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New agency heralds health promotion job cuts

Staff levels at the Health Education Authority (HEA) are set to be slashed by between a third and a half in preparation for the launch of the new independent health authority, the Health Development Agency (HDA), in January.

The resources of the depleted HEA will be used to form the core of the HDA, but the new agency will have a vastly reduced public profile and virtually no responsibility for carrying out health promotion campaigns.

The HDA is expected to need 125-150 staff at its London HQ plus about 10 working in the regions. The HEA currently employs a total of 228 staff.

In recent years the HEA has been responsible for organising a number of national health promotion campaigns including initiatives on smoking, alcohol, HIV and AIDS, immunisation, physical activity, nutrition, mental health, skin cancer and health at work.

The HDA will instead be responsible for providing an evidence base for use by other public health organisations charged with carrying out initiatives in line with the Our Healthier Nation white paper.

Its remit will include commissioning research and evaluation, setting standards, disseminating information, and advising on the capacity and capability of the public health workforce to deliver the government’s public health strategy.

Between 25 and 30 people will be employed by the HDA in research, 10-15 in standard setting, 30-35 in dissemination and communication, and 30-35 in building the capacity of the public health workforce. Another 30-35 will staff the organisation’s internal ‘infrastructure’ and 10 more will work in the regions. Health programmes and campaigns, which currently employ most staff in the HEA, will require only 20 or 30 staff in the new HDA.

The HEA management, which has been introducing the organisational changes in consultation with health union Unison, hopes to begin a programme of voluntary redundancies before the end of the year. Government ministers have approved a separate budget for HEA redundancies and retraining.