Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England

1. Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England The White Paper in a nutshell

2. Key Underlying Themes Need to focus the nation’s resources on the root causes of ill health Responsibility needs to be shared right across society Local government best placed to influence many of the wider factors affecting health and wellbeing

3. Key Underlying Themes Greater emphasis on personal responsibility and efforts to influence personal choice Reluctance to legislate or regulate to eliminate personal choice unless all other interventions fail

4. Key Underlying Themes Local government and local communities should decide what actions to take and be empowered to take action themselves to improve health Resources for public health and prevention will come from the NHS but will be ring-fenced so it can no longer be ‘raided’ for treatment

5. Key Underlying Themes Importance of intervening throughout the life course but particularly during the early years, and particularly through actions of health visitors Focus on achieving public health outcomes Addressing health inequalities through funding allocations to local areas, with financial incentives to reward improved outcomes

7. Key Policy Proposals

15. Unanswered Questions Exactly how big a % of NHS spend will be included in the ring-fenced budget? Exactly what will it be ring-fenced for? Will the % allocated to prevention be sufficient to achieve the scale of public health improvement required?

16. Unanswered Questions How are the public health functions and responsibilities to be effectively balanced / shared between Public Health England, Local Government and the NHS (and GLA in London)? Who should be defined as the public health professional workforce? Who will employ them?

17. Unanswered Questions What powers will the Health & Wellbeing Board have to influence delivery of public health outcomes?

18. When are these questions likely to be answered? Local Areas encouraged to shape structures required to discharge public health functions now Shadow form Public Health England to be established during 2011

19. When are these questions likely to be answered? Key documents on health visitors, mental health, tobacco control, Outcomes Framework – Winter 2010/11 Key documents on Responsibility Deal, obesity, physical activity, social marketing, sexual health & teenage pregnancy, pandemic flu – Spring 2011

20. When are these questions likely to be answered? Key documents on health protection, emergency preparedness, public health workforce strategy – Autumn 2011 Shadow public health ring-fenced budget – Spring 2012