Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of ensuring that Directors of Public Health have a central role in integrated care Board and integrated care providers.

The Health and Care Bill includes a requirement on integrated care boards (ICBs) to consider the skills, knowledge and experience its members need to discharge its functions and where there are gaps, consider what mitigations can be made. We expect this to include public health. ICBs will also have a duty to obtain appropriate advice to enable them to discharge their functions effectively. Persons who have a broad range of professional expertise in the protection or improvement of public health are specifically mentioned in this duty.

The Health and Care Bill does not make requirements for integrated care providers. However, we expect public health experts to play a significant role in the new integrated care partnerships. Local authority Directors of Public Health and their teams can have an influential role in supporting, informing and guiding approaches to population health improvement and plans to identify and address health disparities.