Member blog: Charlotte Pavitt

I was always set on a career in health. I loved my human biology degree and had jumped at the chance to study post graduate medicine at the University of Warwick, but I had never heard of public health! That all changed when I started doing GP home visits in some of Coventry’s most deprived communities. I met people in their forties and fifties living with multiple health and social needs. What stayed with me was how young they were, the same age I am now. We were treating the consequences of deprivation, often far too late. A population health module then showed me, in numbers, what I had seen in people’s homes. That was my lightbulb moment, and I made the call to finish my course in Warwick and start a career in public health. 

During my early career I worked across primary care trusts, councils, and national organisations on a range of issues including alcohol harm, vaccination, obesity, and end-of-life care. I loved the breadth of public health and eventually joined public health specialty training, which, rather fittingly, took me back to Coventry. 

Training brought so many opportunities, and I undertook placements shaped around my interests, from a health protection specialist route to a year as a Darzi Fellow. It was this very fellowship that sparked my passion for system leadership. Just as public health had first helped me see beyond individual illness, system working showed me how organisations could tackle wicked issues together that none could solve alone. It prompted a career U-turn back to local government and away from health protection, where I reasoned I would have more influence across the wider system. The pandemic tested that ambition sooner than I could have imagined! 

There are many routes into public health. Mine began early, and after more than 20 years I sometimes say it runs through me like a stick of rock. Yet it has never felt predictable. I have worked across London, the South East, and South West, in different organisations and with excellent partners from whom I have learnt so much. That variety, and the chance to improve whole communities’ lives, is what I still love most. 

Becoming a Director of Public Health (DPH) was never part of my plan. I was happy as a consultant, thank you very much! Then a former colleague called about the DPH vacancy at Bracknell Forest Council. To my surprise, I could not stop thinking about the opportunities it offered. I took the leap, and it has been one of the best decisions I have made.  

 My first couple of years as a DPH have taught me that there is no single blueprint for being a DPH. We share statutory responsibilities, but each of us brings our own style, interests, and experience. The role is also hugely influenced by the organisation and, most importantly, by the places and people we serve. 

I have been fortunate to shape a new role at Bracknell Forest, growing and empowering the team around me while creating space to look up and out across the council and wider system. Being a DPH is not simply being a more senior consultant, it is a different kind of leadership. I combine statutory responsibilities with corporate leadership, partnership working, and a constant effort to make population health part of everyday council and system business. Although employed by the local authority, I see myself as DPH for the community I serve first and foremost, advocating for everyone who lives, works, and spends time in Bracknell Forest. 

What I enjoy most is the mix of challenge, human connection, and possibility. I can draw on my health protection background to lead the portfolio across the Thames Valley, while leaning on and learning from peers with different strengths. ADPH has been central to my DPH journey. Mentoring, the New DPH network, regional connections, and practical learning give me a safe space to ask questions, test ideas, and be honest about the occasional imposter syndrome. Above all, ADPH reminds me that, although every DPH role is different, none of us have to navigate it alone. My advice to anyone who cannot picture themselves as a DPH is simple: do not write yourself off. Sometimes the unpredictable, unplanned route is exactly the right one.