Fostering Productive Relations A natural fit between Sociology, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Fostering Productive Relations

A natural fit between Sociology, Public Health and Local Government Jim McManus,

Director of Public Health, Hertfordshire County Council Vice-President, Association of Directors of Public Health Chair, Behavioural Science and Public Health Network

8th April 2019

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Epidemiology

• Early and avoidable disability and disease
• Early avoidable death
• Smoking prevalence uneven
• Obesity rising in adults, flattening in children in

most places, rising in some

• Alcohol related disease on the increase
• Preventable cost to public health
• Multiple needs, worklessness

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Then the NHS Plan arrived….and I felt…

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Context

• The discourse that clinical procedures and

investments in more kit is the answer

• The discourse of individual lifestyle as the

salient issue in health policy

• The increase in avoidable morbidity and

mortality where clinical procedures are not the answer

• A failure to understand complexity in policy

making

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Worlds Colliding :some pejorative stereotypes

• Public Health

– Status obsessed Boffins – Think they're scientists, – Passive recipients of

• thers’ research

– Not very real world – Too linear – Empiricism gone mad

• Sociologists

– No population perspective – Evidence free zone – What earthly use is that? – No controls – Fluffy and call it “organic” “we could do their job” “we could do their job”

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A better way

• Start from first principles

– Mutual strategic aims – Complementary statutory and policy duties

• England – top tier authority duties
• A “mutual appreciative inquiry” approach
• Start with quality and impact

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• We have a national

strategy to get Public Health to use social and behavioural sciences more wisely, purposively and systematically.

• That’s a start

A starting point. The national strategy

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• Meaning and value
• Lived experience of users
• Understanding why and how not just numbers

and what

• What do residents want? What does this mean?
• Tools for understanding communities
• IPA
• Ethnography

Elected members as naturally inclined to sociological approaches

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Two important reports

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What could good look like?

1.

Clear conceptualisation of how PH and Sociology work together

2.

Clear agreement on big priorities and each discipline’s contributions

3.

Sociology competencies in PH specialists

4.

Placements

5.

Joint research agendas

6.

Systems science

7.

Emphasis on Human Flourishing in social context

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Health Improvement Health Protection Service Quality and Improvement Commissioning priorities, Evidence, making it work with and for people supporting implementation How do we get it right with and for people Long term, medium term, short term, matrix Prevention, Enablement, meaning, access,

Some major need for sociological input to Public Health practice

Methodologi cal Imagination

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• Masterclasses for practitioners
• Building Research imagination – scholarships,

scholars in residence, honorary contracts, liaison groups

• Advice on tap
• Skills sessions
• Discourse and content analysis on policy

– “Predictive Prevention”

• Doctoral work on why people refuse treatment

Some current work

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A word about Leadership...we’d like some different leadership on both sides

Contextual

Technical

Relational

Personal

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thank you

Jim.mcmanus@hertfordshire.gov.uk