Our Children and Young People Network’s clinical advisor, Dr Carol Ewing, has received an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Every year the college awards Honorary Fellowships to a small number of people who are considered by our members to have made a major contribution to paediatrics and child health through research, education, clinical service and leadership.

Carol, who received the fellowship yesterday (Thursday, April 29) said: “I am delighted to receive an RCPCH Honorary Fellowship. However, I must emphasise that my RCPCH contributions (2007-19) as Paediatricians in Medical Management Committee member, Workforce Officer and Vice President Health Policy were only possible through the support and guidance from RCPCH staff, clinical colleagues and RCPCH&Us. Thank you everyone.

“My award makes me even more determined to continue advocating for children, young people, families and child health staff to improve health outcomes as Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Network’s clinical advisor and as RCPCH’s Greater Manchester Ambassador, particularly through Covid-19 challenges. I am not retiring yet!”

Julie Cheetham, the SCNs’ director, said: “This fellowship is fully deserved. A fitting accolade for her hard work over the years promoting the need to improve services for children and young people, something which has very much continued during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

You can read Carol's citation on the RCPCH website.

The report of the Greater Manchester Children’s Health and Wellbeing Stakeholder Forum which took place on 28^th January is now available to view here.

The report captures the discussion and enthusiasm that was evident at the event which focussed on Working Together and Developing an Integrated Approach to Improve Outcomes for Children and Young People.

Additional supporting information and slide packs can also be downloaded at NHS England and NHS Improvement North West » Resources

Diabetes My Way –  the free online support to help patients self-manage their condition – has been extended beyond its original pilot period.

First launched back in late 2019, hundreds of patients have already registered, giving them free access to a wealth of diabetes resources, online education courses and access to their personal diabetes data dashboard.

The team will continue to promote the online support for at least another 12 months.

On average a person with diabetes will see a healthcare professional for three hours a year, for the other 8,757 hours they are responsible for managing their own condition.

Current pressures on the NHS and reduced appointments mean that, now more than ever, it is essential to empower and support people living with long term conditions to self-manage.

We have also been busy working behind the scenes to streamline the registration process making it easier for patients to access. Registration can now be completed through NHS login here.

Diabetes My Way is a one stop website which provides free online self-management support and education for people living with diabetes in Greater Manchester.

There are 3 elements to Diabetes My Way:

• Platform – people living with type 2 diabetes can register to access their GP practice diabetes data to support self-management (currently only available to EMIS & Vision practices).
• Website – provides advice and up-to-date information for people living with diabetes, their families, carers and clinical team.
• Education –a range of free QISMET accredited elearning courses including a brand new course on carbohydrate counting.

If you would like to know more about Diabetes My Way and how it can support your patients, email the team at england.diabetesmyway@nhs.net.

The Maternity Network was involved in a national event to mark the fifth anniversary of the publication of the landmark report of the National Maternity Review, Better Births.  

The online event last month also marked the culmination of the initial five-year programme set out by NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Maternity Transformation Programme.  

There has been great progress made in Greater Manchester to transform maternity services to deliver safer, more personalised care, in line with the vision set out in Better Births.  

At this important milestone, the event was an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of the programme and to hear from a range of senior leaders across the maternity system, discussing future priorities for maternity transformation.  

An area of focus for the event was the report by Donna Ockenden highlighting poor outcomes at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust for women and families in maternity services.  

The Seven Immediate Essential Actions outlined in the report were detailed by regional midwives, with good practice featured from around England.  

Chantal Knight (pictured above), maternity safety lead for the GMEC SCN, represented the North West regional midwife Claire Mathews, and described the new Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Quality Surveillance Tool, created to capture a helicopter view of each maternity providers’ safety measures. 

This new tool was launched on the April 1 this year and allows all stakeholders to view, on the Tableau platform, a one page collection of important maternity safety metrics from different organisations including CQC, NHS resolution and local maternity data metrics from the dashboard.  

Chantal said: “The event really highlighted the progress which has been made by Better Births in the last five years. It was very rewarding to promote our new tool, showing once again how GMEC is at the forefront of these improvements.” 

Further presentations were also given for showcasing Local Maternity System (LMS) initiatives, including from GMEC, with Cathy Brewster, Maternity Voices Partnership Chair, recounting the excellent engagement across the system and progress with collaborative working in maternity services, ensuring women and their families in GMEC are not only heard but actively involved in planning maternity services for the future.  

The event concluded with an overview from Steve Anderson, head of the maternity programme, regarding shaping the future work plan and its priorities. 

We have two new starters this month.

Alex Pegg – project officer, Respiratory Network:

“In my last role I worked for six months as a clinical network coordinator for the North West Coast Diabetes team. My highlights included supporting the roll out of digital education and developing the service user group. I enjoyed my role and learnt a lot from my colleagues in the diabetes team. I have a background in cancer services gained from roles within the NHS. Working at Wigan NHS Trust and Bolton Foundation Trust, I helped to roll out the Macmillan recovery package throughout secondary care and worked with service user groups to influence the quality, design, development and delivery of cancer services. Prior to this I worked for a national charity supporting people with disabilities and health conditions to secure and sustain employment.

I joined the network because I am passionate about high quality care for all and wish to improve health outcomes for people. My areas of work for the Respiratory Network are supporting Covid recovery, improving pulmonary rehabilitation services, ensuring wider roll out of opportunistic flu vaccines and supporting quality assured spirometry.

Outside of work I play cricket, follow my local football team and enjoy walking. I have recently got a campervan which I’m looking forward to using for camping holidays in the UK.”

Emma May Smith - project officer, Children and Young People Network

“I joined the Children's and Maternity Team in the SCN in April as a project officer and will be working with Fran Carbery on children’s projects such as the asthma app and long Covid.

I previously worked for the dementia programme with the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and before that was a clinic coordinator at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

I studied Politics and Sociology at the University of Sheffield from 2008 to 2011.

In my spare time, I research and collect Victorian photographs, with a collection of over 800 taking up increasing amounts of shelf space in my home.”

If you haven’t already, please take a look at our Achievements 2013-2020 document.

The document reflects on how our clinical leads have helped shape changes which have improved the lives of thousands of people living in Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire.

The report looks at each network, explaining how our life course approach has seen sustainable improvements from maternity to children to end of life care, with many long-term conditions tackled in between.