About Public Health
Public Health
Public Health is a statutory function in local authorities. The Faculty of Public Health defines public health as the science and art of promoting and protecting health and wellbeing, preventing ill-health and prolonging life through the organised efforts of society. York’s Public Health team is responsible for the health of people living, working, studying and visiting York. Led by Peter Roderick, the Director of Public Health, team members work across the three key areas of Public Health:
Health Improvement
Health improvement includes assessing the impacts on health of:
- inequality
- education
- housing
- employment
- family/community
- lifestyle
Healthcare Public Health
Healthcare includes areas such as:
- clinical effectiveness
- efficiency
- health economics
- service planning
- audit and evaluation
- clinical governance
- equity
Health Protection
Health protection includes assessing the health consequences of:
- infectious diseases
- screening
- chemicals and poisons
- radiation
- emergency responses
- surveillance and monitoring of specific diseases and risk factors
The work of the Public Health team is driven by the Council Plan and the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and is informed by the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
Our work covers a variety of areas, such as:
- assessing the health impact of decision-making around major developments, planning, open spaces, licensing and community projects
- commissioning services such as: Stop Smoking, specialist Sexual Health services, Health Checks and substance misuse
- transferring school nursing and children’s health visiting services from the NHS as part of the Healthy Child Programme
- supporting the Health and Wellbeing Board
- overseeing screening programmes (such as for breast, colon and cervical cancer; and child development testing) and immunisation programmes (for children, adolescents and adults)
- increasing physical activity levels, including for young and older age groups, and those with disabilities or medical conditions
- providing opportunities fo ;sport and physical activity, supporting mass participation programmes and local sports clubs
- working with voluntary, statutory and commercial health organisations
Population Health Hub
Set up by York’s current Director of Public Health, Peter Roderick, the Population Health Hub is a multi-organisation group which brings together colleagues from health, public health, and business intelligence to enable analyse and undertake population health management approaches. It continues to bring together partners to provide a clearer picture of the health of the population and the inequalities people face across York Place. It is a key enabler of the York Health & Care Partnership (YHCP) and regularly commissions Population Health Management projects that are presented to York’s Health & Wellbeing Board.
The Hub is split into two groups: the steering group, and the smaller core group. The steering group's function is to ensure the development and delivery of population health management programmes. The core group is a smaller team of people that undertake the work.