Who we are

Abdul Razaq is Director of Public Health at Blackburn with Darwen Council since March 2022 and former Director of Public Health at Suffolk County Council, Trafford Council and Executive Director at Trafford Primary Care Trust. Abdul has three decades of Public Health experience with extensive experience at senior Executive level. Abdul has held the positions of the chair of the North West Directors of Public Health Network, chair of the Greater Manchester Directors of Public Health  and the North West Executive lead of the Association of Directors of Public Health. Abdul has been an expert commentator in Blackburn with Darwen working with Shared Futures CIC on a Climate Change People’s Jury.

Abdul has held academic roles as Visiting Senior Fellow, School of Health Sciences at the University of Suffolk and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. Abdul was instrumental in forming Food Active, a North West collaborative on tackling key determinants of unhealthy food leading to NCDs (non communicable disease).

During the COVID-19 pandemic Abdul published academic work on ethnic minority deaths with the University of Oxford and with was a co-author on the NHS COVID risk reduction framework.

Abdul is involved in two international charities that are developing capacity to build health and care systems and improving life chances for under-served communities around the world.

Arif qualified from St Andrews University and Manchester Medical School.  Following a period of time in clinical jobs he entered public health training in the North West of England in 1999.

Arif gained his first Consultant in Public Health post in September of 2004, based at Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust.  Since August of 2007 Arif has held the position of Director of Public Health of NHS Blackpool and latterly Blackpool Council.

Arif chairs the town’s Fairness Commission and has a strong focus on addressing the wider determents for ill health through work with the voluntary sector, housing, education and regeneration colleagues.

Arif has been heavily involved in national lobbying around alcohol policy and particularly minimum unit price.  He is also currently leading a new approach to tackling obesity issues within Blackpool, particularly focusing on the obesogenic environment and helping to make the healthier choice the easier choice.

Arif’s current priorities include working on ‘whole systems’ integration working with partners from public, private and voluntary sector organisations to improve population health.

Arif is also a trainer for trainees in Public Health.  He has an MBA from Manchester Business School and has more recently completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Executive and Business Coaching at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Lancashire County Council is an upper tier local authority. Dr Sakthi Karunanithi is the Director of Public Health.

Westmorland & Furness is a new unitary council, covering an area that stretches from Alston in the far north east, to Walney Island in the far south east of its boundary, it includes the towns of Barrow, Kendal and Penrith. The Director of Public Health is Katrina Stephens.

Cumberland is a new unitary council, providing services to the people who live in Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland. The Director of Public Health is Colin Cox.