Policies in support of saving lives. Our Healthier Nation

This document is an inventory of the policies and initiatives referred to in Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation. It is designed as an accessible source of information for those who want to know more about each policy, including its aims, objectives and whether any additional funding is attached. It also provides information, ~where appropriate, on what actions are required at a local level (ie regional level or below) to implement the policy. The inventory was commissioned by the NHS Executive London Region, in response to a request from Directors of Public Health in London for further information on the policies and initiatives referred to in Saving Lives. A team of public health specialists from the Health and Health Care Group, within the South East Institute of Public Health, have compiled the inventory using published sources, including details found on each government department's web-site. (References are shown for each policy). The detail presented on each policy differs depending on the amount of information we have been able to obtain from these sources. We have attempted to piece together information on each policy into a common framework. It has, however, proved difficult to provide information under each heading for all policies. For those wanting to know more about a particular policy we therefore recommend that they look first at the appropriate government department's circulars [the equivalent to Health Service Circulars (HSCs)], which are available on their web site. The inventory is ordered in terms of the chapter and paragraph number within Saving Lives where the policy is first mentioned. Several policies do not have a separate entry, however, as they form elements of a broader initiative; details of these are contained within the main policy area. We have also omitted information on a number of NHS policies, such as Modern and Dependable, believing that an NHS audience will already have a detailed understanding of these. In addition, a number of policies and initiatives mentioned in Saving Lives are still being developed and so are also not included (a list of these are contained in the Appendix). The inventory is available as an Access database from the South East Institute of Public Health and will appear shortly on our Web-Site. The database can be searched by one, or more, of a set of keywords, to identify sub-sets of policies with the same characteristics (eg all those relating to children). We hope that the inventory is a useful reference source and welcome any comments readers may have. An evaluation sheet is attached at the end of the inventory for this purpose.