With the UK General Election results announced today and a new Government taking office holding a strong mandate, the Faculty of Public Health is ready to work with the incoming administration to deliver bold, transformative action to protect and improve health across the four nations of the UK.
This momentous election comes at a time when the UK is paying a high price for poor health, with record-breaking levels of long-term sickness, widening inequalities between our communities, an overwhelmed and under-resourced healthcare system desperately fighting to keep up with demand, and millions of families struggling under the weight of poverty.
To reverse these trends, improve health, and tackle health inequalities the Faculty of Public Health’s ‘Vision for the Public’s Health’ sets out 50 pragmatic, evidence-informed recommendations for the new Government grouped under 4 priority areas:
- Promote policies and programmes that improve the health and wellbeing of people and communities and tackle health inequalities.
- Tackle poverty to ensure everyone has the chance to live a long and healthy life.
- Protect the nation from infectious diseases and prepare for health threats and emergencies.
- Increase investment in public health and prevention as assets for society, and make health a priority for cross-government action.
As the new administration takes office, FPH calls for urgent action on seven key recommendations within the ‘first 100 days’ which would signal a clear commitment to population health:
- Deliver a bold, ambitious goal to improve the nation’s health to sit alongside the net zero target and increasing economic growth as the key drivers of government policy over the next decade and beyond.
- Implement fully the government’s commitment to a smokefree generation set out in Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation, with action to prevent smoking before it starts, support smokers to quit and stop vapes being marketed to children.
- Establish a non-partisan, independent commission to review UK drugs legislation based on national and international evidence of what works in reducing harm.
- Support inclusive and meaningful engagement with communities, prioritising co- production and community participation as a cross government commitment.
- Commit to a new Child Poverty Act which commits to ending child poverty in all parts of the UK by 2030.
- Extend the National Living Wage to all employees of any age, replacing the National Minimum Wage that applies to workers aged 16-20.
- Scrap the two-child limit and the benefit cap for universal credit, delivering significant income gains for many of the poorest families for a cost of £3bn.
As the new Government begins its programmes of work, the Faculty of Public Health will continue to act as a clear and unequivocal advocate for health and equity in all policies – guided by our Vision for the Public’s Health – both advising and holding the new administration to account.
