About the Public Health Commissioning Network
Purpose
The Public Health Commissioning Network (PHCN) was set up in 2008 to encourage and enable individuals who commission service for health and wellbeing - including those working within or closely with public health teams - to share their experiences and good practice with each other, thus reducing the enormous duplication which currently occurs between primary care trusts (PCTs) and local authorities (LAs) around England.
We do this by putting members with common interests in touch with each other (via the Directory), providing a common route to easily share queries with all other PHCN members (the swap shop in the monthly Newsletter), and creating a lasting database of commissioning experiences tackled, and the lessons learned therein (the Casebook). The Essential Resources documents give you a quick set of links when you're starting out in a new commissioning field.
Membership
PHCN has over 530 individual members representing PCTs and LAs in over 95% of PCT areas in England; and more than 80 additional members representing other organisations, such as government departments, other NHS organisations and charities, who work with commissioners.
For a full list of current members see the Member Directory.
Membership of PHCN is free, and we would encourage anyone involved in public health commissioning to join.
History of the Network
PHCN was first mooted in 2007 by Sir Muir Gray, the Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS. A Board was set up, including representatives of the Department of Health, Faculty of Public Health, Association of Directors of Public Health, Association of Public Health Observatories and Informing Healthier Choices, and PCTs, to write a draft specification for a pilot network.
In 2008 the DH funded a 1 year pilot of the Public Health Commissioning Network, which ran from November 2008-November 2009. An evaluation of the Network (PDF) at the end of 2009 suggested the desire for a network remained high, and proposed a number of improvements based on extensive feedback from existing members.
The Network is currently running for a further 6 months, from October 2011 to March 2012. Please send any feedback or suggestions so we can make sure PHCN meets the needs of its users.
Funding
The first year of the Public Health Commissioning Network was sponsored by the World Class Commissioning programme within DH and the second year was sponsored by the Department of Health (Public Health Leadership and Workforce). The Network is currently being funded by QIPP Right Care to run for a further 6 months till the end of March 2012.
Project management
The PHCN team consists of:
- Lisa Peto, PHCN Public Health Specialty Registrar, Solutions for Public Health
- Sam McBeth, PHCN Project Officer, Solutions for Public Health
- Jenny Wright, Executive Director, Solutions for Public Health
- Dr Tom Porter, Consultant in Public Health Medicine and PHCN Project Associate
- Sir Muir Gray, Consultant in Public Health Medicine and Director, Knowledge into Action