Public health - guidance and tools

This section includes resources which can help with the understanding of and implementation of particular aspects of policy, and support processes for improving care.

This is not a comprehensive listing but suggests guidance and sources of guidance that, in most cases, are relevant to a range of public health contexts. You will find more specific guidance on websites of the key agencies in public health - see Agencies. You will also find relevant guidance and tools in RCN resources.

Some of the resources are in PDF Format - see how to access PDF files.

Department for Education: Healthy Schools
The Healthy Schools toolkit is designed to help schools to ‘plan, do and review’ health and wellbeing improvements for their children and young people and to identify and select activities and interventions effectively”. The toolkit is based on a health behaviour change approach. It includes: a planning template; information and frameworks to help identify needs, define health and wellbeing outcomes, select activities/interventions and review achievements; examples of schools making health and wellbeing improvements.

EPPI-Centre: Health promotion and public health (HP and PH) Reviews Facility 
The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London. This reviews facility has been active within the EPPI-Centre since 1995 and is made up of researchers who conduct in-house systematic reviews of the evidence in key topic areas underpinning health promotion and public health decision-making. The reviews facility also advances methods for undertaking health promotion and public health systematic reviews and contributes to the work of the Cochrane Collaboration’s Public Health Group. The reviews are available as part of the the evidence library and are also in the Database of Promoting Health Effectiveness Reviews (DoPHER) which also includes reviews from some external sources.

Essence of Care: Benchmarks for promoting health (2010)
The benchmark on promoting health is one of a series of Essence of Care benchmarks made available on the Department of Health website. The benchmark demonstrates the increased focus on promoting health as an essential element of all patient care, and something which all health care practitioners have a role in supporting. It places an emphasis on person centred care, providing individuals and communities with skills and knowledge to improve their own and others health, directing them to appropriate resources, and ensuring that all opportunities for promoting health are used effectively.

Framework for a school nursing service for Wales (2009)
This document sets out the Welsh Assembly Government’s framework for developing a school nursing service for Wales that is “safe, accessible and of a high standard”. It was produced in response to the commitment set out in 'One Wales' in 2007. The document describes the context for the school nursing service and sets out the aim, minimum standards, qualifications, skills and training required and service models for a revised school nursing service, and how the service will be implemented.

Guide for World Class Commissioners: Promoting health and well-being: reducing inequalities (2009)
The guide which is published by the Royal Society for Public Health aims “to assist Commissioners to make the most of the best methods of promoting health, using the latest understanding of how we can support people to make healthy choices as individuals within the social and environmental contexts in which they live”. It includes sections on the characteristics and the five main approaches to effective health promotion and social marketing; the commissioning journey, specific tools and techniques to assist commissioning, and governance and risk management.

Health Well
The Health Well is a health information website for Ireland that promotes health and wellbeing in Ireland by supporting evidence-informed decision making and enabling collaborative work via web groups. It provides a number of thematic hubs which bring together data, evidence and good practice. These include a Health Inequalities Hub and an Obesity Hub. The Health Well is managed by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland.

Institute of Public Health in Ireland: Health Impact Assessment
The Institute of Public Health has developed a range of resources in health impact assessment. This section of the IPH website provides an overview of the methodology and resources to assist practitioners embarking on the HIA process.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Published public health guidance
This page in the NICE website lists published NICE public health guidance which can be searched for in different ways. It also links to some special public health reports, Local Government Public Health Briefings and public health topics in development.
The Briefings, first issued in 2012, are meant for local authorities and their partner organisations in the health and voluntary sectors, in particular those involved with health and wellbeing boards in England.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2005) Health needs assessment: a practical guide
The purpose of this guide is to provide practical assistance to everyone engaged in undertaking HNA, including strategic managers at regional and local levels, facilitators, and practitioners in primary care trusts, local government and the voluntary and community sectors.

NHS Education for Scotland elibrary: Equality in Health
The elibrary provides evidence and knowledge to support health and social care staff in addressing health inequalities, caring for the individual as a whole person and involving people in their own health and health care decisions.

NHS Evidence: Public health
NHS Evidence covers a wide range of information of interest to those working to improve the health of the population. This includes guidance, systematic reviews of research, implementation tools and practical examples from people working in the field. A ‘public health’ filter and public health specific topic pages have been developed  within NHS Evidence but users are also advised to take a look at the clinical topics and resources as many of these also include information of relevance to public health.

NHS Health Scotland: Health Promoting Health Service
The Health Promoting Health Service (HPHS) concept is that "every healthcare contact is a health improvement opportunity". It is designed to achieve sustainable health improvement. The HPHS framework was published in 2005. Information about HPHS, further resources and case studies which demonstrate how NHS Boards are developing this approach are available in this section of the NHS Scotland website.

Skills for Health: Public health
Skills for Health have developed a number of resources that will support workforce development and design. These include a suite of National Occupational Standards that cover a wide range of public health functions and support competence-based workforce development and design, and a skills and careers framework which provides a route map for careers in public health regardless of starting and intended ending points.

UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC): Public Health Research: Centres of Excellence
The five Centres of Excellence, established in 2008/9, are based in Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, Cambridge and Nottingham. They are designed to strengthen research into complex public health issues such as obesity, smoking and health inequalities. The Centres bring together leading experts from a range of disciplines and work in partnership with practitioners, policymakers and wider stakeholders to tackle public health issues.

Wellbeing Wales Network
Using the information in the website the Network aims “to guide people and organisations to make best choices and increase wellbeing across Wales and beyond”. You need to register to access some of the resources