Public Health England

Public Health England (PHE) is due to come into place on 1 April 2013. It is likely to be either an "Executive Agency" of government, or a special health authority.

The bulk of PHE will comprise the Health Protection Agency (HPA), much of which will carry on its work more-or-less unchanged, under the new PHE logo. Other arms length bodies that will move into Public Health England will include:

• National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA)
• Public Health Observatories
• Cancer Registries (see also Wikipedia Cancer registry page)
• Regional Public Health Groups
• Department of Health policy staff
• National Screening Committee

The significance of being an Executive Agency

It is, apparently, normal practice for employees of Executive Agencies to be civil servants, working to the Civil Service code.

This requires a level of secrecy which many think is incompatible with the role of a consultant, let alone a consultant in public health medicine or communicable disease control. Such professionals need to be free to speak up for the populations they serve, free from political constraint; and should have the right to participate in political activity in a way which is not permitted for civil servants.

There is a precedent for Executive Agency staff remaining on non-Civil Service Terms and Conditions: when the Regional Health Authorities were replaced by Regional Offices of the Department of Health, medical staff continued to be employed within them on NHS terms and conditions.

Whether or not all staff - or all new staff - of PHE will be civil servants has yet to be decided.

External links

• Department of Health Press release about the proposed formation of PHE from November 2010