Kent Public Health Department
From 1 April 2011 Kent County Council now has increased
responsibilities for public health and improving healthy lifestyle
choices. We have been encouraging the delivery of the Public Health Strategy for the last 4
years.
NHS and Department of Health documents
On the 12th July 2010, Andrew Lansley,
Secretary of State for Health, published the white paper
'Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS'. This document
sets out their future vision for the National Health Service.
The important associated documents have followed:
Public Health objectives
The Public Health Department's main objectives are to
provide the leadership and strategic framework to enable action to
be implemented to address the 6 priorities identified in the
Kent Public Health Strategy:
- reducing health inequalities
- improving children’s mental health and wellbeing
- improving sexual health and reducing teenage pregnancies
- increasing the number of adults living healthier lives
- enabling more people with chronic disease to live at home
- reducing substance misuse and excessive alcohol drinking.
Kent Public Health Observatory
The Kent Public Health Observatory
website has links to many publications relating to public
health. On the website you will find information on
health inequalities, environmental and social factors and
lifestyles and behaviours to name a few.
Committees
The Health
Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviews and scrutinises public
health and social care issues and makes recommendations to support
the improvement of services.
They commission select committee reviews of health and social
care-related topics.
In addition to our local strategies, the
Kent Public Health Department supports the delivery of public
health through National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE)
guidance papers on public health.
These can be found on the
National Institute of Clinical Excellence website.