Introduction

Chapter 2 of this book, by the Association of Directors of Public Health, provides a review of the system changes of public health, moving from the National Health Service (NHS) back to management by local authorities. The authors of that chapter also point to the major concerns about the limited potential for delivery upstream of health prevention and promotion that was due to reductions in funding from central government to local authorities. The Association of Directors of Public Health has long championed taking a whole-system and long-term view about how we create, enable and sustain the health and wellbeing of everyone in society.

This chapter will identify the challenges facing the North-East from a population health perspective, and the implications for the area of the contemporary context of the reductions in funding that widen health inequalities and create challenges in the labour market. It will consider the potential benefits of building new approaches that address these challenges using community assets, place-based, targeted, collaborative approaches and are based heavily on community ownership, participation and voice.

The chapter will review the responses of local authorities (LAs) in the North-East to reduced central government funding, examine key issues such as supporting vulnerable groups (children/young people, older people, homeless, unemployed and so on), then highlight LA and community responses and innovation approaches to supporting people via health and wellbeing strategies.