Roles and responsibilities
Health protection seeks to prevent or reduce the harm caused by communicable diseases and minimise the health impact from environmental hazards such as chemicals and radiation and extreme weather events.
Nottinghamshire County Council Public Health Response Team
- general/non-urgent advice and guidance in relation to health protection issues
- provide information and advice to relevant organisations and public
- local health leadership (not management), identify issues and advise, links to Health & Wellbeing Board
- lead the local authority’s response to incidents
- preventing threats arising
- planning for and responding to incidents that present a threat to the population’s health
- a statutory duty regarding assurance and ensuring appropriate responses
- work with/alongside local trading standards and environmental health teams.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
- specialist clinical and scientific advice, response, research and analysis
- specialist health protection response including response to cases, outbreaks and incidents
- specialist information and advice, respond to enquiries
- supporting the Integrated Care System to understand and respond to potential threats
- health protection leadership and stakeholder management
- data collection, analysis and surveillance, epidemiology
- research and development
- public health microbiology laboratory.
NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board
- planning and delivering services and supporting health protection within the wider system
- planning and securing health delivery/response
- mobilising NHS resource vaccination service (e.g. tuberculosis)
- providing information and advice to relevant organisations and the public, including infection prevention and control.
NHS England
Commission health protection programmes and ensure safe and effective delivery of services including:
- vaccination programmes
- screening programmes including cancer and non-cancer screening
- child health information services
- public health services for adults and children in secure and detained settings
- sexual abuse and assault services
- performance management and service improvement, patient safety and quality, and reducing health inequalities across all programmes.
Local Resilience Forums and Local Health Resilience Partnerships
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF) is a multi-agency partnership that prepares for incidents and emergencies by:
- undertaking localised planning for a wide range of incidents and catastrophic emergencies
- operating under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) with clear roles and responsibilities for all agencies involved
- producing, testing, and training on emergency plans
- ensuring that during an emergency, the response of each individual member agency is coordinated to accomplish a shared strategy.
Membership includes County, City, and District/Borough Councils, Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue, NHS organisations, East Midlands Ambulance Service, UKHSA, Environment Agency, utility companies, transport and infrastructure operators as well as the military and the voluntary sector.
The Local Health Resilience Partnership (LHRP) works on the same footprint as the LRF but with a health-focussed membership. It brings together local health organisations, across the public and private sector, to plan for emergencies which may impact on the health sector.
