PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 30 June 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

10 years of Smokefree legislation in public places
international peer review carried out by the International Association of National Public Health Institutes
Last week PHE and the Royal Society for Public Health published Everyday Interactions, a resource to support healthcare professionals measure the impact they are having on improving people’s health
PHE’s All Our Health programme supports staff to use every contact between the NHS and the public as an opportunity to encourage healthier lifestyles. This new resource has been developed by frontline staff to enable them to demonstrate how this makes a difference.
PHE and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have published guidance to improve air quality across England. Most of the recommendations are for local authorities, focusing on transport, planning and public health.
New data on cancer survival from PHE and the Office of National Statistics
Breastfeeding Celebration Week. The UK has one of the lowest numbers of babies breastfed at six months in the world, and whilst we have seen a small increase in the numbers of women breastfeeding in England, we know that more babies and mothers would benefit if supported to breastfeed.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 30 June 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 23 June 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

A welcome to the new minister for public health and primary care, Stephen Brine MP
Faculty of Public Health Annual conference, held in Telford this week, with the theme Driving change with evidence
This week’s Queen’s Speech
Culture, Health and Wellbeing International Conference in Bristol
Swimming provides a number of benefits for health and wellbeing for people of all ages – which makes it an accessible activity for all
PHE and the Local Government Association (LGA) have published a resource to support local authorities in identifying and meeting the public health needs of the armed forces in England

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 23 June 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 16 June 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

Congratulations to the Right Honourable Jeremy Hunt MP on his reappointment as Health Secretary
The latest data on smoking prevalence
NHS sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs)
New findings presented at the Cancer Data and Outcomes Conference
The latest edition of Health Matters focusing on child dental health
PHE supported the UK’s first National Clean Air Day.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 16 June 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 12 April 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

the period of pre-election sensitivity comes into effect on Thursday 13 April and all organisations in receipt of public funds need to take great care during this time. And so the next Friday message will be on 5 May.
publication of PHE’s annual business plan for 2017/18, which replicates the high level objectives set out in the remit letter that they have received from Ministers. This plan sets out where we will focus our efforts over the next year, from building the economic case for prevention, working to create a fairer society by addressing the health gap between the richest and the poorest and continuing to invest in and promote our world class science in the UK and around the world.
the plan speaks to the results of PHE’s recent stakeholder survey, carried out by Ipsos MORI, which shows that their many stakeholders feel PHE is maturing as an organisation
the appointment of Sir Derek Myers by Ministers as Interim Chair of PHE’s Advisory Board until a permanent appointment is made.
PHE has been working closely with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) – a member of the evidence-focused What Works network – to understand what works to improve children and young people’s life chances and strengthen their resilience and capabilities as early as possible.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 12 April 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 7 April 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

PHE is training staff for the 3 laboratories established in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic and will be handing over to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in September. PHE will maintain a presence in Freetown for at least another year in order to quality assure the handover process.
Well North published its first progress report, supported by PHE. Well North is a community action programme focused on 10 communities in the north of England with persistent poor health outcomes. It brings together the statutory, voluntary and private sectors to strengthen the hand of local people in making decisions and finding new ways to help people achieve the things that really matter to them.
The publication of Improving Lives: helping workless families by DWP, which sets out their proposals to improve outcomes for the 1.8 million children growing up in workless families and facing multiple disadvantages.
The appointment of Professor Daniel Bausch as Director of the new UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, an HM Government-funded specialist team of health specialists run jointly by PHE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who will be ready to deploy to tackle a health crisis anywhere in the world when needed.
Congratulations to Dr Justin Varney, PHE’s National Lead for Adult Health and Wellbeing, who will be presented with the David Harvey Award for his contribution to addressing LGBT health issues for health professionals and patients by the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists (GLADD).

