The health of the UK’s population is improving.  Vital signs, such as life expectancy and infant mortality, have been moving in the right direction for several centuries.  These trends result from public health measures, as well as innovations in healthcare and health technologies.  Moreover, there is reason to think that they will continue and that new opportunities for improving health will arise over the coming years and decades. 

Yet substantive challenges remain.  For example: the harms caused by smoking remain significant; obesity and poor mental health are growing; and health services face rising demand alongside the ever-present requirement to ration supply.  Moreover, many of these problems are very unequally distributed: inequalities in health have grown, despite recent efforts to reduce them. 

GHK has worked with clients to address many of these challenges.  Topics covered include: mental health, sexual violence, obesity, smoking, infant mortality and accident prevention.  We have worked at European, national and local level for organisations including the NHS, NICE and the voluntary sector.  Our services have spanned the policy cycle: from needs assessment and service design, through monitoring and support for implementation, to outcome and economic evaluation. 

Currently, we are working to help clients through this ‘transitional’ period.  Focussing on benefits, while minimising risks and disruption, is central to translating current legislative reforms into effective services on the ground.