Member blog: Matt Ashton

I often say I grew up in a public health household. My dad was the North West Regional Director of Public Health, and my mum helped create cycling routes like the Trans Pennine Trail and Liverpool Loop Line. Public health wasn’t just a job title — it was the air we breathed. 

Growing up in Liverpool in the 1980s gave me a sharp understanding of fairness, or the lack of it. The city faced enormous challenges, and I saw how inequality cut deep into communities. Witnessing the aftermath of the Toxteth riots, the regeneration efforts like the 1984 International Garden Festival, and attending the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 shaped my sense of purpose. Liverpool often feels like the sharp end of national issues — and that reality has driven my commitment to make things better. 

After studying Economics and Social History, and later an MBA, I started my career in banking, before moving to the Inland Revenue (now HMRC). But I felt something was missing. Returning to Merseyside in 1999, I joined the Health Protection Agency as an epidemiologist, working on outbreaks like Legionnaires’ disease and STIs in Manchester and Liverpool. That experience, and the guidance of inspiring public health professionals, led me to study Health Informatics and later a Master of Public Health at the University of Liverpool. 

My journey took me through roles in academia and local public health, eventually becoming Director of Public Health (DPH) in Knowsley. Key learnings for me from Knowsley included the need to have a really strong understanding of local communities, including the challenges they faced, and working closely with them to help make change actually happen.  

After Knowsley I moved on to DPH roles in Sefton, and finally Liverpool in April 2020 — just as the first wave of Covid-19 hit. It was like jumping into a freezing lake: a shock, but instinct kicked in. We built the Local Resilience Forum intelligence cell, launched early testing in care homes, and led national pilots on large-scale testing and reopening live events. 

Since the pandemic, my focus has been on transforming services to be efficient, effective, and equitable. Liverpool is now a Marmot City, with a strong programme tackling the wider determinants of health and embedding public health across the council and its partners. 

Equity has always been my guiding principle. Liverpool has some of the widest gaps in life expectancy in the country. In 2024, I published The State of Health in the City: Liverpool 2040, calling for bold, system-wide change. The response has been encouraging, and while challenges remain, I believe we’re starting to see real progress. 

I have been blessed to have worked with some wonderful public health teams, hard-working and committed folk who truly have the wellbeing of their communities at the heart of what they do. Without them, and the wider Public Health workforce, DPH simply wouldn’t be able to do their jobs. 

I strongly believe being a DPH is a privilege. It’s a role where you can both influence local and national policy and strategy, but also stand alongside communities at their most vulnerable moments. I’ve seen both in Liverpool, and those experiences constantly remind me why I chose this path. We know that fairer societies do better overall. That belief has been with me since childhood and has shaped every stage of my career. As I look forward, my commitment is the same as it has always been: to keep pushing for fairness, for equity, and for the health and wellbeing of all our communities. Most important of all for me is how we do this, building true partnerships with our communities at the centre, to create real change. 

Matt received the ADPH CMO award in 2022, an FPH service award in 2024, and was also elected ADPH Board member in 2024.