The Role of a DPH

Background

There are over 170 Directors of Public Health working across England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the UK’s dependant territories, each with responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their local population.

The DPH role

As ‘local Chief Medical Officers’, Directors of Public Health lead a team of experts in public health to improve and protect good health, and prevent harm by:

• Connecting and working with organisations to improve health, reduce unfair and avoidable differences in health, and tackle the preventable causes of illness and disease.
• Leading the local response to infectious diseases and other health harming hazards in collaboration with a wide range of partners, including the UK Health Security Agency, Environmental Health and the police.
• Commissioning services that improve people’s health and wellbeing, including sexual health, weight management, smoking cessation, early years, and addiction treatment.
• Collating, interpreting and providing information and statistics about residents’ health and wellbeing to the NHS, local authorities, social care and community-based organisations, as well as the public, to develop services that meet the needs of local residents.