About Health Profiles
Health Profiles are designed to help local government and health services identify problems in their areas and decide how to tackle them. They provide a snapshot of the overall health of the local population, and highlight potential problems through comparison with other areas and with the national average.
The Health Profiles programme has become part of Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health.
Public Health England has been established to protect and improve the nation's health and wellbeing and to reduce inequalities. It will lead on the development of a 21st century health and wellbeing service, supporting local authorities and the NHS to deliver the greatest possible improvements in public health. It came into being in April 2013. For all corporate information please see www.gov.uk/phe.
The profiles are produced at local authority level because they are intended for use by elected Councillors, Directors of Public Health, Council Officers and other members of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) process and by members of the Health and Wellbeing Boards. Health Profiles are now an established part of planning for health improvement. Each Health Profile document includes:
- An ‘At a glance’ summary description of people’s health in the area
- Maps and charts that show how the health in the area compares to the national and local view
- Trended information showing changes in death rates over a ten year period of time
- A 'spine chart' health summary showing the difference in health between the area and the average for England for 32 indicators
This information is also provided via interactive maps which enable comparison of several areas for all indicators in the spine chart.
Updated Health Profiles are produced annually. They are published on this website and stakeholders are emailed to tell them about the new release.
You can search for your profiles of interest to you in the 'Find Profiles' section.
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