NHS Lothian

Health Promotion Service

Strategic Framework

2018 – 2023

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Health promotion is the process of enabling individuals and

communities to increase control over and improve their health.

It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide

range of social and environmental interventions.

- World Health Organisation

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At a glance

The strategy sets out a framework of action for the Health Promotion Service over the next five years. It reaffirms the principles and

functions of health promotion and identifies priority areas where the Service will play a key role in achieving greater equity in health and

well-being for the Lothian population.

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Our Aim

To lead the implementation of health promotion approaches in order to

improve health equity across Lothian.

We seek to identify and address unmet need in our

communities in order to address inequalities,

improve health and well-being and reduce demands

placed on health care and other services.

Socioeconomic disadvantage and inequalities of

opportunity can significantly impact the health of a

population and remain a key challenge. We are

proactive and responsive in contributing to NHS

Lothian’s role in addressing these challenges to

achieve greater health equity.

We work to alleviate these pressures further

through integrated action at different levels on

determinants of health to ensure inclusion, social

justice, community empowerment, equality and

human rights, in line with national strategic

direction. The Service also strives to ensure that

all actions undertaken are economically, socially

and environmentally sustainable, in support of the

UN Sustainable Development Goals.1

This strategy is used by our Service to shape an

annual Delivery Plan which gives a more detailed

overview of our work. The Health Promotion

Service Delivery Plan takes into consideration

local, national and international drivers, together

with local knowledge and identified need. It’s

reviewed annually to consider the emerging

landscape of political, social, economic and

technological influences. The Delivery Plan shows

how we contribute to and support NHS Lothian’s

Public Health and Health Policy directorate

objectives, NHS Lothian’s corporate objectives, as

well as Community Planning Partnership and

Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) priorities.

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Our Team

The Service is part of the NHS Lothian Public

Health & Policy Directorate. Our team consists of

a service manager, team leaders, senior health

promotion specialists, health promotion

specialists, support staff and Resource Centre.

We work across a continuum of practice to deliver

on strategic programmes of work pan-Lothian and

at local level. Our broad skill base allows us to

work in partnership to respond to identified needs

locally and nationally. To enable this we have staff

leading and supporting work in local authority areas

and within specific settings in order to support and

collaborate with a range of partners, for example

Health and Social Care Partnerships, Community

Planning, Education, Criminal Justice and

Maternity Services.

As part of our ongoing approach to work force

development, we support staff to become

registered public health practitioners through the

UK Public Health Registration scheme. We also

offer regular continual professional development

opportunities to ensure we can demonstrate the

key competencies required for our role.

A key part of the Service is the Health Promotion

Resource Centre which provides those living,

working and studying in Lothian with access to up

to date resources and a wide variety of knowledge

and information tools and services. The extensive

collection of resources covering all aspects of

health promotion together with healthcare

management and related subjects can be

accessed in-person and online.

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Service Principles

The service principles are cross-cutting and complementary. They act together to determine the work and activities

we undertake and the approach we use. The principles describe our unique contribution to improving health

outcomes across Lothian. Our service principles underpin all work streams.

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3.

Prioritise Early Intervention & Prevention

Promote Health Equity

Address the Determinants of Health

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Priority Areas

The service principles determine our priority areas:

- Early Years, Children & Young People Well being

- Healthy, Sustainable Communities & Places

- Supporting Healthy Behaviours and Reducing Harm

Our priority areas are intentionally far reaching in order to maintain their relevance within the ever-changing systems

in which we work. Their broad nature enable us to be flexible in the areas of work we cover, the activities we

undertake and the approaches we use in order to meet the emerging needs of the communities, partners and

stakeholders we work with.

The priority areas link to our annual Delivery Plan and ensure we are continuously working towards our overall aim.

We use the priority areas to inform our actions which come in the shape of projects, programmes, training and

partnership working. The priority areas guide allocation of resource across the service whilst taking into account

the work we are tasked to deliver on by NHS Lothian and the Scottish Government.

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Core Functions

Health promotion is one of the World Health

Organisation’s ten essential public health

operations and has its roots in the Ottawa

Charter.2 In keeping with the concept of health as

a fundamental human right, the Ottawa Charter

emphasises certain pre-requisites for health which

include peace, adequate economic resources, food

and shelter, a stable eco-system and sustainable

resource use. The Charter outlines five priority

areas for action:

Build healthy public policy

Create supportive environments for health

Strengthen community action for health

Develop personal skills

Re-orient health services

These have been developed and refined over the

years (Jakarta Declaration 1997,3 Bangkok

Charter for Health Promotion 2005,4 Shanghai

Declaration 20165) according to evolving global

and political contexts. They are reflected in the

Service’s identified Core Functions, which also

take into account the NHS Knowledge and Skills

Framework and the Public Health Knowledge and

Skills Framework. The Core Functions define the

approaches implemented and promoted by the

Service.

