Advice

Introduction

Introduction

The public health outcomes framework for England sets out objectives for the public health system in the 3 years from April 2013. It consists of 4 domains and over 60 indicators for measuring progress.

This document provides links to NICE guidance relevant to more than 40 of these indicators and shows how it can help local authorities tackle their public health priorities.

The domains of the public health outcomes framework are:

  • Domain 1: improving the wider determinants of health

    • Objective: improvements against wider factors that affect health and wellbeing and health inequalities.

  • Domain 2: health improvement

    • Objective: people are helped to live healthy lifestyles, make healthy choices and reduce health inequalities.

  • Domain 3: health protection

    • Objective: the population's health is protected from major incidents and other threats, while reducing health inequalities.

  • Domain 4: healthcare public health and preventing premature mortality

    • Objective: reduced numbers of people living with preventable ill health and people dying prematurely, while reducing the gap between communities.

Eight of the 16 indicators are shared with the NHS outcomes framework and a further 2 are complementary. This means that the combined contributions of local authorities and the NHS, for example, to reduce premature mortality from cancer and from cardiovascular, respiratory and liver disease, can be assessed.

A further 4 indicators are shared with or complement the 'Adult social care framework'. These indicators also support the coordinated efforts of local authorities – through both public health and social care – and the NHS to improve outcomes for specific groups, such as people with mental illness.

By ensuring the frameworks are aligned and mutually supportive, a 3-way alliance is created through which the challenges facing the health and care system can be tackled and the vision and aims achieved.

The document also:

  • Highlights the local authority commissioning responsibilities related to the indicators outlined in the Department of Health's Public health in local government: commissioning responsibilities.

  • Provides links to NICE Pathways that include the guidance. NICE Pathways are interactive flow diagrams showing how all NICE's recommendations for a particular topic fit together, whether they are about public health, disease prevention in the NHS, clinical care or social care.

  • Sets out the Department of Health's reasons for including each of the indicators in the framework, outlined in the technical specifications for the framework.

  • Identifies the indicators in domain 4 that are shared with the NHS outcomes framework.

Links to the guidance are also the route to NICE publications designed to support implementation. These include general guides on how to put guidance into practice, and tools that help with estimating the costs of implementation of specific guidance topics, assessing the impact on local budgets, and making the business case for public health action.

We update this document as new guidance is published and to reflect policy developments.