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

• publication of a review of the latest evidence on the health and wellbeing benefits of making high streets in urban settings more inclusive, safer and healthier, particularly in areas of high deprivation.
• a Code of Practice was launched by an alliance of some of the largest out-of-home food and drink companies, including McDonalds, Wetherspoons, Whitbread, Greggs and Starbucks. This sets out their public commitment to achieve the sugar reduction target of 20% by 2020 promised in the Childhood Obesity Plan.
• publication of PHE’s fifth Routes to Diagnosis update which marks a decade’s worth of data, covering over 3 million diagnoses of cancer, making it the most comprehensive data of its kind in the world.
• appointment of Tracey Crouch MP as the Minister for Loneliness. This is a new portfolio to tackle a problem that affects 9 million people, both old and young
• the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine includes an article on e-cigarettes, which refers positively to the UK position emphasising PHE’s contribution to harm reduction.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 19 January 2018

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

• PHE has activated the ‘Catch it. Bin it. Kill it’ campaign to spread the message that the transfer of flu can be mitigated by simple actions, such as catching our coughs and sneezes in tissues and washing our hands
• Fast Track Cities Initiative, which brings together all those already working to tackle HIV across the capital
• launch of the Department for Energy, Food and Rural Affairs’ 25 Year Environment Plan, which outlines steps for a cleaner, greener Britain – PHE has worked closely with DEFRA on the plan
• NHS Smokefree Pledge, developed by the Smokefree Action Coalition, was launched in Parliament- which publically commits NHS hospitals and mental health services to become truly smokefree by 2019.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 12 January 2018

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

• publication of a peer review of PHE, in its 5th year, by the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) – an international benchmarking exercise
• speaking at Food Matters Live, the premier annual event on food and drink – on progress against the Childhood Obesity Plan, particularly on sugar reduction
• the celebration of 100 years of public health marketing, from the first wartime welfare campaign in 1917, through the ages post-war, the years spent in fear of AIDS and the more recent age of aspiration for better health for everyone. This historical and future perspective was curated into an exhibition, which you can find online.
• PHE’s marketing team won the communications category at the Civil Service Awards for their winter campaign Stay well this Winter.
• London CCGs and boroughs have come together with PHE to develop a digital means for people with concerns about, for example, sleep and anxiety to get access to trustworthy information, peer support and where necessary, access to services. This programme is called Good Thinking.
• last week seven local authority areas were selected to take part in a randomised controlled trial of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for people dependent on drugs and/or alcohol in community treatment services. The objective is to test whether this intensive approach is an effective way to support those people who are dealing with long-term addiction issues into employment and back into productive lives.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 24 November 2017

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

• The Supreme Court ruling unanimously in favour of the Scottish Government’s intention to set a minimum unit price for the sale of alcohol, which when implemented will be a world first.
• a ground-breaking devolution deal was signed by the Mayor of London, Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt, London Councils, NHS England, Public Health England and wider health and care leaders – the London Devolution Memorandum of Understanding is the largest of its kind in England and localising decision-making to London will bring many benefits, as well as providing new opportunities to act early in preventing some of the city’s biggest health challenges.
• visits to Porton and Colindale, PHE’s national science campuses for infectious diseases
• Publication of two independent reviews, both commissioned by PHE, one reviewing PHE’s data collections and the other  assessed PHE’s readiness to make the most of digital thinking and technology
• announcement of twelve successful projects supported by PHE’s HIV Innovation Prevention Fund
• PHE published two reports which highlight the progress made in England and on achieving the United Nations AIDS targets in London, declines in HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men and increased HIV testing
• launch of the latest version of Health Matters, PHE’s monthly professional resource, this time focusing on preventing infections and reducing antimicrobial resistance.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 17 November 2017

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

• this week NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens spoke about the need for further investment to keep the NHS improving, to meet increasing and changing demand and to remain the leading health service in the world – PHE has been intensely focusing on making the economic case for prevention, from their work on cardiovascular disease prevention to publishing a Health Economics Evidence Resource and several return-on-investment tools.
• a community public involvement event in Gloucester, involving six local councils,  the local and national NHS and over 100 voluntary and third sector organisations. The message that rang clear throughout the day was how important and valuable small, locally based voluntary and third sector organisations are and how much they support the people they reach, which is often the most vulnerable.
• the publication of drug and alcohol treatment figures for 2016, showing that services are performing well and largely meeting the needs of those with drug misuse problems. The return on investment for people in treatment is substantial and on drugs alone, for every £1 invested on treatment there is a £2.50 benefit to society.
• PHE’s Genomic Services and Development Unit, which started generating whole genome sequences for bacteria and viruses and have now registered over 100,000, has been offered accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), one of the first UK laboratories to achieve this for whole genome sequencing of bacteria and viruses.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 10 November 2017

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

• handover of three PHE laboratories in Sierra Leone, all refurbished by PHE to UK standards and funded by UK Aid
• PHE’s National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service(NCARDRS) collects data on rare diseases to improve surveillance and patient care, inform healthcare planning and support research
• PHE hosted Making It Happen, a stakeholder event for the drug treatment sector to discuss two significant new publications: the 2017 Drug Strategy and the Drug Misuse and Dependence UK Clinical Guidelines
• PHE report which shows the work of PHE in supporting the UK in implementing  the Sendai Framework including its obligations under the International Health Regulations
• PHE has been recently nominated for the ‘Business in the Community Best Employers for Race Award 2017’

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 3 November 2017

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

• the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) annual conference in Rome – IANPHI has over 100 national public health institutes and agencies in membership and this summer they undertook a peer review of PHE
• PHE’s English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance published its fourth annual report, explaining that between 2012 and 2016, antibiotic prescribing reduced by 5%, with a notable reduction in general practice of 13%.
• PHE’s annual TB report was published on Tuesday, showing that cases of tuberculosis in England are continuing to decline
• new cancer data, the first of its kind in the world, was published which links stage of cancer diagnosis and treatment for individual patients. PHE and Cancer Research UK worked together to examine data from about half a million patients with 22 different cancer types.his data is the most comprehensive of its kind about treatment and survival patterns and reinforces the importance of early diagnosis and screening.
• PHE contributed to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, health and Wellbeing
• The disability charity Scope has launched a new campaign called Work With Me.
• NHS Providers, the representative body of hospitals and mental health services, published a report called Public Health: Everyone’s Business, which includes 12 different viewpoints, all concerned with promoting prevention and early intervention.
• Dr Andrew Furber will be joining PHE in January as their new Centre Director for Yorkshire and Humber.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 27 October 2017

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

• PHE’s annual accountability review with Steve Brine MP, Minister for Public Health and Primary Care – which covered a broad range of priorities, from local impact to national and international responsibilities.
• Fourth annual North of England inequalities conference, Due North, for a day of powerful and optimistic conversations
• Update on Duncan Selbie’s visit programme around England
• Publication of a new local authority public health dashboard, aimed at supporting local politicians and senior council officers in their decision making on a range of public health responsibilities. The areas covered include the best start in life, child obesity, drug and alcohol treatment, NHS Health Checks, sexual health services and tobacco control.
• On Monday, PHE will be launching their first public information campaign on the safe and effective use of antibiotics, called Keep Antibiotics Working. This campaign was piloted to great effect in the North West of England and the learning from this has informed the national roll out.
•  a new report from Swim England’s Swimming and Health Commission, promoting the good swimming does and the opportunities it presents for all people, especially young people, to learn about what makes for success in life, including goal setting, coping with stress and social interaction.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 20 October 2017