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The NHS Lothian Health Promotion Service aims to improve health equity through four Core Functions:

Programme & Project Management

Providing leadership and strategic direction for

evidence-based health promotion

interventions and approaches.

Designing, implementing and evaluating the

impact of health promotion programmes,

projects, policies and strategies.

Organisational & Partnership Development

Working in partnership with communities and

across sectors to co-produce and realise

opportunities for maintaining and promoting

health.

Advocating for change with and on behalf of

communities to improve health, well-being and

environment.

Capacity Building

Catalysing change through supporting

communities to maintain and improve

their health and environment.

Advancing the knowledge and skills of health

promotion amongst practitioners and volunteers.

Information & Knowledge Mobilisation

Assessing, understanding and responding to the

health needs of our communities.

Generating and sharing knowledge and

information in ways that are appropriate and

accessible to a wide range of stakeholders.

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Health Promotion Service

Strategic Framework

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Glossary

Capacity Building. Capacity building for health promotion is

the development of knowledge, skills, commitment,

structures, systems and leadership to enable effective health

promotion.6 Action takes place at 3 levels: among

practitioners, in organisations and with communities.

Communities. Groups of people living in the same place or

having a particular characteristic or interest in common.

Community Planning Partnerships. A partnership of

different organisations, including Local Authorities, NHS,

voluntary sector, police etc, coming together to plan and

develop appropriate services for their community.7

Determinants of Health. Are the range of behavioural,

biological, socio-economic and environmental factors that

influence the health status of individuals or populations.

Early intervention and prevention. Engaging with people,

services and systems as soon as possible to take action in

an effort to prevent and mitigate health-related problems

before they become more difficult to reverse.

Fundamental causes of health inequalities. The social and

political forces that maintain the unfair distribution of income,

power and wealth.

Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs). Are the

organisations formed as part of the integration of services

provided by Health Boards and Councils in Scotland. Each

partnership is jointly run by the NHS and local authority.8

Health Equity. Equity is the absence of avoidable, unfair, or

remediable differences among groups of people, whether

those groups are defined socially, economically,

demographically or geographically or by other means.

"Health equity” is when everyone has a fair opportunity to

attain their full health potential.9

Health inequalities. Health inequalities are the unfair and

avoidable differences in people’s health across social groups

and between different population groups.10

Health Promotion. Health promotion is the process of

enabling people to increase control over, and to improve,

their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual

behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental

interventions.11

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References

1. “Sustainable Development Goals” (2017). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

2. “The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, First Interna-tional Conference on Health Promotion, Ottawa, 21 Novem-ber 1986” (2017, December 12). Retrieved from http:// www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/ en/

3. “Jakarta Declaration on Leading Health Promotion into the

21st

Century, The Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion: New Players for a New Era – Leading Health Pro-

motion into the 21st

Century, meeting in Jakarta from 21 to 25 July 1997” (2017). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/ healthpromotion/conferences/previous/jakarta/declaration/en/ index1.html

4. “The Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Global-ized World” (2005, August 11). Retrieved from http:// www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/6gchp/ bangkok_charter/en/

5. “Shanghai Declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (2016, November 21). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/ conferences/9gchp/shanghai-declaration/en/

6. “WHO Health Promotion Glossary” (1998). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/about/HPR% 20Glossary%201998.pdf?ua=1

7. “Community Planning in Scotland” (2016, December 20). Retrieved from http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/ PublicServiceReform/CP

8. “Health and Social Care Partnership” (2016, December 14). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Health_and_Social_Care_Partnership 9. “Health Equity” (2017). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/ topics/health_equity/en/ 10. “Health Inequalities: What are they? How do we reduce them?” (2015). Retrieved from http:// www.healthscotland.scot/media/1086/health-inequalities-what-are-they-how-do-we-reduce-them-mar16.pdf 11. “Health Promotion” (2017). Retrieved from http:// www.who.int/topics/health_promotion/en/

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NHS Lothian Health Promotion Service

Canaan Park, Astley Ainslie Hospital,

143 Grange Loan, Edinburgh EH9 2HL

Online

Telephone: 0131 537 9399

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