Member blog: Sally Burns

These blogs often start with ‘my path to being a Director of Public Health (DPH) has not been a normal one…’, and so does mine! I didn’t take the traditional route to becoming a DPH, but feel lucky and well-equipped with my experience.

I am proud to say that I have worked in local government my entire career, about 40 years now! I always considered myself as part of the wider public health workforce, but have only directly worked in public health for the last few years.

My first degree was in environmental health at Aston University in Birmingham. I chose environmental health as a career as I wanted to reduce inequalities and work to improve communities’ health and wellbeing (does that sound familiar?!).

In my early career I worked in Yorkshire and the Humber and the Lake District across all the disciplines of environmental health, specialising in housing as my career progressed. I also worked to develop my leadership and management skills through an MBA.

My first Assistant Director role in East Riding of Yorkshire Council was around health, sustainability, and culture policy. I then moved to Assistant Director of Housing and Public Protection, where my portfolio broadened to include community safety, environmental health, and trading standards as well as housing and occupational therapy services.

Becoming City of York Council’s Director of Communities and Neighbourhoods brought me a much wider portfolio including many services that contribute to the wider determinants of health. In 2013 I was delighted to be able to support the transfer of public health back into local government and was so proud when the first meeting of our new Health and Wellbeing Board took place in the John Snow Room. Fun fact: York council rooms are named after famous people from the city, including John Snow of Broad Street Pump fame (And Guy Fawkes, but that’s another story!).

I have always been passionate about local government’s role in improving health and wellbeing, the opportunities of working with elected members as community leaders and councils’ responsibility to know their communities and work to improve the life chances of all residents. In 2015, this passion led me to the scary decision of a career change. I spent a year doing a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Manchester, writing up my portfolio and volunteering in the public health team at Hull City Council.

I then headed to east London, where I had a great time working in the public health teams in Waltham Forest and Newham as a consultant. The latter was during the pandemic and I gained a lot of experience working with a growing team alongside very diverse communities facing unprecedented challenges.

I moved to Northamptonshire to support the disaggregation and rebuilding of the West Northamptonshire public health team. I was delighted to become their DPH in March 2022, and had the best three years in this role with a fabulous team.

I write this while preparing to move onto my next role – heading back to Birmingham, where I started my journey, as the council’s DPH.

I have had so much support from ADPH on my journey, as well as from fellow DsPH and other colleagues who have inspired me to take this route – you know who you are. A huge thank you.