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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Shifting the balance of power?
— UK public health policy and capacity building | | Author(s) | David Evans |
| Journal title | Critical Public Health, vol 14, no 1, 2004 |
| Pages | pp 63-75 |
| Source | http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Keywords | Public health ; Health services ; Health [elderly] ; Preventative medicine ; Social policy ; Labour. |
| Annotation | The Labour government elected in the UK in 1997 had a strongly stated commitment to improving public health and tackling inequalities, part of a concerted attempt to tackle poverty and social exclusion through 'joined up thinking' across central government. Fundamental to the government's policy has been the development of public health capacity, including a more multi-disciplinary public health workforce and greater partnership working at local level. Improving public health is a long-term project, and politicians' decisions are often driven by short-term election cycles. Mid-way into its first term, the government published the NHS Plan, which re-focused policy attention on the problems of the health care system. As the 2001 election approached, the government launched Shifting the Balance of Power, a major re-organization of the English NHS, with the intention of improving health care 'delivery', but which also had profound implications for the public health function. This paper argues that UK government policy towards public health has been characterized by continuing and fundamental tensions. Far from empowering public health practitioners, these tensions in central policy have contributed to practitioners' uncertainty about their roles, and how they can meet the centre's increasing demands for demonstrable 'delivery'. The implications are considered for building capacity in the UK and for a wider systems understanding of capacity issues. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040525205 A |
| Classmark | RC: L: CC: LK2: TM2: VL3 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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