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

• publication of the PHE alcohol evidence review -which shows people are drinking twice as much as they did 40 years ago and there are more than one million hospital admissions relating to alcohol each year, half of which occur among the most deprived groups
• call to every NHS Trust in England, asking for their help towards a tobacco-free NHS
• latest edition of Health Matters on increasing the uptake of HIV testing
• a poll into the general public’s awareness and perceptions of PHE and various different health issues.  The results show that public recognition of PHE continues to grow, with a 9% increase to 50% compared with 41% in 2015 , and public  confidence in PHE advice has also reached its highest level
• latest special edition of the Town and Country Planning Association Journal focuses on the influence of built and natural environments on our health

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 2 December 2016

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

• Congratulations to four examples of “fabulous things” going on across PHE
• Food Matters Live, a cross-sector event bringing together the food and drink industry, retailers and those working in nutrition to discuss food, health and how to tackle Britain’s obesity crisis
• PHE has been chosen to co-host the 7th International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health in 2018, in partnership with the International Society for Physical Activity and Health, the European network for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity and Sport England
• National HIV Testing Week
• new resource that pulls together the evidence on interventions to change risk behaviours and promote cognitive health in people aged 55 and above.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 25 November 2016

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

• update from Sierra Leone where PHE staff are supporting the transition of three Ebola laboratories to a mainstream microbiology service
• Tesco and Lucozade Ribena Suntory have announced plans to ensure that all their own brand sugary drinks are below the sugar threshold set by the forthcoming government levy
• PHE and WHO joint conference on prisons and health in Copenhagen
• Commissioning for Quality and Innovation indicators have been set for the next two years, with four of the 13 indicators focusing on prevention
• publication of a ‘menu of interventions’, setting out evidenced actions that can improve people’s health, support quality improvement and save money for the NHS and the wider system over five years – they would welcome feedback

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 11 November 2016

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

• UK Public Health Rapid Support Team – launched on Tuesday, this specialist team of health experts will be ready to deployto tackle a health crisis anywhere in the world within 48 hours – where speed is key in dealing with public health  emergencies
• Local Tobacco Control Profiles were updated
• A number of updates to the Public Health Outcomes Framework
• Improving Lives: Work, Health and Disability – a green paper that proposes a new plan to halve the disability  employment gap by 2020 including for those with long-term conditions
• A recent paper published by PHE highlights some of the work of the police collaborating with health to improve outcomes for local people through innovation and collaboration
• The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health recommends that every local area should have a suicide prevention plan in place by 2017 – and PHE has published guidance on this.
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  Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 4 November 2016

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

• Publication of a new report: Health and Wealth – Closing the Gap in the North East. The Prime Minister has said that inequality in healthy life expectancy is unacceptable and that she wants social and economic reform that will establish an ‘economy that works for everyone’. The PHE report sets out how the North East can lead the way on this. Health outcomes are stubbornly poor, the NHS and social care services are, by English standards, overused, and health  inequalities are far too great.  That’s why their first recommendation is that the entire system needs to shift its priority towards prevention.
• Monday was World Mental Health Day, with a host of celebrities supporting a new anti-stigma campaign from NHS  England, the Department of Health and the YMCA.
• PHE partnered with the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families to launch the first-ever resource to help schools and colleges in the UK to measure and monitor children and young people’s wellbeing.
• Clara Swinson has been appointed Director General for Global and Public Health at the Department of Health.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 14 October 2016

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

• New report from PHE’s dementia and end of life care intelligence network which revealed that the proportion of people dying with a recorded dementia diagnosis has more than doubled since 2001
• Publication of the Lambert Toolkit which is the result of the PHE fast track evaluation agreement – developed during the Ebola crisis to make it easier for public bodies that need to respond to rapidly-evolving situations to work in an agile way, and at short notice, with industry and academia
• The second public exhibition to unveil the latest plans for the PHE headquarters and Science Hub at Harlow
• This year’s Stay Well This Winter campaign launches next week with the aim of easing seasonal pressures on NHS services over winter, and supports the biggest ever flu vaccination programme in England for children
• Appointment of Dr Neil Squires as our first director of global public health.

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 7 October 2016

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

• launch of PHE’s Sugar Reduction Programme with a briefing event for food manufacturers
• BBC coverage of an initiative launched by a local GP to champion public health and improve health outcomes in his community
• To mark World Heart Day, a new and improved version of the Heart Age tool, alongside new data showing that four in five (79.2%) people over 30 in England have a heart age older than their chronological age
• New Tuberculosis (TB) in England 2016 report revealed a year-on-year decline in TB cases over the past four years, down to 5,758 in 2015
• Academy of Medical Sciences published Improving the health of the public by 2040, calling for a radical upgrade in the UK’s approach to public health research

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 30 September 2016

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

• launch of Stoptober 2016 , PHE’s 28-day stop smoking campaign including the introduction of a Facebook Messenger  quitting tool for the first time, which will provide 28 days of messages, tips and support
• the Healthy Workplace Conference
• launch of the NHS planning guidance, which sets out the operating framework that will support the delivery of the 44 place-based sustainability and transformation plans (STPs)
•  new research from PHE and the University of Exeter Medical School on outdoor exercise
• PHE partnership with National Parks England

Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 23 September 2016