Public Health Responsibility Deal

This article is part of the Spinwatch public health oriented Alcohol Portal project.

Healthy lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England, published on 30 November 2010 sets out the coalition government’s vision for public health. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and his team have developed what they describe as a “new mechanism to take forward some aspects of public health outcomes.” This in practice involves the establishment of five networks designed to work to address public health challenges set by the government. The networks are a continuation of previous governments partnership approach to public health where government and public health professionals work in partnership with the industrial sectors that produce products that contribute towards the UK's growing consumption related health problems. Certain issues are ruled outside the remit of the networks, such as pricing, tax and any issues that conflicts with competition law. A Public Health Responsibility Deal Plenary Group will oversee the work and commitments made by the networks.

Andrew Lansley and his colleagues argue that the business community can play a positive role in the development and implementation of public health policies believes that. In 2008 when Lansley was shadow Health Minister he established a Public Health Commission that aimed to develop a public health policy for the Conservative Party. Dave Lewis the chair of Unilever headed the commission and it found that the way forward for public health was to allow for more involvement from industrial sectors. The commissions recommendations have been carried forward and Lansley has assured the business community that the Conservative Party's approach will not involve regulation from government but self regulation and social responsibility.

Pledges

This strategy relies on partners committing to pledges to act on specific targets and together these pledges form the basis of the governments public health strategy. There are two types of pledges involved, individual pledges where individual corporations and organisations make a specific commitment for action and collective pledges where a group of stakeholders agree on a particular course of action. Partners in the network must sign up to the core commitments of the network, these core commitments are extremely broad and allow partners to work towards these commitments at their own pace and in their own way to develop deliverables that work towards the core commitments. The core commitments are:

• We recognise that we have a vital role to play in improving people’s health.
• We will promote and enable people to adopt a healthier diet.
• We will foster a culture of responsible drinking, which will help people to drink sensibly within recommended limits
• We will encourage and assist people to become more physically active
• We will actively support our workforce to lead healthier lives

Corporate Involvement in Public Health

This article is part of the Foodspin project of Spinwatch.

The extent of corporate involvement in the government's public health network was made public after a question in the Commons from shadow health minister Sharon Hodgson Question forced Anne Milton to admit:

Other than multi-stakeholder meetings, since May 2010, departmental Ministers have held meetings with Unilever, McDonalds and Unacom, while the Department's Special Advisers held meetings with Diageo and Kellogg's. During the same period, departmental officials have held meetings with Diageo, Unilever, Nestle, McDonalds, the Advertising Association, 23Red, Freud Communications, M&C Saatchi, VCCP, MCBD and Fast Track Agency.

Responsibility Deal Networks

• Public Health Responsibility Deal Plenary Group
• Responsibility Deal Food Network
• Responsibility Deal Alcohol Network
• Responsibility Deal Health at Work
• Responsibility Deal Physical Activity
• Responsibility Deal Behaviour Change