What is an Observatory?
The West Midlands Public Health Observatory is one of nine Regional Public Health Observatories in England and is part of the Government's strategy for improving health and reducing health inequalities as set out in the White Paper - Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation. The White Paper set out the government's public health strategy for England which had two main aims:
  1. to improve health,
  2. to reduce the health gap, to reduce health inequalities.
The White Paper proposed a wide range of different ways to achieve these goals, one of which was the proposal to develop a network of Regional Public Health Observatories. The main tasks of the regional Public health Observatories are to support local bodies by:
  • monitoring health and disease trends and highlighting areas for action
  • identifying gaps in health information
  • advising on methods for health and health inequality impact assessments
  • drawing together information from different sources in new ways to improve health
  • carrying out projects to highlight particular health issues
  • evaluating progress by local agencies in improving health and cutting inequality
  • looking ahead to give early warning of future public health problems
Public health observatories work closely with NHS bodies, local authorities, the Government Offices for the Regions and Regional Development Agencies as well as the Health Development Agency. They are linked together by the Association of Public Health Observatories to form a national network of knowledge, information and surveillance in public health and will be a major new resource for local bodies working in public health.