Public Health Leadership in Primary Care Practice: Everybody’s Business?

This article analyses the concept of leadership in relation to the UK Government’s current

approach to ‘modernizing’ the NHS in England. Focusing on public health in primary care, the

authors consider current developments in the public health workforce, in particular attempts to

differentiate between public health ‘specialists’ and ‘practitioners’ by different levels of leadership

function. It looks at leadership in policy, theory and practice, and draws attention to a number

of key challenges along the leadership path. The concept of ‘leadership skills’ as a taught

competence is questioned, and Shelton and Darling’s (2001) ‘quantum skills’ model of leadership

is provided to suggest new ways in which public health leadership in a primary care context might

be approached. Whilst this article focuses on public health and primary care in England, the

complexity of primary care settings and public health delivery in other international contexts

extends its relevance to non-UK settings.