The Informing Healthier Choices Strategy: an APHO perspective

1
The Informing Healthier Choices Strategy an
APHO perspective

• Professor Brian Ferguson
• Chair, Association of Public Health Observatories
  in the UK Ireland

2
Strengthening APHO

• .APHO is already
• a strong and effective network across 12 PHOs in
  UK Ireland
• maximising economies of scale in sharing scarce
  health intelligence skills
• .but to date has had little central
  infrastructure
• from December 2006 the APHO office will comprise
• Chair and Vice-Chairs
• Network Programme Manager (Catherine Hannaway)
• Network Co-ordinator (Mandy Driver)
• Team Administrator (Wendy Marshall)
• greater consistency and co-ordination of PHO
  activities

3
PHO Core role and functions

• Statement of core role and functions (the basis
  of a new SLA) has been drawn up with DH
  colleagues
• Each PHO fulfils three broad roles in its region
• the regional health intelligence service
• the focus for capacity building and skills
  development for health intelligence staff
• the bridge between academic public health and
  practice

4
Examples of regional services

• Health intelligence to the Local Area Agreements
  process
• Regional updates on progress towards meeting
  health inequalities targets
• Analysis of data from the Quality and Outcomes
  framework
• A Hospital Episodes Statistics safe haven service
• Analysis and reporting of child height and weight
  surveillance data
• A focus for training and professional development
  of health intelligence staff
• Health profiles at local authority level

5
Customers and audiences

• beyond traditional public health
• NHS commissioning organisations
• public health intelligence is at the heart of
  cost-effective commissioning
• local government
• Department of Health
• regional-level SHAs
• other regional organisations engaged in wider
  economic and sustainable development activities

6
Intelligent Health ChoicesAPHO looks forward to
2007

• helping to deliver the II Strategy
• developing regional health intelligence functions
• growing the APHO network (e.g. comparative health
  intelligence across the UK and Ireland)
• supporting the NHS commissioning agenda
• developing a stronger local government focus
• exploring different business models to function
  as effectively as possible in the health
  intelligence market
• www.apho.org.uk

7
The II Strategy

• APHO will have both commissioning and delivery
  roles
• co-ordination of major national projects (e.g.
  health profiles, National Public Health Library)
• lead PHOs for specified projects within the four
  workstreams
• governance arrangements through the II Steering
  Group
• providing support to the Implementation Team that
  is responsible for delivery
• PHOs must help to strengthen capacity and
  capability across the health intelligence
  workforce
• regional hubs of health intelligence
• if public health intelligence sits somewhere
  else we will collectively have failed

8
APHOs commitment

• supporting delivery of the II Strategy
• strengthening the health intelligence workforce
• being relevant to (integrated) commissioning
• acting as an effective network that draws on
  scarce skills and recognises lead areas of
  expertise within each PHO