We're taking the healthy option

摘要

We take our responsibility for public health very seriously and wholly refute the claim by Professor Ashton, incoming president of the Faculty of Public Health, that councils are 'subjugating public health to social work' as, in Westminster this is not our approach. We have a full team of public health professionals leading the department. The driving force behind transferring public health to local authorities is to embed health into all that we do, such as planning, housing, transport and licensing, all of which can have a major impact on someone's health. While, as the centre of the capital, we have unique challenges in addressing health in Westminster, we also have a number of opportunities. We are one of the greenest boroughs with some of London's greatest parks and have made a commitment to providing 100 hours of free sports activities for children to combat childhood obesity. Our flagship Well at Home programme improves people's homes and living conditions that may affect their health - an example of the cross-cutting working possible now local authorities are in charge of public health.