Members of Liverpool Health Partners (LHP) gathered for a Board away day to share ideas and a vision for the future of an academic health science system for Liverpool City Region.

Representatives from all 10 partner organisations were present at the event which was led by LHP Managing Director Dr Séamus O’Neill and Board Chairman Prof Tim Jones. There was also representation from NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and from industry.

The event started with a panel discussion aimed at learning from the experiences of other academic health science systems in the United Kingdom, Europe and America.

The panel was expertly chaired by Prof Tom Walley, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Clinical Research at the University of Liverpool. It consisted of:

• Sir John Tooke, Chairman, Academic Health Solutions, former Vice-Provost (Health) at UCL, and former President of the Academy of Medical Sciences;
• Hannah Powell, Chief Operating Officer of Newcastle Health Innovation Partners;
• Tim Jones, LHP Board Chair and Vice Chancellor, University of Liverpool, and
• James Sumner, Chief Executive Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The question posed was: “What is the academic health science system that we want to see across Liverpool City Region” and the panel were in their element. There were examples drawn from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, various parts of the system in the USA, the Netherlands and Singapore. There were also stories and personal accounts of successful models as well as lessons to be learned across the UK.

Building on the fantastic insights from the panel discussion there was a plenary session, asking: “What are the core components of, and success criteria for a successful AHSS in Liverpool?” We spent time mapping the assets across the Partnership to shape the collective value proposition for a Liverpool AHSS and in identifying the gaps.

The assembled guests were then tasked with considering what happens next for the system in Liverpool and also challenged to prioritise the areas and ways of working that we should focus on.

The event was marked by a renewed sense of urgency within the partnership as it moves to find solutions to the burden of ill-health in the city region. This sense of urgency and the challenges identified in the Liverpool 2040 report were to be the motivations.

The assets to be supported, mobilised and connected to meet these challenges also emerged in the discussions.

The LHP Team were tasked with collating the priorities and developing a work plan that sits alongside the developing vision. More to follow on that in future updates….

Séamus O’Neill said: “I would like to thank the representatives of our member organisations for participating in the day with such enthusiasm and energy. It is crucial these discussions take place to ensure we have a clear mandate from the partnership to convene and advocate for Liverpool City Region as a system. I would also like to thank the LHP team for putting the event together and for their hard work and commitment of the last year.”

Tim Jones said: “Bringing together the clinical and academic expertise across Cheshire and Merseyside for the benefit of our communities is crucial if we are to tackle the health inequalities facing our region. The job of our partnership is to work collaboratively and show the rest of the country, and the world, what can be achieved in Liverpool. My sincere thanks to our external advisors for their input today – we will not achieve our ambitions by looking inwards and we have seen today the benefits of that external perspective. That is something that we will ensure continues as we develop our work as a Partnership”

The discussions were captured visually by artists from More Than Minutes who brought to life and recorded the highlights from the discussions. The output they produced is shown below.