Category: Public Health

Public Health England

Map roles using the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework

The Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework describes the functions and activities carried out by people working to protect and promote the public’s health across the UK. It can be used to: help individuals to recognise their capabilities in relation to public health activity, enabling them to manage their development and career planning; and support career conversations between individual workers and their peers, supervisors, mentors or managers, to support career planning and progression.

Read the guidance here

Report: South West Research and Evaluation Workshop Bristol

Public Health England, October 2019

The Research, Translation and Innovation (RTI) division has been working with PHE centres to strengthen links between public health academics and others across the public health system via research workshops to explore public health research needs and priorities in their local areas. This workshop focussed on:

• Education and Training.

• Work of the CLAHRC.

• Social Prescribing.

• Support for Research.

• Research and Innovation.

Click here to view the full report.

Individual and local area factors associated with self-reported wellbeing, perceived social cohesion and sense of attachment to one’s community: analysis of the Understanding Society Survey

What Works Wellbeing, September 2019

What Works Wellbeing analysis of data from the Understanding Society Survey (USS) which follows a large sample of people from across Britain over time. This study was undertaken to examine questions likely to be especially relevant for those working in the field of public health intelligence, using small area statistics to identify localities where interventions may particularly need to be targeted in order to reduce inequalities in wellbeing across England. Key findings are:

• Those living in areas with worse Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) scores, and in areas with higher Social Fragmentation (SFI) Scores reported lower levels of social cohesion in their area and weaker sense of attachment to their neighbourhoods. SFI scores significantly predict perceived cohesion and attachment, in addition to IMD Scores.

• Those living in areas with worse IMDs scores reported lower (worse) wellbeing scores in survey wave 4 and less positive rates of change in wellbeing by wave 7, when all of the individual attributes are taken into account. Some domains of the IMD2010 index are more relevant for predicting wellbeing than others.

• Perception of social cohesion and sense of attachment to one’s neighbourhood were associated with self-reported wellbeing

Click here to view the full report.

Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s

Department of Health and Social Care, July 2019

The DHSC, together with the Cabinet Office, has published this Green Paper setting out proposals to tackle the causes of preventable ill health in England. It signals a new approach to public health that involves a personalised prevention model. It will mean the government, both local and national, working with the NHS to put prevention at the centre of decision-making. These proposals are open for consultation. The closing date for responses is 14 October 2019.

Click here to view the full report.

Too clean or not too clean?: The Case for Targeted Hygiene in the Home and Everyday Life

Royal Society for Public Health, July 2019

Royal Society for Public Health making the case for targeted hygiene in the home and everyday life, as the most effective framework for preventing the spread of infection and supporting a healthy microbiome. It finds while there is a general understanding among the public about the importance of a healthy microbiome, there is much public confusion about the relationship between dirt, germs, cleanliness and hygiene. Moreover, although the importance of hygiene is well understood, the times and situations where it is most necessary are not. A worrying one in four (23%) of those surveyed believed hygiene in the home was not important, thinking children need to be exposed to harmful germs to build their immune system. The best way to be hygienic and allow our good bacteria to thrive is to practise Targeted Hygiene – implementing the correct cleaning techniques at the most crucial moments. If the understanding of the importance of targeted hygiene can be communicated more widely, it has the potential to reduce the burden on the NHS, promote healthy microbiomes, and reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Click here to view the full report.

Prevention before cure: prioritising population health

British Medical Association, April 2019
This policy paper suggests a framework for a cross-government approach to prioritising population health. The framework outlines four areas that should be considered:

  • addressing the social determinants that influence health
  • increased and sustained funding for public health
  • prioritising prevention through the health service
  • effective regulation to tackle key drivers of ill-health.

Click here to view the report.

Prevention is better than cure: our vision to help you live well for longer

Department of Health and Social Care, November 2018
The document sets out the government’s vision for:
stopping health problems from arising in the first place
supporting people to manage their health problems when they do arise
The goal is to improve healthy life expectancy by at least 5 extra years, by 2035, and to close the gap between the richest and poorest.
A collection of case studies has been published, showing examples of good practice in preventing health problems from happening.
Click here to view the report.
Click here to access the case studies.

Cold Weather Plan For England Making the Case: Why long-term strategic planning for cold weather is essential to health and wellbeing

Public Health England, October 2018
This document aims to support the Cold Weather Plan for England (CWP) by providing the evidence of the effects of cold on health as well as what is known about the effectiveness of interventions.
Click here to view the full report.