ADPH responds to King’s Fund publication ‘Creating healthy places’

ADPH welcomes the publication of the King’s Fund report Creating healthy places: perspectives from NHS England’s Healthy New Towns programme.

The insights offered by those involved in the sites articulate well the value of taking a place-based approach to population health, as well as the importance of planning and health working closely together.

We were especially pleased to see the contribution made by Virginia Pearson, member and Director of Public Health for Devon, who eloquently notes the critical and complex role Directors of Public Health play. Not only in the expertise and knowledge they provide to improve their population’s health and wellbeing, but also as systems leaders, influencing and fostering collaboration among the many different place players, to engage whole system action that addresses the wider determinants of health.

“Public health is all about places – and the people in those places” Virginia notes in her essay. And as frontline leaders of public health, Directors of Public Health, and ADPH as their representative body, look forward to working closely and forging connections with the NHS and the many other partners needed to effectively build healthy places, where people can thrive.

Read the Creating healthy places: perspectives from NHS England’s Healthy New Towns programme webpage on the Kings Fund website

Read ADPH's narrative on the UK Public Health system, including our recommendations for ensuring a public health system that is fit for the future