Personal Statement

I have led numerous initiatives and organisations at the boundaries of interdisciplinary research, analysis, interpretation, action planning and policy development. Although not primarily a traditional academic, I have held many professorial positions, both substantive and honorary. My executive, non-executive and advisory roles have at their very heart the translation of evidence into policy and practice. Indeed, my research degree considered the success factors and barriers in translating policy into meaningful actions. I have not by and large been engaged in primary research.

 

Such expertise as I have relates to the utility of research in improving the life circumstances and health prospects of communities and populations. I am regarded as research credible, rather than an active researcher. It was because of my work in this area that I was appointed some years ago to the Chief Scientist’s Committee on the use of evidence in policy formulation. This committee, requested by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, comprised ten leaders in their fields and, to the best of my knowledge, I was the only person occupying the specific niche of ‘research translation’.

 

I have acted frequently as the Lead Rapporteur and Report Author for major international research and/or policy conferences, including those focused on evidence-based practice as well as policy. In addition, I have often been asked to act as the Conciliator and Arbitrator between competing interests. For example, I did so at the WHO 4th International Conference in Jakarta (‘New Players for a New Era – Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century’). This followed a bitter dispute between the leaders of major international companies and radical public health activists. I was viewed as being credible by both groups, hence the request to undertake the arbitration role. Subsequently, I drafted the relevant part of the conference report to the satisfaction of all parties. I fulfilled a similar role in Berne some 25 years ago to help resolve boundary overlaps between the Council of Europe, WHO Europe, and the European Commission. Closer to home, I was asked to facilitate stakeholder discussions during the controversial healthcare reforms in England, referred to usually as the Lansley Reforms.

 

I was a co-applicant and, subsequently,  Management Board member for the Medical Research Council funded programme on NCDs and Trade, commencing formally in September 2019. This initiative, involving the universities of Chester (Lead body), Cambridge, UCL, Liverpool, London School of Hygiene, Exeter and others, started the process of mapping the existing and emerging research territory and building a network of organisations for dissemination and implementation.

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I have worked closely with a number of individual EU Member States. I have had a strong relationship with WHO for some 35 years, both HQ in Geneva and the European Region, even to the extent of having an office in Copenhagen for two years. I have on occasions worked with other international bodies, such as the World Bank, and was a member of the Board of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education for almost twenty years. This included leading their review of organisational and management arrangements.

 

My international work has also extended across the Atlantic to North America. Together with Professor Pekka Puska from Finland and Professor Lowell Levin of Yale University,  I led the Canadian Summer School on Health Promotion on more than one occasion and also worked closely with the American Public Health Association (APHA). The APHA generously recognised my international contribution with the award of Honorary Fellowship.

 

My work has involved multisectoral and multidisciplinary work throughout my entire career. I contributed to the drafting of the Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion in 1986, led by Professor Ilona Kickbusch. Indeed, I was involved for two to three years beforehand in thinking through aspects of the conceptual framework. Within the UK, I have championed cross disciplinary working, giving the Opening Address at annual conferences for the British Dietetic Association, Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, various medical specialities and others. In 2013 I was invited to deliver the annual prestigious Allan St. John Holt Memorial Lecture for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA).

 

I remain the only non-medic to have overseen a Medical Deanery in the UK and was the first non-nurse to manage nursing education. I was a Foundation Member of the UK Public Health Register which, by definition, incorporates a wide range of primary disciplines. I was one of only two people to be awarded Foundation Fellowship of the National Institute for Health Visiting for my contribution to public health nursing. In 2013, I was asked by Minsters to establish and Chair the National Forum for developing community pharmacy.

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I have championed the role of all socio-economic sectors in the determination of health, long before it became fashionable to do so. During my time in Wales, I set up the ‘Health is Your Business’ Award Scheme in conjunction with the Confederation of Business Industry (CBI) and the Trade Union Council (TUC). Simultaneously, I developed the very first scheme for nonmedical prescribing by family doctors, which subsequently became known as ‘social prescribing’. I have been instrumental in bringing evidence to the forefront of policy thinking, either through Parliamentary committees or through membership of policy bodies. I engage regularly with political decision-makers both at home and abroad, and I am familiar with the political considerations they take into account when determining policy.

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I have managed large, complicated programmes and organisations throughout my career. These have entailed the complex analysis and synthesis of information from a multiplicity of sources, including research and statistical data, as well as the contextual circumstances.  Communication, so often overlooked, has been at the heart of my work in rescuing, establishing and building organisations and projects. The two-way process of stimulating formative dialogue and subsequently engaging in interactive communication is essential in developing a common understanding of goals, roles and actions. A journey together can only be achieved if there is a common starting point and an agreed destination, together with shared ownership of the route. During my career I have written and lectured on this subject and, in part, this led to my Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. I had a leading role in the MRC project on NCDs and Trade, which involved building a stakeholder network as part of a comprehensive communications plan. In addition, as Adviser to the proposed UK National Eye and Hearing Survey, I have been responsible for recommending the most appropriate communication mechanisms for engaging all stakeholders, including parliamentarians and other policy-makers.  My publications include technical papers on communications and stakeholder engagement for, among others, WHO.  In similar vein, this featured as part of my external review of the  Global Health Programme at the United Nations University. The importance of communication in delivering policy formulation frequently goes unrecognised. The willingness of policy-makers to accept the need for new policy thinking is often determined by the political environment in which they operate.

 

It is essential in my view to introduce new policy proposals within the context of a social marketing approach, designed primarily to highlight either the social value or economic benefits of the policy issue in question. Social marketing is more usually seen as a tool for encouraging individual behaviour change and, regrettably, its role in social or institutional policy development or corporate decision-making is often ignored. My more recent work with the National Centre for Rural Health and Care illustrates the importance of communication in building shared ownership for common outcomes. The Centre, in alliance with the national Rural Services Network for local government, launched a new institutional membership scheme in December 2019, designed to stimulate a shared vision around priorities and provide a forum for policy focused information exchange. This already has seventy plus organisational members and has helped reinforce the work of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Rural Health and Care as well as assisting the opening of a dialogue with Ministers about the need for a National Strategy on Rural Health and Care.

 

I have chaired or facilitated numerous events, including major global conferences and programmes. I led the work in urgently preparing a plan for Europe in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 atrocities in the USA at a time when there was a high risk of a biological, chemical or radiation attack on a major European city.  This work was requested personally by the European Regional Director for WHO, Dr. Marc Danzon. My role included acting as Facilitator for a meeting of European Chief Medical Officers as well as drafting the final report and recommendations.

​I led the development of the 2005 European Health Report and the related European Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health and Development, including acting as the principal author for both. This was preceded by an advocacy paper in 2003 prepared for the WHO Regional Committee, for which I was sole author, resulting in agreement that child and adolescent health and development should be one of two priorities for the next five year plan. More recently, I was asked at the end of 2017 to Chair the External Review of the Global Health Programme at the United Nations University. This included writing the report and overseeing its submission to the UN. The work was completed on time and the report was adopted in its entirety and the recommendations were implemented.