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Our vision for a healthier, fairer and more productive UK

The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) believes that bold action led by the UK government, the devolved administrations, the NHS and local government to invest in good public health would make a profound and rapid difference to our society.

Looking to the challenges of the coming decades, FPH has identified four priorities to advance public health, reduce inequalities and boost economic productivity.

  1. Promote policies and programmes that improve the health and wellbeing of people and communities and tackle health inequalities.
  2. Tackle poverty to ensure everyone has the chance to live a long and healthy life.
  3. Protect the nation from infectious diseases and prepare for health threats and emergencies.
  4. Increase investment in public health and prevention as assets for society, and make health a priority for cross-government action.
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Our Recommendations: A Vision for the Public’s Health

Within these priorities, the Faculty’s vision is outlined in 50 pragmatic, evidence-informed recommendations to improve health and tackle inequalities in the UK.

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Our recommendations for the first term

  • Rapidly deliver a long-term and substantial expansion in treatment services for alcohol dependency.
  • Government should remove legislative barriers to innovative interventions to reducing drug dependence and drug-related harm.
  • Provide additional resources and a stronger role for local government in the governance and delivery of food at a local level, giving it more control over issues such as takeaways targeting schoolchildren.
  • Promote policies and incentives geared towards creating healthy, sustainable environments that promote active travel and greater physical activity levels across the life course, healthy ageing, and building the capacity and capability of the health and care workforce to promote physical activity in all settings.
  • Government and employers need to support people with long Covid, long-term sickness and disability to access healthcare and rehabilitation services, such as physical and psychological therapies, peer support and training.
  • Government needs to provide employers with financial and tax incentives to encourage more investment in staff health and wellbeing, such as occupational health services, particularly among SMEs, who find it more difficult to fund such services. Providing occupational health services should be compulsory for large employers.
  • Provide funding for housing associations and local authorities to deliver a net increase of 90,000 social rent homes a year in England, with comparable targets adopted across the UK.
  • Government in all UK nations must adopt a ‘health in all policies’ approach to tackling child poverty, with an emphasis on the first 1000 days of life, including funding to support local plans.
  • UK governments should give local authorities powers to bring together local and national resources and stakeholders to deliver focused action on economic inactivity and ill health.
  • Work across government to drive increased investment in preventative healthcare and support for those with long-term physical and mental health conditions, alongside a coordinated approach to skills development and employment support.
  • Support and incentivise programmes and policies to accelerate the shift to low-carbon transport systems.
  • Consider the impact of climate change in all national and local government policy decisions.
  • Regularly review, update and publish national pandemic preparedness plans and risk assessments for infectious diseases.
  • Ensure the local public health voice is actively sought and listened to during infectious disease outbreaks, so that their vital insights into how diseases are impacting communities are reflected in national plans.
  • Provide sufficient investment to secure the training and deployment of a specialist workforce of 30 public health specialists per million population, for all regions and devolved nations of the UK.
  • Restore the real term cuts in Public Health Grant in England by committing to a £1 billion increase in funding to support local public health teams as they deliver vital work to protect communities and improve health, with commensurate increases in funding for the other nations.
  • All UK governments to commit to a multi-year settlement for public health, providing certainty for transformative investments locally, regionally and nationally.
  • Given the critical role of the NHS in secondary prevention, provide stable, long-term investment to meet underlying demand and cost pressures, increase capacity and strengthen the resilience of the NHS.
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Become a Member

FPH is the professional home for public health in the UK and abroad. We support around 6,000 members in 79 countries across all career stages enabling them to drive the profession forward and achieve our vision of improving public health.

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