Blackburn with Darwen's joint director of public health, Dominic Harrison,has responded to the government's latest health reforms.
Earlier this month, the government launched the public health white paper, setting out plans to put the business of preventing ill health back into the hands of local councils.
Here in Blackburn with Darwen, where the Care Trust Plus already has close links with the Council, including shared management and my own role as joint director of public health for both organisations, we see this as a fantastic opportunity to work together to tackle health inequalities locally.
We face significant challenges, with people living in Blackburn with Darwen today expected to live up to 10 years less than those in more affluent parts of the country. And we are seeing shifts in behaviour that are having a major impact on health, notably that alcohol related conditions are now the single biggest killer of men in the borough.
A key part of public health move to local government is that councils will be given control of NHS prevention spend amounting to five per cent of the budget – in our case, around £xx.
This will give us the power to improve public health by making decisions locally, without having to rely on national government, as we did in the past, to tell us which programmes to run, when and how much to spend.
The health and well being board that we are going to set up in the New Year will be a very important place to discuss how we want to do things differently in the future, with local councillors and neighbourhood representatives involved.
We know that throwing money at health services alone isn’t the solution to health problems. We have to tackle what I call ‘anti health forces’ – those things that have an adverse effect on health, like poor housing and being out of work. It’s about shifting public health from a medical model to a social model and by joining with the Council we will be able to influence these factors.
Above all, though, we have to encourage behaviour change because so many of the health problems out there are preventable with the right diet, exercise and lifestyle. As our biggest killer, tackling alcohol issues must be one of our first tasks next year and we will be starting a public debate so we can understand how to influence this.
The most improved health outcomes happen when citizens are actively involved in their own health improvement – we have seen that here through the Re:fresh scheme, which has successfully encouraged more residents to take up exercise – and so I think this will mean us doing more things with rather than for the community going forward.
See Blackburn with Darwen's response to Andrew Lansley's health reforms at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11875341
Listen to the discussion on Radio 4's You and Yours Consumer Affairs programme held on December 07, 2010 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cl7q5.
