'Vision' For Public Health Launched

The UK is to enjoy a better public health regime than ever before - with the first speech on Public Health by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley yesterday setting out a vision for a new Public Health Service.

He said that it would release all of society to work together to get healthy and live longer.

Speaking at the UK Faculty of Public Health's annual conference, Mr Lansley explained the philosophy behind the new approach and outlined what the framework required to deliver more effective Public Health might look like.

The plans to create a healthy nation are centred on a whole new approach which focuses on behaviour change; and which goes beyond constraining the supply of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and begins to understand and influence the drivers of demand.

The framework of empowerment includes a new responsibility deal between Government and business built on shared social responsibility and not state regulation and a new ring-fenced public health budget.

It will also mean a new 'Health Premium' to target public health resources towards the areas with the poorest health and the use of clear outcomes and measures to judge progress alongside NHS and social care outcomes.

There would also be an enhanced role for Public Health Directors so they have the resources and authority to improve the health of their communities and a new Cabinet Sub-Committee on Public Health, chaired by the Health Secretary, to tackle the drivers of demand on the NHS.

A White Paper, to be published later this year, will set out in more detail how the Public Health Service will work.

In his speech, Mr Lansley said: "For too long our approach to public health has been fragmented, overly complex and sadly ineffective.

"We want to free the system up - to create a framework which empowers people to make the changes that will really make a difference to the nation's lives.

"Working with communities and schools to develop young people's confidence and self-esteem. Seeing diet, exercise and education about drugs, alcohol and smoking not as an end in itself, but as a means to an end, to empower young people to take better decisions when young, so that they enjoy greater health and well-being though life," he said.

"This is why we need genuinely local strategies, based in neighbourhoods and schools.

"My vision is for a new Public Health Service which rebalances our approach to health, and draws together a national strategy and leadership, alongside local leadership and delivery and, above-all, a new sense of community and social responsibility.

"We will be very clear about what we want to measure and achieve, such as: increases in life expectancy, decreases in infant mortality and health inequalities, improved immunisation rates, reduced childhood obesity, fewer alcohol related admissions to hospital, and more people taking part in physical activity," he concluded.

(BMcC/GK)