Public Health Observatories

Public Health Observatories (PHOs) have been established in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and each of the nine regions in England. Under the Association of Public Health Observatories, which ensures a high degree of co-ordination of PHOs' activities, they operate as a network, sharing expertise and resources to undertake specific pieces of work and to deliver common functions. Their main tasks are to support local public health 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.

The types of services which PHOs generally offer their stakeholders include:

• regional health profile information;
• comparative health information to support PCTs and other local agencies;
• Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) safe haven role
• expertise in health intelligence, indicator development, inequalities measurement
• knowledge of, and evidence of active working with, key partner organisations
• advice and information in support of national lead areas;
• access to work undertaken in other PHOs through single searches across all PHO websites;
• advice on methodology (e.g. HEA, HIA, inequality measurement, visualising data);
• taking the regional lead on training around health intelligence;
• support to relevant networks (public health leaders and information specialists / analysts);
• capacity development through teaching and training

Yorkshire & Humber PHO's national lead areas

All PHOs take the lead in areas of national priority, on behalf of the Association of PHOs (APHO). YHPHO takes the lead in two key areas: diabetes, and children and young people. Work on diabetes to date has focused on modelling prevalence, taking into account projected trends in obesity to 2010. YHPHO has also produced a health economics resource database in diabetes. Many of the different strands of health intelligence in this area are now being co-ordinated under the auspices of the new National Diabetes Health Intelligence Group, chaired by YHPHO's Director. Work on children and young people to date has been dominated by a major report commissioned by the Chief Medical Officer to analyse geographical inequalities in child health across the English regions. This report will form part of the APHO Indications series; one of the features of the child health report (due for publication around March / April 2006) will be its analysis of English regional data within a wider EU context, presenting analysis of indicators alongside EU nation state and regional data where possible.

Clearly all of this work relates closely to central PHRC priorities around obesity and children and young people. As an NHS organisation and an active member of APHO, YHPHO is in a key position to assist with the dissemination of the consortium's research outputs through its networks and interoperable websites.