FPH receives Health Foundation award to explore the role of the NHS in prevention

FPH is delighted to announce that we have received a funding award from the Health Foundation to deliver a project examining the role of the NHS in prevention.

The project, which runs from August 2018- May 2019, aims to:

• Build a better understanding of how the NHS currently delivers prevention
• Showcase what ‘good’ prevention in the NHS looks like
• Explore ways that the NHS can maximise or expand its prevention and improvement role
• Determine prevention priorities for NHS leaders and clinicians to consider and champion

This is an incredibly timely project. With the Prime Minister indicating that a renewed focus on prevention will feature prominently in the forthcoming NHS 10-year plan and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care listing prevention as one of his top three priorities, now more than ever the public health community, along with partners in health and care, needs to come together behind a vision for prevention in NHS settings. We hope that this project will inform that vision, and beyond that, wider aspirations for the public’s health and wellbeing.

This is one of three topic areas that comprise FPH’s Public Health Funding campaign, which advocates for increased investment in public health across local government and the NHS.

Dr Stephen Watkins, Vice President of Policy for the Faculty of Public Health said:

"We are delighted that the Health Foundation is supporting our policy development and research work on this topic. We think understanding how the NHS delivers prevention today, and how it could potentially deliver it in the future, will be a critical part of how we can improve population health and reduce inequalities — aspirations at the core of our two organisations.

“This programme of work will give us the opportunity and resource to consult with FPH members, NHS clinicians, health system leaders, and other partners to build a clearer and more comprehensive picture of the prevention work they lead and the areas they would prioritise.

“As part of this project we plan to host a series of workshops, the first of which is planned for October, and produce an accompanying set of discussion papers that will share our learning, engage our members and other partners, and leads thinking on this issue in a collaborative way. We’re really pleased that the work is now underway and look forward to updating our members on progress as it develops.”

Dr Dominique Allwood, Assistant Director of Improvement and Consultant in Public Health Medicine for the Health Foundation, said:

“The Health Foundation is pleased to be supporting this important project to develop a greater understanding of prevention activities within the NHS. This initiative comes at a time when there is an increased policy focus on prevention. We look forward to supporting the Faculty of Public Health to understand what good prevention in the NHS looks like and what some of the key enablers and barriers are for NHS organisations seeking to take a more preventative approach. We hope this will help policy makers, NHS organisations and frontline staff to take practical action to turn the policy rhetoric of a radical upgrade in prevention into a reality.”

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If you’re an FPH member and are interested in feeding into this work, please consider joining our Public Health Funding Sounding Board — an informal group of members that we involve in our policy development work on a regular basis. You can learn more about this opportunity here: https://www.fph.org.uk/policy-campaigns/get-involved/join-our-campaigns/