New public health report and resources

18 December 2013

The King’s Fund has published a new report and set of resources to support local authorities in improving the public’s health. A section on safer travel is available here.

The resources bring together evidence on the effectiveness of different types of action in a new report, with dedicated sections for specialists working in nine key areas also available online. Each section signposts further case studies, tools and information and provides evidence of the economic benefits of taking action.

The resources will help local authorities prioritise the most effective actions to drive improvements in the health of their local communities, even in straitened financial times.

The report shows that being poorer  increases the likelihood of experiencing injury or death from traffic accidents. More than a quarter of child pedestrian casualties happen in the most deprived 10 per cent of wards.
Examples of effective interventions include:
• promoting cycling and walking for travel to work and for recreation
• improving infrastructure and local environments to encourage cycling and walking and prioritising ‘place’ over cars
• promoting and using the Cycle to Work scheme
• introducing 20-mph speed zones in densely populated areas with consistently high accident rates.
The resources are supported by senior figures from across local government and public health, and the report is commended in a foreword by Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Local Government Association; Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive of Public Health England; Janet Atherton, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health and Sir Michael Marmot, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity.

The full report and resources are available here.

The fund hopes that local authority professionals will find this useful.

For further information, please get in touch with Daniel Webster at d.webster@kingsfund.org.uk or on 020 7307 2632