Our Services
Mersey Care in the media
Mersey Care’s partnership with North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), with the 2-hour Urgent Community Response (UCR) team’s work in providing a new approach to dealing with 999 calls to free up more ambulances, has recently been featured on Granada Reports.
The aim of the Urgent Community Response NWAS Pathway, is to get patients the right help, in the right place, as quickly as possible and allow ambulances to reach life and death situations faster.
Since its launch in November 2025, ambulance response times have improved and there's been a significant reduction in avoidable hospital visits.
Mersey Care to deliver partnership specialist community services across West Lancashire
Mersey Care has been sub-contracted to deliver specialist community services across West Lancashire in partnership with Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (MWL) following a competitive tendering process by NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.
MWL will act as lead provider for the contract and Mersey Care has been sub-contracted to deliver some of the specialist community services, which will cover a predominantly rural district with a population of around 118,000 people, including Skelmersdale, Ormskirk and surrounding villages. More information is available on our website.
Lead Provider Collaborative in action: Women’s Engagement Success
PROSPECT marked this month’s International Women’s Day with a new forum opened by Chief Medical Officer Dr Noir Thomas.
The event provided patients in the female secure care pathway with a voice and opportunity to discuss their services. The forum was shaped through engagement with women on every secure ward, supported by lived experience colleagues from the lead provider collaborative which Mersey Care leads.
Improving Local Health Services for Families with Young Children
Mersey Care, in partnership with Liverpool City Council, is making changes to how health visiting services for children aged 0 to 5 are organised in Liverpool to ensure services are more connected to local communities across the city.
We have aligned health visiting teams to the council’s neighbourhood structures as part of the transformation of public health services for children, young people, and families that began in April 2025.
Liverpool’s Health Visiting Service will continue to support families from pregnancy until children start school, offering at least five key check‑ins with families, starting in late pregnancy, following birth, at one year and when a child is two and a half years old. They will also be available to support families with any questions or concerns they have about their child. More information in the news section of our website.
Online health portal for Liverpool and Sefton families
We've launched a new online Health Visitor Portal and a single phone number to make it easier for families across Liverpool and Sefton to access Child Health Services.
The two improvements simplify access to trusted NHS advice for parents and carers from pregnancy through to school readiness, including guidance on feeding, safe sleep, emotional wellbeing, child development and safety guidance as well as local support information and contact details for Health Visiting Teams. More information is available within the news section of our website.
Safe sleep saves lives
Mersey Care’s guidance covers everything from safe sleep position to keeping your baby’s head and face uncovered – please look at our website for more information.
If you need to speak to your health visitor for advice please contact:
Liverpool parents: Call 0151 295 3317
Sefton parents: Call 0151 247 6354.
Stay safe – catch up with your vaccinations
New guidance encouraging families whose children have missed their vaccine to catch up and approach GPs, health visitors and nurses for the most trusted sources of information on this issue.
If you work with children and families as part of your job, please take some time to read the updated messages and / or share with your own families.
More about our vaccination and immunisation team and where they work can be found on our Vaccination and Immunisation Service web page.
Free HPV vaccine information webinar on 24 March
Parents and carers across Liverpool, Halton, Knowsley, St Helens and Sefton are invited to join a free online information session to learn more about the HPV vaccine, which is offered to all young people in Year 8 as part of the national school aged immunisation programme.
The webinar will take place on Monday 24 March at 7pm and will be hosted by the School Aged Immunisation Team. The 20 minute session includes a 10 minute presentation followed by a 10 minute question and answer session from parental questions submitted online with NHS immunisation nurses. More information on our website.
World Oral Health Day – 20 March
We’re helping families build healthy habits that last a lifetime and improve their oral health.
Tooth decay is still a major issue for children in the UK, but small daily steps - like using the correct fluoride toothpaste and choosing sugar smart snacks - can protect young teeth.
There are trusted NHS resources offering advice for children of all ages on our Primary School Portal and there is also advice on dental care on our Health Visitor Portal.
