Public Health Organisations

The public health workforce is a rich and diverse workforce comprising people from a wide range of professional backgrounds and occupations.

The Health Careers website is a useful source of further information associated with public health careers and job roles as well as entry requirements and facts about the profession.

The Faculty of Public Health is the standard setting body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom – providing registration and regulation for its members and professional development opportunities.

The UK Public Health Register is an independent, dedicated regulator for public health professionals in the United Kingdom, providing professional regulation to public health specialists and public health practitioners from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom have a common core set of knowledge, and skills. The Register is particularly for those public health professionals who have no other regulatory body.

Public health work focuses on health and wellbeing and protecting people from risks to their health.

There are three key themes of public health practice – some staff work across all three themes and others tend to focus on a single theme within their professional practice.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities works to protect and improve the nation's health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities and overall responsibility for public health sits within local authorities since the health reform driven by the Health & Social Care Act 2012. 

However, the public health workforce is scattered across a range of organisations including NHS provider organisations, LA academia and DoHSC.

The three pillars of public health are:

  • Prevention: reducing the incidence of ill health supporting healthier lifestyle
  • Protection: surveillance and monitoring of infectious disease, emergency response and immunisation
  • Promotion: health education and commissioning services to meet specific health needs (for example by helping people quit smoking or improving their living conditions