APPENDIX 50
Letter from the Co Chairs, Southwark Health
Alliance (PH 20)
HEALTH COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO PUBLIC HEALTH—NOTIFICATION
FROM THE SOUTHWARK HEALTH ALLIANCE OF A LOCAL REVIEW OF HEALTH
PROMOTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH
The Southwark Health Alliance is a multi agency
local partnership of statutory and non-statutory agencies. The
key functions of the Health Alliance include promoting healthy
policies, supporting and co-ordinating improvements in health
in Southwark, including working towards reducing health inequalities,
and taking forward Our Healthier Nation.
Although the Southwark Health Alliance was commended
in the Joint Social Services Inspectorate and Audit Commission
Review of Southwark Council, we are faced with an increasingly
complex health improvement agenda. To ensure that we continue
to be effectively positioned to meet the challenge, we began to
review how health promotion and public health functions are delivered
in Southwark. The review is underpinned by Best Value principles.
As the review will only be completed in early
October, it is too early to provide you with written evidence.
We are instead enclosing the remit of the review for information
(not printed). The review will consider:
— The current configuration of health
promotion and public health provision.
— The current and future "demands"
on health promotion and public health from:
— the health service (for example,
PCG/PCTs, "observatories", Health Authority mergers);
— the Local Authority (for example,
its duty to promote "economic, social and environmental well
being" and the development of health priorities in its Community
Plan);
— the need to strengthen support
for local partnerships to reduce health inequalities including
support to the voluntary sector and community groups.
— Recommendations for alternative models
of health promotion and public health.
It is unfortunate that the deadline for written
submissions is 5 July 2000. The Health Committee's Inquiry and
the Southwark Review will be examining common issues, respectively
at national and local levels.
We believe that health promotion and public
health are at a pivotal point. The national findings of the Health
Committee need to be informed by what works well locally. An opportunity
for the Southwark review to feed into the national review will
be welcomed. We hope you will consider contacting us at a later
stage of your Inquiry when we will have completed our review.
We look forward to hearing from you.
30 June 2000
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