Interactive booklet to support pupils during exams
We have launched a new interactive digital booklet called 'Exam success', to support pupils with exams this summer. It includes revision planning tips and practical techniques to help young people feel calmer and more in control.
It’s part of a wider set of mental health support workbooks developed by Mersey Care’s Mental Health Support Teams in Schools, explaining how stress can affect the body and the mind. More information is available on the news section of our website.
NHS Talking Therapies aids national mental health campaign
A new national campaign encourages people struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, body dysmorphic disorder or a phobia to refer themselves for NHS Talking Therapies treatment.
NHS Talking Therapies provide effective, confidential and free treatments delivered by trained professionals, in person, on the phone or as an online course. People can be referred by their GP or refer themselves at the NHS website.
Strengthening Parent Infant Mental Health
We deliver two complementary services supporting families in the early years:
- SPS (Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service) offers multi-disciplinary care for women and birthing people with moderate to severe or complex mental health needs, from preconception to 24 months postnatal
- BABS (Building Attachment and Bonds Service) provides therapeutic support for parents and carers with mild to moderate mental health difficulties, focusing on strengthening the parent infant bond and safeguarding relationships, mental health as well as risk (supporting parents and babies at risk of separation). This service is not commissioned for the Liverpool area.
Together, these services ensure families receive timely, tailored support to improve mental health and early relationships. More information is available on this document.
New Liverpool base for Perinatal Team
Liverpool Perinatal Mental Health Team has moved to a new address after being based at the city’s Women’s Hospital for the last eight years.
The team will now be based at Wavertree Health Centre, 57 Prince Alfred Road, Liverpool L15 5BG. More details can be found in the news section of our website.
Specialist Perinatal Service - we need your help
If you have referred to the Cheshire and Merseyside Specialist Perinatal Service we would like to hear about your experience of referring and working with the service.
Your feedback is important and will help improve the quality and accessibility of the support provided.
We would appreciate it if you could take a few moments to share feedback or if you would prefer to share your feedback directly, please contact Annie Kelly at annie.kelly@merseycare.nhs.uk.
The feedback form is open until 31 March 2026. Thank you for your time and support.
Perinatal Awareness Training Session
Perinatal Awareness training sessions are available for staff working in Urgent Mental Health Care Services (such as Crisis Lines, First Response, Home Treatment, Liaison Psychiatry) in Cheshire, Knowsley, Halton, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, Warrington and Wirral.
The two hour online session will cover:
- Importance and prevalence of perinatal mental health (PMH)
- Introduction to PMH illness/experiences
- PMH risks
- PMH service info
- Referral information
- Questions and answer session.
Dates:
- Tuesday, 5 May 2026, 1pm to 3pm
- Thursday, 7 May 2026, 11am to 1pm
- Wednesday, 19 May 2026, 1pm to 3pm.
You can book your place online and please contact Ruth Baker at ruth.baker@merseycare.nhs.uk for more information or questions about the sessions.
Our Achievements
Community Mental Health Services win NHS gold award
Our Community Mental Health Services have been granted the prestigious Gold Award for the NHS England Lived Experience Charter, a set of standards recognising excellence in inclusive recruitment and retention practices of people with lived experience.
The Lived Experience Charter has been achieved by 99 services since being launched in 2020, but only 20 have been granted the Gold Award, the highest level available. The assessment panel described Mersey Care’s submission as one of the best they had seen. More information in the news section of our website.
Our Research
New video celebrates success of M-RIC community research funding
A new short film from the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) captures the success of their 12 month community research funding project with Sefton Council for Voluntary Service (CVS). It celebrates what was achieved through providing seed funding grants to local organisations so they could advance grassroots research activities.
Embedding patient voices within M-RIC
Sean Barnes is an M-RIC service user and carer representative (SUCR) and provides guidance and insight based on his personal experiences to M-RICs neuroimmune therapeutics for psychosis research.
Please read his new blog to learn more about his research experience and how M-RIC embeds patient voices in their work.
Get Involved
Two Weeks Left to Support Our Easter Appeal
There are just two weeks remaining to donate Easter eggs for children in care as part of our annual Easter Appeal. We’re once again collecting chocolate eggs for our Children in Care services, helping bring a moment of joy to children who may be facing difficult or unsettling circumstances.
How you can get Involved:
1. Drop off Easter eggs locally - collection points are available across Sefton, St Helens, Liverpool and Knowsley.
2. Donate online
You can also donate online and our Mersey Cares’ Easter Bunny will purchase eggs on your behalf.
Every small act of kindness helps a child feel valued and supported and can make a meaningful difference at a challenging time in their life.
The final date for egg donations in 27 March and more details can be found on the Mersey Cares website.
Charity Impact: Supporting end of life care and bereavement for patients and their families
In our new series of impact stories, we look at how Mersey Cares, our dedicated charity, is making a difference to service users, patients and staff across Mersey Care.
Thanks to the kindness of supporters the charity funded memory-making resources including fingerprint keepsakes, memory bears and bespoke bereavement cards to offer comfort and emotional support to patients and their families during end-of-life care.
Deputy Associate Director of Nursing and Patient Experience, Deborah Tubey, said: “When a loved one or someone important to you has died, it’s often difficult to find the right words.
“The development of the Trust bereavement cards has been a wonderful piece of work, clinically led by our amazing specialist palliative care and community nursing teams for adults and children.” More information can be found on the Mersey Cares website or read their Impact Report.
Skydive for Mersey Cares during Mental Health Awareness Week
When: May 16.
Where: Tilstock Airfield (Shropshire).
We’re looking for people to take part in our annual Skydive during Mental Health Awareness Week in support of our mental health and community services. Feel the thrill of diving from 11,000 feet, securely strapped to a qualified instructor.
If you have always wanted to do this bucket list challenge or want to challenge yourself to do something amazing for others, we’d love to hear from you. Find out more on the Mersey Cares website.
Other upcoming Mersey Cares fundraisers:
Mersey Tunnel 10k - Sunday 12 April 2026
Skydive to support Mental Health Awareness Week - 16 May 2026
Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge - 6 June 2026
The Port Sunlight 10K and 5K event - 7 June 2026
NHS Big Tea - Monday 29 June to Friday 10 July 2026
London to Paris Cycle for ZSA - 22 July 2026
Snowdon at Night 2026 - 1 August 2026
Northern Lights Trek Challenge for ZSA - February 2027
Jobs Fair at The Life Rooms Walton
The Life Rooms IPS Employment Service are hosting a jobs fair on Wednesday 15 April in Walton to support Mersey Care’s service users to find the right role for them.
The Life Rooms are one of the largest providers of IPS employment support in the NHS, and they support both service users and local businesses to match talent to vacancies.
The jobs fair is free to attend and free for recruiting exhibitors across Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens, Halton and Warrington. More information is aFind out more here.
Stay safe – catch up with your vaccinations
New guidance encouraging families whose children have missed their vaccine to catch up and approach GPs, health visitors and nurses for the most trusted sources of information on this issue.
If you work with children and families as part of your job, please take some time to read the updated messages and / or share with your own families.
More about our vaccination and immunisation team and where they work can be found on our Vaccination and Immunisation Service webpage.
MC Magazine
The Spring issue of MC Magazine arrives soon. The new issue explores life inside the new Mossley Hill Hospital, spotlights Mersey Care’s ambitious Green Plan and shares an inspiring account of recovering from trauma through exercise. Other features include:
- Tips to stay safe from cyber crime
- Guidance on staying active in later life
- How a comedy course at The Life Rooms has transformed service users’ confidence
- Fibre boosting diet ideas
- Stress – the signs to spot that it’s becoming a problem
- Breastfeeding challenges - how a team in Sefton is supporting new parents with huge success
- The wellbeing benefits of origami.
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Do you know someone who wants to learn more about Mersey Care by joining our stakeholder mailing list? Please ask them to fill in the form on our website and they’ll be the first to hear all our news.