Public Health and Environmental Health: Collaborating for Healthy Places

Join us for this special webinar in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health!

Public health and environmental health share a common goal: protecting and improving health through prevention, place based action and tackling the wider determinants of health. However, in practice, these disciplines sometimes operate in parallel rather than in partnership.

Designed for public health and environmental health professionals, this webinar will showcase examples of closer collaboration across public and environmental health to create healthier places, and launch a callout for further examples/evidence from our respective memberships.

We will be joined by Teresa Howarth, Alison Pooley, Paul Fisher, and Chris Nash.

Teresa Howarth is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner and Strategic Lead for Private Sector Housing at East Suffolk Council. She has developed and led ambitious and innovative Suffolk wide health and housing projects since 2000, including Safe Suffolk Renters, Suffolk Healthy Homes and Suffolk Stepping Home services. She is passionate about the importance of a safe, healthy place to call home. Having recently taken flexible retirement, when not in her Suffolk role, she is working part-time as a consultant to share her experience and provide capacity to build capacity with other Private Sector Housing and Healthy Homes Teams.

Dr Alison Pooley leads the Sustainable Healthy Communities research theme at the University of Suffolk. She has extensive experience developing and delivering courses and collaborating with industry and community partners. Her research focuses on environmental responsibility and resilient community infrastructures, bringing her professional practice full circle to examine issues of housing provision and performance, and the impacts of inequalities on community resilience and health.

Paul Fisher is the Assistant Director of Health Protection and Place at Birmingham City Council, Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. He leads Birmingham’s system-wide approach to creating healthier, more resilient places, with a focus the built and natural environment, health protection and physical activity. Paul works across local, regional and national government, academia, and community partners to improve population health and reduce inequalities. His academic work centres on applied public health and systems leadership, supporting future professionals and shaping national thinking on healthy environments.

Chris Nash is Head of Service for the Regulatory Service Partnership (RSP) and member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). He leads Residential & Pollution Services across three SW London Boroughs (LB Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth). Prior to this venture he led the opposition against Heathrow’s 3rd Runway for RBWM, playing to his background in Environmental Health. The RSP stands as a model for doing things differently in collaborative partnership. With the impact of Air Quality and the importance of quality housing high up the political agenda, the opportunities to make a difference are there for all to see.