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In his first speech on public health, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has set out his vision for a new Public Health Service that will encourage society to work together to get healthy and live longer.

Speaking at the UK Faculty of Public Health's annual commissioning conference in June 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.

• a new responsibility deal between Government and business built on shared social responsibility and not state regulation;
• a new ring-fenced public health budget;
• a new ‘health premium' to target public health resources towards the areas with the poorest health;
• clear outcomes and measures to judge progress alongside NHS and social care outcomes;
  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.

The ideology that Lansley refered to is Libertarian Paternalism and is described in Thaler & Sunsteins book “Nudge” 2008.  Essentially the approach is a  light-touch state that provides the right information but allows the individual to make their own decisions rather that forced choice through legislation.

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.

"This is why we need genuinely local strategies, based in neighbourhoods and schools. This is why we need to throw off the old ways and start seeing people and families as a whole, using local voluntary and charitable organisations more, cutting across boundaries, encouraging innovation, utilising the power of technology, joining up professions and budgets and putting the people - not the system - at the heart of the strategy. Making us all accountable for results, not for processes.  All of this is dependent on another coalition initiactive being successful, the concepts of “Big Society”.

"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 not be dictating the ‘how' when it comes to achieving better public health outcomes. But we will be very clear about the ‘what' - 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," said Lansley.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 July 2010 08:21