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Press Release

Public health report supports CIEH recomendations

2 November 2011

The Health Select Committee's Public Health Report released today supports a key CIEH argument that there should be a statutory duty of cooperation on councils in two-tier local government parts of England for public health and wellbeing.

The Charted Institute of Environmental Health's (CIEH) Head of Policy, David Kidney, says that at last the Government must listen to what the CIEH has been calling for:

"I am pleased therefore that the Select Committee makes a recommendation (Paragraph 100) that there should be a statutory requirement for county councils to involve the districts in the work of the Health and Wellbeing Boards. The CIEH is calling on the Government to make an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill to this effect while it is still in the House of Lords.

"The Select Committee agrees with us that too little attention is paid to the Government's plans in respect of the role of district councils in areas of England where the new public health duties, powers and funding will be in the hands of county councils. In these areas, important local authority services, vital to the success of the new public health role, like environmental health, housing and planning lie with the district councils."

The Select Committee's report also makes clear that there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the Government's plans for the funding, structures, commissioning arrangements and workforce strategy for England's new public health services. The report speaks of ongoing "policy confusion". The CIEH is concerned that the new services could be under-resourced, under-prepared and under-powered for the serious job they have in improving the public's health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities.

The CIEH welcomes also the Select Committee's recommendations for statutory duties on the Secretary of State and local authorities concerning health inequalities and the strengthening of the independence of the Directors of Public Health. The report expresses concern about the role of the Chief Medical Officer – the CIEH's solution is that there should additionally be a new post of Chief Environmental Health Officer for England to be the linchpin in the public health arrangements between the NHS and local authorities.

Like the Select Committee, the CIEH is concerned to ensure that England remains as well prepared as in the past to deal with any emerging health protection challenge – for example a new flu pandemic – during the transition to the new services and beyond. The CIEH agrees that there is a need to ensure clarity in the arrangements that will apply in such circumstances especially around the relationship between Public Health England and local authorities and between local authorities, which will inevitably need to co-operate across local government boundaries.



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