'Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England' was published on 30 November 2010 by the Department of Health. 

This consultation paper sets out a new approach to the way public health is to be tackled in the future to improve health outcomes. The government aims to give responsibility to individuals to make their own choices and encourage local communities to get involved to improve health and well being in their areas. Local government is placed at the heart of these proposals along with dedicated funding to support this work. The government will take forward these proposals as part of a Health and Social Care Bill to be introduced next year. This paper contains a summary of the key points.

London Councils welcomes many of the proposed changes, including the transfer of overall responsibility for public health improvement from the NHS back to local authorities. London boroughs are already working to improve public health across the capital, and we believe that local authorities are ideally placed to provide the oversight and strategic direction needed to drive different areas of health improvement.

Download the full briefing above, and for related pages, including our press release, see below: