Why is Public Health important?
Public Health improves health and reduces health inequalities by using an evidence based approach to make recommendations on the delivery of health and well-being services. Through all of life's stages - from birth, childhood, youth, parenting, later in life and at the end of life – you or your family are likely to access local health and wellbeing services that when working well are based on the evidence of what is most effective. A brief film providing an overview of what is incorporated within public health can be found at What is public health?
Public Health in Surrey
Surrey County Council is responsible for a number of Public Health functions which together aim to improve and protect the health of people living and working in Surrey. It works closely with partner organisations to understand and address the wider issues that influence people's health locally and:
- provides public health information and understanding to enable decisions that are based on people's need and what is effective
- commissions services that support people to make positive changes to their health that are relevant throughout their life
- works with partners to protect Surrey residents from communicable diseases and environmental hazards.
What Surrey Public Health team do
The following over-arching objectives will be used to steer the development of our work over the period of the Council's strategy and the health and wellbeing strategy for Surrey which both support the Surrey 2030 vision.
- An increase in provision of preventative services and approaches that are delivered through both public health and local partners.
- A clear shared understanding of where inequalities exist and how they are being effectively addressed based on evidence and local intelligence.
- Greater coordination and recognition of work on the wider determinants of health across organisations in order to review and increase impact.
- Greater joint commissioning within Surrey, enabling more collaboration between services and an improved experience of preventative services.
More detailed information on the key actions within each part of the team, commissioning intentions and communications plan can be found in the Public Health Service Plan 2024 to 2025 (PDF).
For information on public health services and campaigns visit the Healthy Surrey website.
Who do we work with?
We work with local health providers, national and regional health organisations such as NHS England, NHS Digital, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Clinical Commissioning Groups, district and boroughs, schools, voluntary organisations, emergency services and Healthwatch Surrey to make sure that all Surrey residents are well informed and aware of the support available.
Evidence and data
The Public Health Team produce needs assessments which provide expert advice and intelligence for health and well-being commissioners to make effective decisions on how they spend health services funding. We contribute to, alongside council colleagues, the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, which identifies the current and future health and social care needs of Surrey's population and analyses whether needs are being met locally.
If you want to know more about how we handle data at Surrey County Council please read see our Access to Information pages.
Data protection
Our privacy notice tells you what to expect when we, as the council, process information, especially your personal information. Your privacy is important to us and we are therefore committed to handling your personal data in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. Please see our Public Health privacy notice for more details.
Surrey Health and Wellbeing board
A partnership between NHS, public health, social care, local authorities and service users.
Find out more about the Surrey Health and Wellbeing board on our Healthy Surrey website.
Files available to download
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Public Health Service Plan 2024 to 2025 (PDF)
The service plan sets out the purpose of the Surrey Public Health team, longer term ambitions and detailed objectives across the team
