Member News
27th December 2010
David Kidney, head of policy at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, discusses November's public health white paper and looks forward to the institute's consultation response in 2011.
Local government is taking a big hit as sharp public spending cuts bite. In the New Year the tidal wave of job losses begins. There is one glimmer of light in an otherwise gloomy outlook, and that is the public health white paper.
November's white paper discloses the scale of the government's public health ambition. It's light on detail but the vision is clear. Subject to the caveat that we need the missing detail, the CIEH welcomes this vision, supports it and we will do our best to make it work in practice. Only the government can supply most of the missing detail – for example on funding and structure, but in our view we have to be 'in it to win it'.
We share the vision: a national health service, not just a national sickness service; health protection and health promotion rooted in local government and publicly accountable; a focus on improving public health and improving the health of the poorest fastest; and the adoption of the Marmot review's approach, especially the emphasis on ensuring that children get a healthy start to life.
Of course, we see the weaknesses in the lack of detail, the emphasis on no more regulation (unless shown over time to be absolutely necessary following the 'ladder of intervention'), and the reliance on voluntary business action.
In early 2011, the CIEH will be busy working on our responses to the various consultation questions posed in the white paper itself and in the two daughter documents. There are consultation questions in the white paper, including a highly relevant question for us about regulation of the new public health workforce.
The consultation paper about the outcomes framework is fundamental to answering the question 'What is the new public health service for?' The public health outcomes will guide all local activity – and the 'health premium' will be earned by making progress towards those outcomes. The consultation paper on resources, including the ring-fenced funding, is crucial to the government's ambition. Will the total spending be adequate? Will the workforce be big enough?
These consultations enable us to have our say, and influence the outcomes and the resources that will so decisively shape the new service. In the CIEH's consultation meetings around England in January and February, we will emphasise the value of the environmental health workforce and say that its place should be firmly in the new public health service. We shall be unstinting in our efforts to secure the best possible outcome for public health.
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