Leadership, facilitation, and relationships are key to countering the waning influence of public health

Kathryn Oliver makes some fair points about the types of skills Directors of Public Health (DsPH) need in the new world of public health upon its return to local government. However, for some of us at least they are not new although often overlooked. Arguably many of the skills she identifies have been needed for some time and are not a particular requirement of the transition to local government.

Joint posts between the NHS and local government have existed for several years so in theory DsPH should already have a sound grasp of what makes local government so different from the NHS. Sadly, few DsPH do fully understand the culture of local authorities although those who do will probably survive and achieve more than might have been possible in an NHS context. Bringing about change and making the business case for health improvement and for investment in health and wellbeing are skills often lacking in DsPH trained in epidemiology and other information intelligence gathering.

It is for precisely this reason that we have been running leadership programmes in health and wellbeing since 2006 which aim to equip DsPH and other senior public health leaders with the requisite skills to make partnerships work. Public health, regardless of its location, can only succeed by working across boundaries and by building alliances. Understanding complex systems, 'wicked issues', multiple cultures across the NHS, local government and third sector, being politically astute and developing effective relationships have arguably never been greater but DsPH have always needed these skills. Our programmes focus on these deficits and on putting them in a policy context that is always up-to-date and relevant to the challenges DsPH face. For further details about our programmes go to www.durham.ac.uk/public.health.