‘Everything is public health’: opportunity or threat for local public health professionals?

At a recent University of Birmingham conference, Public Health: healthy lives out of austerity, we heard first-hand the challenges faced by Public Health professionals in their new Local Authority environment. Funding cuts of £200m from 2016/17, the proposed removal of the ring fencing of their grant from Public Health England, continuing cuts to wider services, the move to business rate retention in Local Authorities, relationships to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and the move to combined authorities to name just a few.

The public health system, and the professionals involved are still very much establishing themselves in their new local authority environment. To add to the challenge, various statutory, professional, financial, and importantly political accountabilities remain in a state of tension, while the evaluation tools and justifications for public health interventions in their new context are still being worked out.