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 7 April 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 31 March 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

publication of baseline data and guidelines for industry to remove 20% of sugar by 2020 in foods most popular with children as part of PHE’s sugar reduction programme. The programme allows as much flexibility as possible for businesses, setting out the three approaches to sugar reduction: reformulation, making portions smaller or encouraging consumers to buy lower or no sugar products in their portfolio.
Obesity is the subject of this month’s edition of Health Matters, and focuses on what can be done to improve the food environment so that the healthier choice becomes the default. Do share the infographics, slide set, case studies, video and blogs with colleagues.
Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View, sets out what has been achieved so far by NHS England, PHE and national and local partners and outlines the work plan for the next two years.
encouraging that, for the first time, clear deadlines are being set for all parts of the health service to become tobacco free: in 2017/18 all mental health trusts will become smoke-free, expanding to all acute trusts the following year, leading to all NHS estates becoming smoke-free by 2019/20.
Launch of a new website, Doing the Right Thing, a joint initiative between the Richmond Group, which comprises 14 of the leading health and social care charities, PHE and the mental health charity Mind.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 31 March 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 24 March 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

Professor David Heymann, Chair of PHE, convened his final board meeting this week as he comes to the end of his term of office
Today is World TB Day – in England we have seen tuberculosis (TB) cases drop by a third over the past four years
The use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to identify different strains of TB faster and more accurately
The launch of a new interactive Facebook messenger ChatBot, Breastfeeding Friend (BFF), offering personal support at any time of the day or night – to support mums to breastfeed for longer
PHE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are piloting a new national system to help record and monitor the harmful effects of NPS (new psychoactive substances), allowing experts to analyse the information and identify patterns of symptoms and harms
The Government Science and Engineering profession strategy.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 24 March 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 17 March 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

Alongside new figures published by the Office for National Statistics today showing suicide prevalence in England by occupation, PHE has developed a new guide for employers on suicide prevention in partnership with the Samaritans and Business in the Community, published today, to be used in conjunction with the PHE-BITC Mental Health Toolkit for Employers
Publication of the first update on the Everybody Active, Every Day national framework for increasing physical activity
Publication of PHE’s Hepatitis C in England 2017 report
Advisory board for the #I will campaign, which aims to make social action part of life for all young people by 2020
The four Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) based at Imperial College showcased their progress and achievements
The Respiratory HPRU team has been awarded a Medical Research Council grant to conduct phase 1 studies in humans of new interventions for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)
A thank you to PHE’s scientists who have been offering interactive workshops to primary and secondary schools in Harlow this week, encouraging children to think about science as a future career as part of British Science Week.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 17 March 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 10 March 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

following Wednesday’s Budget, PHE welcomes the levy on sugary drinks which will operate in practice from 2018
Government’s commitment to the move of the ring-fenced public health grant to 100% business rate retention – PHE will fully engage with local government on this
LGA published Maintaining our momentum: Essays on four years of public health, which relates a number of different perspectives, from national to local, of those working across the system since the transfer of public health to local government in 2013
publication of new statistics on adult smoking habits in the UK – from 2010 to 2015, smoking became less common across all ages in the UK, with the largest decrease among 18 to 24 year olds
publication of 2017 Child Health Profiles, which provide a snapshot of child health and wellbeing for each local authority in England in an easily accessible format
inaugural PHE Quality Awards, celebrating quality, improvement, innovation and effectiveness.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 10 March 2017

PHE – Duncan Selbie’s Friday Message 24 February 2017

Short weekly update from the CEO of Public Health England (PHE), including:

PHE’s response to the 200 submissions received during their recent consultation on the redesign of the National Infection Service (NIS)
launch of a new campaign in the North West to highlight the dangers of taking antibiotics when you don’t need them and to trust in your doctor’s advice. The North West was chosen as the pilot as they have a high prescribing rate, and PHE will use the results to assess whether this should be rolled out across the country.
Local Government Association published a new set of case studies to provide local areas with examples of good practice and practical insight to support their work on suicide prevention
First workshop of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) training partners with the World Health Organization
Health Check 2017, an annual review of progress on developing a sustainable health and care system in England, shows that PHE continues to be one of the leading organisations in ensuring that our health system is sustainable: environmentally, socially, and financially
CATRIN, the Welsh version of PHE’s award-winning National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service in England, is now live for the whole of Wales, meaning national data on cancer is now seamlessly collected and quality assured across both countries.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 24 February 2017