Introduction

The wide-ranging reforms made to health and care systems in England, as part of the HSCA 2012, created an enormous shakeup of the way the public health function is delivered. Key public health responsibilities were transferred from the NHS to local government councils. In addition, PHE was established as the national agency for public health.

This chapter examines what these changes have meant for the commissioning of services to improve population health. Commissioning in relation to the health improvement function refers to the strategic planning and purchasing of services that could include smoking cessation, weight management and drug and alcohol services, public health services for children and young people, comprehensive sexual health services and campaigns, dental public health services and services to prevent cancer and long-term conditions.

The political backdrop

The government's goal was to develop a ‘public health service that achieves excellent results, unleashing innovation and liberating professional leadership’ (Department of Health, 2010b). There were a number of important themes demonstrated in the structural changes. First, they represented an attempt to enhance democratic accountability and challenge the old ‘command and control’ model. Within the wider context of the localism agenda, the relocation of public health functions was an attempt to ensure that local people made local decisions to improve the health of local populations. Second, the government was attempting to shift the focus from processes onto outcomes. A comprehensive set of indicators were developed within a ‘public health outcomes framework’, against which local public health systems would be assessed. This would enable transparency and an element of comparability between different local areas. Third, there was an attempt to take a ‘different’ (though not new) approach to public health – one that takes a ‘life course’ perspective, and that places importance on wider determinants of health, particularly in relation to people's socioeconomic contexts. Fourth, there was a focus on ensuring that decisions are based on the best possible evidence of what works – a key role for PHE. Fifth, there was an emphasis on efficiency, particularly with regard to being ‘joined up’ and streamlined. And finally, consistent with wider policy, there was a general push towards commissioning, and lead organisations being solely commissioning organisations.