’s programme to improve maternity safety which her 2015 review of maternity services set in motion, is here to stay.
Dr Preece said about being on the panel: “It was great to share the work of teams across GMEC. When you pause and present the work you realise how much everyone’s done to improve support for mums, dads and babies.
“The audience were listening closely, taking photos and notes, and writing tweets - it was really well received. Hopefully what everyone has done here will encourage others and give them ideas. It was a pleasure for me to share the stage with colleagues, but we were all very conscious that we were speaking on behalf of many others."
 Progress in bid to reduce babies born with cerebral palsy
Great progress is being made in Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire (GMEC) to prevent babies developing cerebral palsy.
The roll out of the national PReCePT programme and recruitment of clinical champions has resulted in a sharp increase in the uptake of mothers being given magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) during preterm labour to 85%, which exceeds the national standard.
Approximately 140 out of the 150 babies who were eligible across GMEC from the start of the PReCePT programme received magnesium sulphate and evidence indicates four babies would be prevented from developing cerebral palsy and a lifetime of disability for families, as well as a reduction in expensive and extensive healthcare provision.
The success of the programme has been achieved by the dedication of the PReCePT champions, who have been nominated for the Chief Nursing Officer Silver Team Award.
Clinical lead writes about GM improvements for journal
Our network’s clinical adviser, Dr Carol Ewing, has written an article for the Welsh Paediatric Journal about Greater Manchester’s devolution journey.
Called ‘Integrated Care for Children – The Greater Manchester Approach’, the paper explains the challenging scenario which GM faced as devolution kicked off and how different agencies have come together to make the city region a better place for young people to grow-up in.
Dr Ewing writes in the paper: “When a once in a life time opportunity comes along, it must be seized and that is exactly what happened when the GM Devolution deal was agreed.”
Dr Ewing explains how leaders from health, education, and other public and voluntary sectors took their chance to work with children, young people, parents and carers to create a collective vision – something which culminated in the implementation of the GM Child Health and Wellbeing Framework.
Carol writes: “The journey has begun but there is no room for complacency and everyone involved in the journey has a part to play.”
The paper will appear in the Welsh Paediatric Journal this November. You can subscribe here.
Pictured right: Dr Carol Ewing
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 Our Children and Young People’s Network hosted an event which focused on how to develop a modern, effective, safe and sustainable workforce for delivering services.
The biannual Children’s Health and Wellbeing Stakeholder forum brought together key people from across the region to take a deep dive into the subject.
The theme of workforce is ‘Objective 8’ of the GMHSC Partnership’s Child Health and Wellbeing Framework, which is supported by the SCNs. Objective 8 aims to develop a modern, effective, safe and sustainable workforce that delivers children and young people’s services, ensuring there are the right people with the right skills and values in the right places.
Attendees at the event in June included children and young people, engagement and parent/carer leads and professional representatives from CCGs, primary care, community, acute and mental health services, GMHSC Partnership, public and third sector organisations. The aim was to identify the opportunities and challenges facing the workforce and to develop a future integrated workforce plan.
Presentations were delivered by Julie Cheetham, Assistant Director at the SCNs, Yvonne Rogers, Deputy Director of Workforce, GMHSC Partnership, Dr Ewing, Coll Bell, Children and Young People Mental Health Workforce lead and Tracey Hart, Quality Lead for School Nursing, both at the GMHSC Partnership.
Attendees discussed the wider issues for the children’s workforce and areas for future work. A number of recommendations were shared with the GMHSC Partnership’s Children and Young People’s Executive Board.
In response, the board has agreed to focus on three key areas for action, which are the development of an Early Years Workforce Academy, school nursing and strengthening key workforce group relationships between professionals, carers and volunteers. Plans will be developed over the coming months.
Our network’s clinical adviser Dr Carol Ewing, said: “There was very strong engagement from the attendees, who recommended where our focus should lie next, and we look forward to the board developing these further.
“We’re making encouraging progress with children and young people’s services in Greater Manchester. Developing the right workforce is an essential step towards improving their health and wellbeing.”
Pictured above: Dr Ewing speaks at the event.
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