Looking Forward
New Faculty President Alan Maryon Davis talks about his vision for the next three years.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
‘July 1 will be a massive day in the history of public health in this country,' says Alan Maryon Davis, inaugurated as the new President of the Faculty of Public Health at this year's AGM in Eastbourne . ‘The whole of the UK will have smoke free legislation, but we can't just tick the box and say “that's smoking done.” Plenty of challenges remain around smoking, and lots more needs to be done around obesity, alcohol, sexual ill health, mental health – not to mention the whole climate change and sustainable development agenda. It's a really, really exciting time to become President of the Faculty.'
‘Suddenly it'll be all about the ‘R' word.
A rash of renewal breaking out all over, and we must respond with some renewed thinking in the public health movement."
‘There are tectonic shifts in the public health world. The independent public health organisations are jostling and manoeuvring,' he continues. ‘There are talks of collaboration, co-location and of building a very strong and powerful voice for public health, because, let's face it, up until now it's been rather fragmented. It's been a bit disparate – sometimes even desperate – and this is a good time to really pull together and make sure we can no longer be sidelined.'
Tied in with this, Alan firmly believes, is the change in government. ‘Suddenly it'll be all about the ‘R' word. A rash of renewal breaking out all over,' he says, ‘and we must respond with some renewed thinking in the public health movement. For instance, we've tended to deal fairly closely with the Department of Health up to now, and its equivalent in Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland. I feel we need to extend ourselves across government more, and have better links with other departments. That's going to be interesting.'
So what are the key challenges of the next three years? ‘Making sure that our voice is heard,' he says, ‘and holding it together in terms of the UK . There's a tendency for the UK to split into its respective countries and that's fine, but the Faculty is a UK-wide body. We've got to find a way of being an inclusive UK-wide organisation while at the same time fostering those individual countries' identities and aspirations, so that will be a challenge. There's also a worry that public health is atomising in terms of its functions – there's a risk that health improvement will go off in one direction, health protection in another and health care quality in a third. That's fine – as long as they stay in the public health family. We can't afford big schisms.'
Does he have a key message for the Faculty's membership? ‘Yes – let's hear from you please. Let's have your ideas and input. I want to engage the membership more,' he says, ‘so that you feel you can get involved and make a difference to Faculty policy and, wider than that, help shape public health policy at national level. It's about trying to demonstrate that we can have a high profile as a movement and become more visible in terms of advocacy.'
What would he like people to say about his presidency in three years time? ‘Rod Griffiths will be a hard act to follow. But it would be good if people could say we'd made some real advances in terms of raising the profile of public health, that we'd increased our influence in the corridors of power to become an agent of change, that we'd developed our standards and training to be not just fit for purpose but also second to none, and that we'd worked with other independent public health organisations to bring ourselves together into a more coherent and cohesive movement - one that acts as a really powerful, professional platform for public health.'
No pressure then.