Building Expertise

The South West Regional Public Health Group (SWRPHG) works in partnership with other government departments, public sector organisations and a number of community and voluntary organisations. to raise health awareness and how positive steps can be taken to make the region a healthier place to live and work.

At the strategic policy level the SWRPHG helped to develop the South West Regional Assembly’s Integrated Strategy, outlining how the region could develop in the long-term. On a more practical level the SWRPHG supports a regional network of tobacco action groups who tackle the threat of smoking to people’s health.

The SWRPHG also aims to build expertise by developing multi-skilled public health professionals in the region. These health professionals are encouraged through support and training to sign up to the voluntary register for public health specialists and supporting public health trainees.

We want to ensure that measures to improve health become part of the South West’s mainstream performance management and inspection systems. In partiular, those used by local government and the NHS. To achieve this, we are working to develop local partnerships and have placed an emphasis on the wider determinants of health.